Fear of Cowardice

I'm reading A Life in a Year, by James Ebert. It is a very nicely done history of the common infantry soldier in Vietnam. The majority of the text consists of quotes from interviews of veterans, spliced together with the author's commentary and summary. Practically every page has some fresh perspective on some part of the war as experienced by the grunts. I had not realized how little I knew about the topic, but in truth, I probably know nearly nothing about the Vietnam War.

It's hard to figure out where to start commenting about the book. Everything about it is interesting. Currently one of the most interesting observations of the author, backed up by the interviewees, is that newbies and veterans of actual combat feared different things. Nearly universally, newbies feared that when they were thrown into combat they would turn out to be unable to perform due to cowardice. Newbies feared the prospect of cowardice more than the possibility of death or maiming, while veterans of combat feared crippling or death more than the prospect of cowardice.

Jack London's Sea-Wolf

In The Sea-Wolf, Jack London has created one of the most amazing characters I've ever read. Captain Wolf Larson is a true bastard, an incarnation of pure, amoral evil. Pure, coldly logical self-interest and complete dispassionate disregard for those around him. Larson is a character that is worthy of the readers hatred but also his grudging love, respect, and in the end, pity.

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The viewpoint character, Van Weyden, is in some ways the exact opposite of Larson. He is physically weak where Larson is superhumanly strong and vital. Van Weyden is at home only under the shelter of society's and his money's wing, whereas Larson is self-made and self-sufficient.

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The story is about Larson kidnapping Van Weyden and forcing him into virtual slave labor aboard his ship and torturing him physically and psychologically under the pretense of "making him stronger' and "teaching him to stand on his own legs." The story involves themes of hatred, suffering, death, and decay (moral, physical, and societal), masculinity and femininity, and many others.

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One of the interesting points in the book is Van Weyden's realization that Larson has these vast, gaping holes in his worldview due to his being self-educated. Because he had not been formally educated with mentors to oversee the scope of his education, Larson had become overdeveloped in some areas and underdeveloped in others. Left to his own devices he'd read the things he liked and could understand and could get his hands on while disregarding the rest as irrelevant. Similarly, Van Weyden had become overdeveloped on the intelectual and social side while retaining these vast self-doubts and complete lack of practical skills and physical under-development. Setting these two characters at each others' throats in the self-enclosed world of a sailing ship what a stroke of genius by London.

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Ben Bova calls this one of the best novels ever written by an American. I agree, but without all the qualifiers. I'd say it is perhaps the best novel I've ever read - and I've read a LOT of very good ones. Very Highly Recommended.

If you're interested in buying a copy of Jack London's The Sea-Wolf, please check out my Amazon Store...

The magical appeal of paper

I am a sucker for a steep bargain on a used book. Today I bought a copy of The Aeneid translated by Robert Fitzgerald. I've already read the Aeneid multiple times and I already own a copy of the C. Day Lewis translation and Gutenberg has several good versions - but how could I resist - It was lying dejected on the public Library discard shelf - perfecty good condition (indeed, hardly ever been read) and I had the opportunity to give it a good home for 25 cents. So I did.

I love the Library's discard shelf. One of my favorite finds of all time is a beautifully illustrated hardback copy of Thor Heyerdahl's Kon Tiki (Why is Kon Tiki not required reading anymore?). I like to tell myself that I am building a collection of great books for my children to read - but I'm kidding myself. There is something magical about the possession of a real, paper book, especially an old, used one, that turns me on.