Day 19 October 31, 2002
1. Names. Papers back. Many were quite fine, some still can benefit from some fine-tuning, which is of course one reason for doing them in stages. Finish WM next time, then into Honky. We need to view Do the Right Thing by Tues., 11/12—which nights work best for that? That’s also the weekend of the play, I realize.
2. Comments on Juhnke’s time with
us and/or Forum lecture and discussion? I was struck by his comment that
“what-if” thinking is not just sloppy post-historical thinking, it’s part of
what we constantly do in history as
well, what leaders do as they weigh alternatives. GB’s warnings that unless we
push for regime change in Iraq we may find ourselves coping with a mushroom
cloud is a what-if statement. So are the predictions that invading
3. Back into War Memorials. I want today to be sure that people get involved in discussion; I know how easy it is, in a class this size, to sit back and let others talk, but let’s resist that impulse today. I thought the responses that came in were extremely interesting, and want to give you a chance to talk about some of those things.
Let’s do this: take five minutes in groups of three or four, make sure each group has at least one person who wrote a response for today. Ask those people to talk about what they wrote and what they find most interesting, and find at least one particular reference in the book related to that. Then we’ll get back together, let each group report, and go from there.
Key moments/events:
Saving Louis 73 ff.
Steve Pitts 74 ff., 79
Mother, 81 ff.
Grandma Vann 84 ff.
Nolan’s coldness 85 ff
Col Hereford 87 ff, and ditch panic
At the carnival:
Donna and Darwin his nephew
Laney, Steve giving her the bear 97
throwing the candy 99, and
The funhouse 102 ff
Brother Willis107 ff. 110 on Nolan
Memorials and wasted lives 113
Rev. Sinclair 115 ff. “war as an example of human error on its grandest scale.”
117: “sometimes it takes a good tangle of lies to keep a relationship going”
with father, 121: “I’d won my dishonorable discharge from his army.”
“at Horseshoe Bend he successfully annihilated a thousand-year-old tribal culture.” 122
Tump shot by arrow, 124 ff.
John Wood, Tump’s ancestor, executed for not keeping his camp site clean enough.
Buried Treasure: off with Dell and his metal detector to find stuff.
Back for
She has money, she’s just changed her priorities. And there she is with her t-shirt off, 143
She kisses him, and she has plans, she offers him a job.
Sniper Suspect's Son, Ex-Wife Back Death Penalty
Wed Oct 30,
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
first wife of John Allen Muhammad, one of two suspects in the deaths of 10
people in the
"If he sat in a car and killed innocent people, if they find him guilty for that, then yes," Carol Williams said on CNN's "Larry King Live" when asked if she would support the death penalty for Muhammad if he was convicted.
Muhammad's son Lindbergh Williams, 20, also backed the death penalty.
"Even though he is my father, in my eyes, you reap what you sow. If you were man to enough to do it, you are man enough to pay the consequences," he said, shadowed from the camera to hide his face.
Muhammad, 41, and his
17-year-old traveling companion John Lee Malvo face
six murder charges apiece in
The pair were
arrested last week in connection with the sniper attacks which began on Oct. 2
and terrified the
Carol Williams, who married Muhammad in 1981 and separated from him in 1985, said he had introduced Malvo as his son last summer, and that Malvo called Muhammad "father."
She said she received a
telephone death threat on Oct. 23, the day before Muhammad's arrest in
"Right now I'm not sleeping. I can't sleep because I feel that if it's actually him and they hadn't caught him, I would have been in the number. I would have been one of the ones that he'd have killed," she said.
Lindbergh Williams told CNN it was likely that Malvo was under Muhammad's control.
"He's a very good manipulator. He can talk very well. If you let him inside of your head, he will take control over your head," Williams said.
He said he believed his father's service in the military during the Gulf War (news - web sites), and two divorces which stripped him of custody of his children, had played a part in disturbing his mental balance.
"I think over the years of so much stuff, he just snapped," the son said. "The loss of his children, the military, that's stressful enough on its own, being in the war. ... He just snapped."
But at least one family member maintained Muhammad's innocence in the case. His nephew, Edward Williams Jr., 19, said he looked up to Muhammad, who inspired him to go into the military.
"I don't think he went crazy, and I don't really think he did it," the nephew said. "That's how much I look up to my uncle. I don't think that he would do that kind of stuff to anybody, to anyone."
Student Responses
While reading War
Memorials, I could not help but reflect on how many ways Nolan is similar
to Celie. Both seem to be in this world
without a whole lot of love. Everything
seems to be wrong in each of their lives.
Even as a man, Nolan is unable to fulfill the criteria to be
successful. Namely, he was never
enlisted in the army, he cannot find a decent job, and cannot seem to bring himself to care for many of the things that define men in
his small hometown. As a result, Nolan
is known only through his connection with his father. Even the reverend points out how God works
through everyone—even the low-down repo man, who just
so happens to be no other than Nolan himself. Through all of this, Nolan learns
not to care for much of anything or anyone, looking at the lives of others in
order to make himself feel like things aren’t quite so bad after all. This reminds me of how Celie would turn
herself into a “tree” just to survive.
In his own way, Nolan is also taking on this part. He must learn to love himself, to come to
peace with who he is. Finally, he must
learn to be loved and to love others once again. Even Nolan’s marriage to his high school
sweetheart, while not abusive, is distant and cold. He speaks of his wife’s lover in a despondent
and matter-of-fact type of way. This is
how things are. This is how we keep
peace. I don’t dare to expect anything
more. Why would I?
-Amy Simon
I also find it ironic that while we
spoke in class about how war teaches men to live a lifestyle that is not
acceptable at home, all of the men in
Following is a book review that I found on War Memorials: http://www.madison.com/captimes/books/reviews/470.php/. It was quite interesting to read Heather’s take on this story, which in many ways is similar to my own responses.
Thanks, Amy Simon
I will be honest, I like the book. However I am having
some real issues with Nolan. I do not dislike him,
I just wish that I could figure out why he seems to be made of stone. In
several places he seems like he has no feeling at all. I would not say
that he is heartless...just unfeeling. I noticed this a lot when he talks
about his wife and people that he has lost.
On page 74, Nolan talks about how he doesn't understand why
his wife chose Steve as her boyfriend. Its not that he is
angry about her actions, he just wonders why she is with Steve and not someone
else. Nolan does not dislike Steve either. He explains that
at one time he really like Steve and tht he was a
great person to have on their ball team. He just seems to get hung up on
Laney's reasons for picking Steve. He even assumes that the only reason
she picked Steve was because he was not Nolan. I agree with that, but I
do not agree that it was for the same reasons that Nolan may assume. I
interpret Laney's actions as a way to get Nolan's attention. Who better
to use as her pawn then the one person who is the total opposite of Nolan? She
could have chosen someone more discreet, but she wanted someone who would be
very obvious. I also think that the reason behind her actions was that she
spent a lot her marriage in the shadows of Nolan and his everday
life. It seems like his job and everything he had going in his
personal life took precedence. Do not mistake me...I am not passing all
the blame on to Nolan. Laney is just as much to blame for the distance.She could have chosen another method to gain
Nolan's attention. I would recommend counseling or something marriage
minded. I also think that her being deceptive about her affair is what
encouraged Nolan to start lying to her. They both chose to continue
living in silence. I do think that they wanted to know if the other
person cared for them or not. She took a bear from Steve in full view of
Nolan and he took a job for
The other issue I found disturbing was how Nolan handled and accepted the loss of people in his life. The first person he talks about being gone(besides his wife) is his grandmother. He talks about how in the past he would visit her in the hospital. Now he sees her body laying in the bed and only sees a breathing shell of someone who is no longer his grandmother. He treats his little brothers death in the same manor. He calls his brother's death a tragic accident no ever talks about. He even talks about his loss of religion as just another thing that he has lossed. He does not know how he lost his religion nor does he act like he noticed the loss. Up to this point I understand how he could seperate himself from the pain, but then he discusses his mother's death. He is completely indifferent even though he unconciously helped her kill herself. He calls her death "just another disappointment" and says that he got over it. After all none of his losses were even that real o him. This raises the questions does he have this attitude about his wife, his father, his job, his life? How did he develop this attitude? I wish I could find out more background information about Nolan so that I could understand him better.
This website is about some of the causes of infidelity. I found it fitting because there is no clear reason for Laney's affair and I thought that this site might give me some insight. That way as I continue to read the story I might understand things a little better.
www.counselingnet.com/counselingnet/affairs.html
Amy Parks
I enjoyed this book. I
think it was trying to figure out the inner workings of Nolan's mind that kept
my attention. He seemed to be a total dead beat, but he did some things
that in a sense brought him out. At the end of the book Laney describes
him as total boring and dull, making him aweful to
live with. This is after he has rescued people from snake bites, helped
out with the building of a zoo, thrown darts at Buddy and countless other
things. Nolan did not seem boring to me. In fact he had some depth
to his mind and what he thought about. He had to be creative
and adventuresome in a way to hope on board with the zoo project. I
think his problem lies in the fact that he doesn't vocalize very much.
Laney knew him, but didn't really know him. There lack of conversation
and words started the way between them. I thought all along that it would
be a good twist to the story if the baby turned out to be his. It didn't
end that way, but I was hoping it would.
The book contained so many
characters with so many different responses to post war involvement. The
majority of voices in the book stated that training for war was a good thing
and whipped a boy into shape. We didn't actually get to hear a voice from
Jerry, but from the stories about him it would see that war did more damage
that good for him. Another very interesting point in the book was when Tump got shot with the arrow and had Nolan look up his
family name in the war history book. His ancestor actually got shot for
desertion. Most people want to see war as a brave thing to participate
in, and perhaps that aids in selective memory. They don't remember the
instances that weren't so glorious and brave. The glories moments are the
ones remembered in the text books and on memorials. A great emphasis was
put on war memorials in this book- helping to remember the dead and the
brave. There is a great facination with war
memorials. I found a web site that contains links to war memorials from a
large number of wars http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/grief/grief05.html.
These memorials are obviously a way that some veterans deal with the things
they have been through- this is seen in the character of Nolan's father.
Rebecca Yoder
Okay at first I really felt
sorry for the guy and thought that he just had a really hard time expressing
his feelings to people, but then I got to the part about him having no feelings
of emotion when his baby brother had died. Right then was when I stopped
have feelings of sympathy towards him, and I started to dislike him a
little. He said in the book that he just didn't much care, he understood
what happened but he had no upsetting feelings. What could have provoked
him to feel this away about his own sibbling, sure he
never had a relationship with the baby but still I would personally be
devastated. Another part I did not care much for was when he was
describing the paintings in the hospital and there were two different pictures
of Jesus and he thought that was kind of funny and wondered why painters would
do that, and it was hard enough believing in Jesus let alone seeing him look
different in both pictures. He just seems to start to come off as some
cold hearted guy. But then later in the book when he
was talking about his mother dieing. But I don't remember him ever
saying if she committed suicide or was attempting to kill herselve
my buring to death. But is seems like then was
when he started going down hill. He had gotten the medicne
not knowing his mother was allergic to it, he was only doing what she had asked
him to do. I guess I did start to have sympathy for him again when I read
that part. Many of his problems might have been caused because of the
result in that accident. Overall I think this poor guy really has some
emotional and communication problems. I do strongly believe that he is
still in love with his wife, but for some reason he has not be able to talk to
her for a long time, it seems he shuts himself out of people he cares
about lives. Like he doesn't know how to communicate with them or let
them know his true feelings. I don't really understand why that is, the
only thing I can think of is his mother's death could have hurt him a lot more
than he is letting on. His father not being proud of him as his son might
be doing some mental strain to him. And now his wife is messing around on
him and is pregnant with someone else's baby. It's almost like he doens't have the back bone to stick up for himself. Another thing that I couldn't believe was
when he was talking about Laney and Brad, he said they didn't care where they
were seen they wouldn't try to hide and sneak around. So why won't she
just leave him, if she doesn't care to keep it a secret why doesn't she leave
Nolan and just be with Brad. She has nothing to lose, unless the baby
really is Nolan's and she feels she couldn't do that to the baby. But the
book hasn't said yet anything about that whole situaiton.
And if the baby is Brad's she should have more of a reason to leave Nolan
anyway, he doesn't seem to care about the baby and i
really don't think he would make a good father.
With the whole religion thing, I
think maybe it got shoved down his throat a little to
much throughout his life. Everyone he knows or has an encounter with
starts preaching to him. I also thought the whole cottonmouth chapter was
a little bizarre. Who would be crazy enough to actually want to do
something like that knowing they could get bit at any moment. It seems
like everyone in that town is preaching about something that happened to
someone, or is talking about other people's business.
I think that his father is
trying to have some sort of a relationship with him, he is always asking him to
go to horseshoe bend, some battle ground. But he always ignores him or
makes an excuse that he has something to do. I don't really understand
why he hates his father unless he is jealous that he never did the things his
father did and upset that he hasn't lived up to his father's
expectations. But his father seems to make a point to talk to him. I
wasn't really sure what kind of website to look up cause
I didn't know what situation or example I could find pertaing
to the book on the web. But I had never heard of horseshoe bend and I
found a website to the
Melissa VanAusdal
http://www.larkcom.com/ancestry/-home/history/war/war_of_1812/battle_of_horseshoe_bend.htm
The website
above has a letter from
I
thoroughly enjoyed reading this book once I got into it. I know it may not be
in my section to respond to today, but since I've finished it, I would like to
comment on the book as a whole. The ending of the book was good, but I was kind
of hoping for a little more resolution. I was hoping that Nolan would somehow
get his better job, and completely reconcile with his father and with Laney.
There only seems to be a half resolution at the end. He's not completely
reconciled with his father or Laney, but it is a start. Same with his job, it's
not the greatest, but it's a start. So it seems like there's more to this story
still. Maybe the message we are supposed to get from this is that life goes on,
and will go on no matter what happens. Sometimes stuff works out, and sometimes
it doesn't, and sometimes things aren't certain at all but you have to wait and
take the time to work things out. I think the reason this book was titled
"War Memorials" was because throughout the book Nolan kept comparing
his life to past wars and events in wars. Through the stories of the war
veterans in his town, through his visits to the memorials, through his knowledge
of history, he compares things to his life and tries to make sense of all the
changes and hardships he is having to get through. I
think this makes a lot of good points about war. It makes us think differently
about our lives. But it ends lives also. It is a horrible experience for some,
but for others it is glorious. No matter if you were involved directly in the
war, or indirectly, or can only hear about it from history books and little old
men who were veterans, it somehow effects your life.
They called the beginning of the Revolutionary War "The Shot Heard Round
the World" and I think this is true of all wars, for what war is there
that has not had some lasting effect or imprint in the history of a country and
the world? Even the Civil War fought in the
*~*~Erin Wahl
I have really enjoyed reading this book, War Memorials. It is very easy to read because it’s written well and it’s a story. I guess when I think about what I’ve read so far, up to the chapter on Buried Treasure, I think of how sad Nolan and Laney’s relationship is.
I can’t even imagine what it’s like to know that your wife is having an affair with a guy that you can’t stand and that she is pregnant most likely with his baby. They seem to have lots of marital problems. As a social worker in training, there are a lot of things that I would like to suggest to Nolan to help him out with their relationship. I think it’s sad when he talks about how he’s glad that Laney’s not all religious now because sometimes lies are what holds a relationship together. I think that’s quite sad. I’ve always believed that God is the bond that holds two people together in a healthy and loving relationship. They rarely even communicate to each other. I’m guessing that the most they’d ever talked to each other in the past few months was when they were at the carnival with her sister and their nephew. I’m interested in reading further into the book to see what happens with their relationship. She already knows that his dad fired him from his insurance job. I’m just waiting for all of the other secrets he’s kept from her to start revealing themselves. I want to know what she’s going to say when she finds out that he knows all about Steve Pitts. It doesn’t seem to me that she’s been trying too hard to hide this affair. After growing up in this town, she has to know that news travels fast and that somebody would see her and Steve eventually. I also thought that part about the freak guy eating the head of the snake was disgusting.
The website I chose to go along with this reading is a place that offers marital counseling. I wasn’t sure what could be connected to the reading so I thought I’d find them a couselor.
http://relationshipcenterny.com/programs.html
This address shows the different programs that this counseling place offers to couples.
Sarah Parker
Jeff
First let me address that I will be unable to attend class this Thursday due to
a conflict that I am unable to get out of I will catch you later to see what I
missed
Second, now on to War Memorials, this book really examines war from a different
frame of mind than what we have already looked at in class. First, we looked at
the book that Junke publish called the missing peace,
and viewed alternative peace themes to America History. Then we looked at the
movie Platoon. In this movie the art of War is really and shows the reality of
death. It shows how real men, good boys, became animals in the jungle killing
other humans. In War Memorials we get a mixture of what war is. It is almost
like the different people that the author writes about are a contribution to
another memory that we have forgotten. (At least it seems that way thus far).
Take a look the contrast between the authors father
and Jerry Rathburn. Both of these men have had time
in a war, both veterans. War has effected them in
completely different ways. The authors father used the
war to help his success and Jerry Rathburn was
destroyed by what
David McMillen
Overall, i
think War Memorials was a pretty good book. It had to have been since it kept
my attention pretty much through the whole book. I thought there were alot of interesting thoughts in this book,
that made me think. And along with all these thoughts, there was humor
also, which makes the book entertaining and easy to read.
One thought that McCown raises
is "Why don't we honor all the casualities of
small towns who never leave to fight wars?" I
like this statement. First of all, considering i'm a
Mennonite, it's nice to hear a statement like this, because most of the time
Mennonites get grief for not going to fight. And i
felt bad for Nolan because he never went to fight, and he was always compared
to his father, who was a war hero. Just because Nolan didn't fight in any wars
doesn't make him any less important. I thought he tried hard to keep his life
together. When he lost his job, he didn't sit around in his house and pout, it
seemed like he was out all the time looking for new jobs. So
just because he didn't fight in a war, doesn't mean his life isn't worthwhile.
Although i
think he did strive to keep his life together, i
thought he could have fought harder for Laney. Although another thought in the
book is "Sometimes it takes a good tangle of lies to keep a relationship
going." Now even though I don't completely believe this, i guess it worked all right for Nolan. At first though
things were rocky between him and Laney, but things got better in the end. And i guess it was a good thing that he didn't fight for Laney
because Steve Pitts wanted that challenge from Nolan, and since he didn't give
any challenge, Steve lost interest. So even though at first i
thought Nolan should fight harder for his wife, it all worked out for the
better in the end.
http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/grief/grief05.html
-Kristin Stutzman
My first response to the reading is that I've enjoyed the
dry humor used in this book. There were several times I found myself actually
laughing out loud as I was reading. One example is when Nolan is forced to bury
the dead lizard in the yard while it is raining. As he stands there with his
wife, he feels like he should say something, so he blurts out, "He was a
good lizard", and then starts laughing. I mean, he's already in deep crap
with his wife because she thinks he killed the lizard, and then to start
laughing about the situation is hilarious. Another time was when Nolan
takes his nephew through the freak show, and as they are getting ready to exit,
his nephew runs full steem ahead into the Plexiglass barrier and knocks himself down. I could just
picture these events in my mind and I found them very amusing.
Another response that I have is the way Brother Willis singles Nolan out at the
fair. I couldn't believe that a pastor would actually do such a thing. He says
things like "Even the least among us is blessed, just look at this man
(Nolan)" and "If that man can do good works, so can we
all!" Nolan is just an ordinary guy trying to figure out the mess that has
been his life, he isn't looking for any attention, he tries to be nice and
polite to people, and he hates his job as a repo man,
and everyone acts like he enjoys taking people's possessions. He already feels
bad enough
about his life, and then the pastor acts like Nolan gives everyone hope since
he is the biggest low-life in the world.
On one hand, I sort of feel bad for Nolan, but on the other hand, I think his
whole situation is kind of funny. Does the guy ever live one normal day in his
life? He's just trying to go about his business and he always seems to come
across the most extreme situations. One day he is just walking around town
trying to find a spare job to make some money, and all of the sudden, he's
trying to save people from snakes. Or also when he is meeting his father and
Morgan and Tump to take a road trip with them, and
then he walks into the store and Tump has been shot
in the side by an arrow. I mean, can't the guy ever catch a break?
The address of the Web site I found that relates to this reading is:
http://www.nps.gov/hobe/
This site is the official site of
park.
-Brian Steiner
i love this book. can
that be my whole response? i
suppose that wouldn't get me a very good grade, so i'll
extrapolate. i enjoy
this book. it makes me laugh outloud,
and any book that can do that is definetely worth
reading.
But at the same time, there's
something more to the story than just a funny story about a guy's mid-life
crisis. Maybe i enjoy the story because the
main character's experience is so different from my own. For one, i'm a female and didn't have to face the pressure of
joining the army. But the main difference is the type of community i was raised in. My parents are Mennonite. My
grandparents were Amish. My family has been pacifist for as long as
pacifists have existed. I almost feel guilty enjoying a story that is
focused on the benefits of the opposite. Being raised in a mennonite/anabaptist area of
At one point in the book, the
two worlds -- those struggling for peace, and those willing to fight -- seem to
converge a bit. McCowen writes a bit about
death and the necessity of memorials: "Memorials are for people who
shouldn't have died" and "Wasted lives -- that got pretty close to
it, all right." (113) Though i don't know how much i agree
with the second statement, the first seems to ring true. why does my town immortalize menno
simons, conrad grebel? why is my brother
named after a martyr named dirk? Why do we have a wall in
Though i
woudlnt' say that these lives were wasted, the
question of why they had to die pervades my mind, especially those that died in
war, for country. i
guess as a pacifist, i believe that they didn't have
to die. but that doesn't resolve anything in my
mind, because they did die and to say they didn't have to makes the soldiers
look, well, stupid. I suppose most would say that they were fighting for
country. McCown almost brushes this aside saying, "Patriotism had to
figure in somewhere." I'm sure religion played a part as well -- i found the portion of the book about Jesus being a war
hawk quite amusing, probably because it was so contrasting to my own
upbringing. when I see the two pictures of Jesus
on the wall -- the one with him surrounded by children and contrast it with the
one of a pissed-off Jesus, I was taught that the one with the kids,
exemplifying peace was Jesus' true nature. I think their (the grandma and
others) rationale is slightly off, but it's always interesting to hear the
other side's point of view.
In sum, i
don't know how to end this. I look forward to finishing the book (looking
forward to homework.....bizzaro). But i am more looking forward to sleeping, which is what i can do as soon as i find a
website to add to this email. the end.
website: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/3325/vets2.html
-Erin Miller
At first glance (as I read
through the first third) I began to characterize Nolan in my mind as being a
bit of a loser. His inner monologue
against himself on page 48 was most convincing.
However, as I began to read into the second third of the book, I
realized how complex Nolan's story may be.
Nolan has received what I
would term "father wounds", the deep piercing injury that occurs when
a son seeks to know he is a man from his father and is rejected. The military legacy and mindset are too much
for Nolan, and Nolan's father will never validate him so long as he is a reject
according to the veteran subculture. I
think the inner question of, "Am I a man? Do I have what it takes?"
runs perhaps deeper than the themes of war memorial and violence. The war memorials in this book are the
people: the colonel at the nursing home,
Steve Pitts and his ditch fever, Nolan's father and friends. These characters are memorials to the effects
of war, especially if we take the author's definition on page 113:
"Memorials are for people who shouldn't have died....[w]asted lives".
Nolan's father perhaps never died literally, but because of the war and
the subsequent suicide of his wife, much of his humanity seems dead and wasted
already. Some, like Tump,
need to visit old battlefields and talk about the good old days, whereas others
like Nolan's father hide it inside, but both deal with their wounds and
memories in their own way.
I think that because of
Nolan's bad relationship with his father, he has a tough time understanding his
Heavenly Father. On page 86 he refers to
Jesus as "...the hotshot pitcher with the best record in the
league..." while he is just "...some skinny nearsighted batter who
couldn't knock the ball out of the infield, afraid to step up to the
plate". Like most lies, this idea
is half true in that we all fall so short of the glory of God. However, the idea of grace and a personal
relationship with God the Father through the redemptive work of the Son seems
foreign to Nolan. He doesn't seem to
think God will accept him unless he is good enough and Nolan clearly finds
himself to be inadequate. Similarly, I
think Nolan doesn't feel acceptance from his earthly father unless he is good
enough, being especially estranged because of his lack of military experience.
Nolan's inability to be
reconciled to his wife or to face the truth in open communication I believe
also stems from his "father wound".
The incident involving the belated Randall shows that Nolan is very evasive
in dealing head on with problems in their relationship. Being emasculated by his father, Nolan is
incapable of feeling secure with his wife, even to the extreme point of viewing
her affair as justifiable because of his lack of desirability. His growing infatuation with
(As a side note, I believe
Nolan rushing Louis to the hospital is an example of Nolan beginning to find
his confidence and manhood in spite of the military subculture [namely Steve
Pitts in this case] by being protective without being violent.)
Although there are themes of
the dysfunction of war and how it overrides a communities' common sense, I
believe the heart of this book deals with the "father wound" of Nolan
and his being rejected by and rejection of the veteran subculture in his
town. This is a book of Nolan's struggle
with that inner wound. The book is
thoughtful, at times well-written, and a decent read.
Though I continue to believe
war is a last resort option for stopping evil, I do not claim it is
psychologically or emotionally beneficial to those who fight. Quite to the contrary, I agree with the
author insomuch as war can be detrimental to the lives of the veterans and
their families. Obviously, last resorts
are seldom completely beneficial, otherwise they wouldn't be the last resort
they'd be the first resort.
Cheers!
Sam Shepard
The following is a book
review detailing some of the accounts of Andrew Jackson and his Indian
Wars. The premise is interesting, might
make a good
read: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/books/reviews/972318
While the storyline mixed in
between funny and really sad in that even as a novel, I am sure this was life
for many people in the southern states. I thought there were some great quotes
in there that summed up whether we should laugh at the humor, or look back and
realize that it is kind of sad.
"Donna was still in
crisis, and needed a stabilizing presense, two
phrases she must have picked up from television because that sure as hell
wasn't how Laney talked. I felt a little insulted by the phoniness of it. Were
we so far apart we couldn't use normal language?"
While it is humorous, it
still is sad, and I guess coming from a solid 2 family home, maybe it is a
little more shocking, but to hear a man say that about his wife is still very
surprising.
However, that
quote pales in comparision.....
"That boy's about to fidn out what trouble is, he's got
the sword of Diogenes hanging over his head."
"Damocles" I
corrected, "Diogenes was the guy with the lantern."
Nolan and Dell go on a
little longer talking about Diogenes' traits as Dell sums up the conversation
well:
"Damocles, Diogenes,
same differnce, they're both shit-out-of-luck. And
Buddy's prospects ain't much brighter."
Here they are two men
talking about mythological figure's and summing it up with, "well they're
both SOL" While I think it was an entertaining read, and I'm glad Nolan
"found Jesus", I think there were too many over-the-top instances for
such a small southern town.
Garrett Skare
I am really not sure how to
respond to this book. This does not seem
to be a book that is issue-oriented. The
whole part dealing with the snakebite was a little out in left field. I did not see the relevancy in this subject
to anything. In fact, I think most of
the book is like that. The only major
issue I have been able to gather from this book so far is that Nolan's life is
basically a failure. He is succeeding in
very little, if at all, and he doesn't seem to care. I mean, cares in the
sense that he realizes it and wishes it could be different, but he doesn't seem
to care enough to do anything about it.
He seems to have no drive or self-discipline whatsoever to set goals for
his life and work hard to accomplish those goals. Maybe this has come from living in his
father's shadow. Nonetheless, I would think
that would make him all the more determined to do something with his life to
get out of his shadow. Farther on in the
book it seems like he begins to find a little interest in his life with
Darin Smith
I had a hard time completing
this readings but I did enjoy reading what I got to read after all. There are
several things that i have to say about this
novel especially coming from a
war torn country. War can have several meaning for different people. In this
case the war memorials to me represented the life of Nolan.It
seems that every direction that he turned the doors were shut at him.He had a hard time keep relationships with his family
especially his father, who even after Nolan tries to reconcile is arrogant and
reluctant to normalize, relations.His relationship
with his wife and they way the reconciled was some how strange especially
because they still had communication problems, but nevertheless,Nolan
seems to compromise with them being a family even after she had a baby and an
affair with Steve.
The life of the dog Jerry in
my view is a reflection of all that Nolan was experiencing.Even
though he seems to need care and attention, Laney just want to ignore his needs
just as she has ignored Nolan.The Jesus cursing and
all that was something that i found appalling and I
will not dwell on this too much but I think that when an author uses the name
of a spiritual leader in their writings, they need to keep in mind respect for
the audience, and this can be used to discredit his work even when it's unintended.This part of the book I did not enjoy but I will
not use it to discredit McCown account of the complexity of relationships and
how different people make it through life.
This book as i had said earlier, deals with real life events and how
society is rather complex and the values that are considered to be important in
a given community. Nolan and his father are from the same family but yet
society accords them different status, why? Because, one experienced war and
the other was nothing was continuously struggling to make ends meet.Since I come from a war torn country, I wonder what
values and principles will keep the community together, will war be all that
they have to celebrate and commomenrate?Or
will they face the reality from Nolan that life is a clever forgery of our
past, present and future.This brings me to a quote
that i found rather interesting. "The fortune-teller wouldn't comment on my future.Both my palms, she said, were clever
forgeries" ( McCown,p.189). I wonder if my life too is a clever
forgery. The web site I chose is about life after the Vietnam war, I chose it because, it is the reality of what faces people,
they think of rebuilding more than they think of war memorials, survival is all
that society longs for.It wants to achieve and fight
poverty after war, memorials remain, but only enacted in the inner
being of those who fought the war
(s). http://www.newint.org/issue216/war.htm
-Mary Akuc
War Memorials is a book with a very interesting structure. It talks about modern times but at the same time it talks about many things that happened a long time ago, particularly wars.
The second part of the book, I would say, is peacefull, althopugh there are some talks about war. First it talks about how Louis got snakebit. I think it is a bit ironic that Nalon had to ask Steve, his wife's lover, to tale louise to the hospital. But he had no choice. At the hospital it was interesting how he saw his grandmother and how he realized that life is going to pass very quickly. People are dying every day and there is no way to stop it. At the same time there are some poeple who are still alive, but yet they are dead. An example could be Steve. He is not open to anyone, he is locked in himself. He is dead for the people wround him.
Later in the book Nalon takes his nephew to the rides. He begind talking to his wife again. Everything seems to be normal, until he sees his father. Nalon really wants to have a better relationship with his father. He is willing to go to the battle field for that. I just thought it was very interesting how Nalon and his father reffered to each oither: "men who wanted to be my father", "son that I have heard so much about". It didn't even sound like they were reltives. It sounded like they were strangers.
Also, it is
easy to notice that people do not respect Nalon
because of his job. He takes things away from them. They don't like it. A
lot of them get mad at him. Not many people understand that he has to do it,
that it is his job. He meets
Another interesting thing was when he was talking about his church and how everything was always the same, and things were going really well untill the pastor decided to talk about politics. It shows that it is impossible to put together politics and religion. There will be to many things people disagere on. Also, when he described his mother's death, it made me wonder, why she killed herself. Did she have some problems with her family? Was there something else. The following links are for the websites that talk about women's suicide statistics.
http://womensissues.about.com/library/weekly/aa011102a.htm?terms=suicide
http://www.lorenbennett.org/swomen.htm
Giving a response to this book is a little different than the other books because there's not a definite issue to discuss or debate. I did notice that Nolan has a different way of looking at things that happen in his life. Everything that happens in his everyday life takes him back to some strange occurence. What I found interesting is how he talks about when his brother died and how he felt guilty for not crying since that is what Jesus would have done. I think early on he is not described as that good of a guy, but I feel he went out of his way to make sure Louise made it to the hospital and was stable. The other thing that interested me is when he is talking to Colonel Hereford and he finds a common ground when they are talking about ditch panic. It makes him think how frantic he was when he was trying to climb up the mud walls and how scared he felt. Nolan does not seem to always make the best choices, but it seems to me that he wants to he just doesn't always know how to go about it.
-Aaron Weichart
This book is very weird. I started off not liking it and struggling
to get through the first third, but I was actually wanting
to read more after this third. I think this is just because at first I
was expecting the book to be about war or at least someone who was in the
war. Once I got past the fact that it isn't now I think I can enjoy
it more.
I
thought it was very interesting on how pathetic Nolan is perceived to be.
Not only did he lose his job and has to be the repo
man and his wife is having an affair...but now we find out that his mother
committed suicide by setting herself on fire, his brother died the day he was
born, and his grandmother is so sick she doesn't even recognize him and can't
get out of bed. It just seems like nothing can get better for
Nolan.
http://mbgnet.mobot.org/fresh/animals/cotton.htm
I thought the heroic act of Nolan saving Louis’s life was interesting. I don’t understand why the three of them were trying to catch the snakes even if they would get $25 for each one and it was for a religious cause, they are poisonous. I would not even get in the water were I knew that cottonmouth snake were let alone try to catch them. They do not run from humans they run to them. Other web sites told stories about how cottonmouth snake wait in trees along the river and drop into boats and see how many people they can get to jump out of the boat. It is fun for them. Their venom is very deadly. It was weird that the book never really tells you if Louis is alright. It was ironic how at the carnival the pastor picked Nolan out of the crowd and said how everyone can do some good if you can be a repo man and still save someone’s life.
It amazes me how nonchalant Nolan is about his “marriage” to Laney. He doesn’t really seem to care that she is having an affair even when it happens right in front of him. He still tries to please her by trying to get his job back in hopes that Laney will come running back to him. He talks to his father, goes to church, and then agrees to go to Horseshoe Bend all of these things he doesn’t want to do but at Laney’s command he does all three. I don’t know if Nolan really still loves Laney or if he is just trying to make other people think that he is a failure.
Stephanie Rush