As of lately, my past-time has not been filled with skiing, but rather the exact opposite...not skiing. In that enormous chunk of free-time that sits its fat ass right in the middle of the day, I have the unbelievable opportunity to explore the wonderful world of literature. In class, Mr. Sexson said, "We laugh to keep from crying....you are the murderer you have been looking for."
My past time has been occupied by the book Generation Kill by Evan Wright. Evan Wright is a reporter for the Rolling Stone Magazine and he accompanied the 1st Marine Recon Division during the intial invasion of Iraq. 1st Recon is the maines most elite force; the toughest and coldest killers in the entire military and were at the tip of the spear during America's push to Baghdad. Evans literary prowess and his ability to engulf the reader within the characters, builds a strong emotional bridge between the men who actually fought, and the reader. Evan focuses on the atrocities that breed from war, and how marines try to explain their actions. As i have been reading, i cant help but revert to the good ol' "All that is past possess the present."
In one point of the book, Wright adresses the Marines use of humor in extremely stressful situations. one of the marines said, "we laugh instead of crying." crazyness. Sexson said the same thing! I thought an interesting parrallel can also be seen within the psyche of the Marines. They are trained killers; but they are fighting and killing people and they have no idea why. THey say they are looking for WMD's or Sadam; but really they are just rolling through the countryside artillery blasting towns and shooting innocent people. In their quest to rid the world of evil; they bocome that evil.
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Great article. Here's a relevant heads up:
ReplyDeleteEvan Wright, author of Generation Kill, is publishing a new book next month about his experiences with different subcultures in America. Here's one description of the new book:
“From his work as a reporter at Hustler magazine, to his National Magazine Award–winning writing for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, Evan Wright has always had an affinity for outsiders—what he calls “the lost tribes of America.” The previously published pieces in this collection chart a deeply personal journey, beginning with his stark but sympathetic portrayals of sex workers in Porn Valley, through his raw portrait of a Hollywood überagent-turned-war documentarian and hero of America’s far right. Along the way, Wright encounters runaway teens earning corporate dollars as skateboard pitchmen; radical anarchists plotting the overthrow of corporate America; and young American troops on the hunt for terrorists in the combat zones of the Middle East. His subjects are people for whom the American dream is either just out of grasp, or something they’ve chosen to reject altogether. Sometimes frightening, usually profane, and often darkly comic, Hella Nation is Evan Wright’s meticulously observed tour of the jagged edges of all those other Americas hiding in plain sight amid the nation’s malls and gated communities. The collection also includes an all-new, autobiographical introductory essay by the author.”