#books on the Viet Nam War

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/ayes-on-the-prize/

Ayes On The Prize

On an upcoming edition of my book talk show, Just Readi It, author Karl Marlantes reveals the struggle he faced to publish the first of his two best-selling novels, Matterhorn.  A young man newly returned from the Vietnam War, he was determined to recapture his experience as a soldier.  The public needed to know about the war and, perhaps, he wanted to make sense of it to himself.   Marlantes wrote and rewrote his book over the years but no publisher would touch it.  A collective amnesia had descended upon the country for a war that had ended in defeat and for the soldiers who’d given their lives, limbs, and sanity to fight it.    But, Marlantes refused to forget.  He continued to submit his work despite the rising pyramid of rejections. Then, one day, his wife had an idea. Why not submit the manuscript to a contest?   A road not taken, the writer tossed his novel into an envelope and sent it off.  Weeks later, word arrived.  Matterhorn had won first prize–the launch pad from which it rose to become a national bestseller. Deep River, his second novel was also a success.  Marlantes’ career was established.  A third novel is on the horizon.  If anyone cares, I consider him to be among the country’s best-living writers.   The author didn’t say whether or not he paid a fee to enter his contest.  In the past, competitions with fees were considered bogus–an operation that raised its prize money from aspirants rather than sponsors. In a 2010 blog, I wrote against literary scams like those and provided a list of guardian angels who devoted themselves to exposing such sand traps. A few of those angels are still around. One of my favorites is  Victoria Strauss, a woman who sometimes is threatened and sued for her courageous dedication to artists. One of her recent communications exposes another contest worthy of suspicion.  Nonetheless, times change and contests with admission fees are as common as sand fleas on the beach. Distinguishing between legitimate operations and those intended to create mailing lists to sell to advertisers is difficult. Fake contests, fake people, fake money, fake news, and AI fake novelists cavort with actual ones when the line between the virtual and real world blurs.  I begin to wonder if the difference matters.  A woman who knows her way around the writing world complimented me with a suggestion that I submit my memoir, Getting Lost to Find Home to two contests she thought I might have a chance of winning.  The first suggestion I discounted as it required travel. I’m an 87-year-old woman who doesn’t fly.  The second suggestion seemed doable, though it has a hefty fee.  I’m thinking about it.  The positive attention critics have given my new release satisfies me at the moment. Last week, the long-standing book blog Silversolara put the memoir in its Spotlight.   

[nerds-yearbook]

On a day in June 1969, Soldier "Ice" Phillips serving in Viet Nam, imagined what it would be like if the heroes from Marvel Comics were real and came over to fight in the war in the The 'Nam 41#, cover date February, 1990. ("Back in the Real World", The 'Nam 41#, Marvel Comic Event)

[kangamommynow]

The Women by Kristin Hannah

Holy shit, this is a good book.

I won't give a lot away. It's about a California girl who enlists to serve as a nurse in Viet Nam after her brother dies early in the war. It follows her through her service, what she saw and did, through her return to a country that was ashamed of her as a vet in a war we were 1) not winning and 2) shouldn't have been in in the first place while simultaneously saying, "there are no women in Viet Nam". The result of that service and that shame take her dark places and eventually, at long last, to some healing.

[muozu]

Cognitive dissonance is an axiom of the moviegoing experience. The power of cinema—lifelike fictions given bounded, unlifelike shape—lies in its utopian promises. It can allow us to experience worlds not yet within our grasp. That disparity, between dream and reality, can either fill us with yearning and propel us toward action; or it can sate us vicariously, becoming an excuse not to take action. Major film festivals are, by design, invested in ensuring the latter. An entire ecosystem—involving labor, capital, politics, technology—comes into being to allow us to watch, buy, and sell films. Any change in the status quo would destabilize this ecosystem. So we submit to the myth of the festival as a hermetically sealed world. We tsk-tsk at Cannes’s annual ban on protests along the Croisette and continue to book tickets for screenings. We write glowing reviews of films that critique the very institutions that our presence at Cannes is used to justify.

But that implicit surrender to dissonance has been growing increasingly unsustainable in the last eight months, as artists and festival workers have been organizing in support of a ceasefire in Gaza and demanding greater agency within film institutions. They have used their work, platforms, and presence to ask that festivals reconcile their (increasingly, fashionably progressive) artistic positions with their material and political engagements. To some, this insistence may seem futile or misplaced. Certainly it does to Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Frémaux, who, in the pre-fest press conference, swore off controversies and polemics at this year’s edition: “In Cannes, the politics should be on the screen.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, he also questioned the political influence of film festivals. “When we gave the Palme d’Or to Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11 did it have an impact on the reelection of George [W.] Bush? No.” But politics is not a grand, faraway thing, implying only election outcomes and geopolitical upheavals. Festivals are, fundamentally, exercises in world-building. Like students on campuses across the globe, activists in the film-festival space are asking: what kind of world are we building right here, right now? What possibilities are we reifying through our participation in a film festival, and which ones are we foreclosing?

Two of the most beautiful movies I saw this year at Cannes refocus politics as the product of small acts of instantiation. Tru’o’ng Minh Quý’s Viet and Nam and Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light are shiveringly pretty films in which illicit love stories unfold against fraught backdrops. In the former, two gay coal miners contending with the ghosts of the Vietnam War prepare for a treacherous emigration in search of better fates; in the latter, a Hindu nurse secretly romances a Muslim man in a Mumbai where the threat of communal violence lingers perpetually in the shadows. Both films shudder under weighty historical and political burdens, yet seek resolution and subversion in intimate human gestures—of acceptance, desire, and beauty, brandished in the face of terror. Both films also implicate capital-P politics: Viet and Nam has been banned in Vietnam for its “negative” portrayal of the country, while All We Imagine as Light, which made history as the first Indian Grand Prix–winner, has earned bouquets from the same public officials who have persecuted Kapadia for participating in strikes against the right-wing government’s interference in India’s premier public film school.

Celebrating such films and the communities they convene is one of the possibilities that international festivals keep alive. But how long can we maintain the ruse of championing artistic freedom and civil liberties in cinemas surrounded by hundreds of cops and A.I.-powered cameras and staffed by underpaid workers? There is no easy way out of these imploding contradictions—no zoom-out to break the fourth wall and relieve the tension; no artificial intelligence–themed twist to blame it all on. We have wrought this world, and we will have to rebuild it.

— Devika Girish, "Cannes 2024: Whiplash" for Film Comment

[samanthasvietnameselitblog]

Five Interesting Nonfiction Books

"The Tale of Kieu: A Bilingual Edition of Nguyen Du's Truyen Kieu" by Nguyen Du

Since its publication in the early nineteenth century, this long narrative poem has stood unchallenged as the supreme masterpiece of Vietnamese literature. Thông’s new and absorbingly readable translation (on pages facing the Vietnamese text) is illuminated by notes that give comparative passages from the Chinese novel on which the poem was based, details on Chinese allusions, and literal translations with background information explaining Vietnamese proverbs and folk sayings.(Amazon)

2. "Where the Ashes Are: The Odyssey of a Vietnamese Family" by Nguyen Qui Duc"

Nguyen, less one of his siblings, an older sister who suffers from mental illness, leaves Viet Nam as a refugee in 1975, while his parents stay behind for different reasons. His father, in particular, as a high ranking South Vietnamese governmental official, subsists in prison for many years. Nguyen’s re-writing of his father’s experiences are interesting in that it obviously would have taken an immense amount of interviewing and temporal reconstruction. Nguyen also relies upon poems that his father had written during his time in prison to help nuance the incredible challenges of his life as a prisoner; his constant movement, the endless monotonous days, and the persistent interrogation remind me much of Xiaoda Xiao’s work on life in prisons during and after China’s Cultural Revolution. His mother tries to remake her life in the post-war regime and maintains a steadfast hope that she will be reunited with her husband.(DVAN)

3. "The Mountains Sing" by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

It’s a sweeping multigenerational story of Tran Dieu Lan and her family’s life from the 1920s to the present. Tran’s family was originally from the North. During the communist land reforms, her family was forced to migrate to Hanoi.(The Bamboo Traveler)

4. "Eating Viet Nam: Dispatches from a Blue Plastic Table" by Graham Holliday

A journalist and blogger takes us on a colorful and spicy gastronomic tour through Viet Nam in this entertaining, offbeat travel memoir, with a foreword by Anthony Bourdain.

Growing up in a small town in northern England, Graham Holliday wasn’t keen on travel. But in his early twenties, a picture of Hanoi sparked a curiosity that propelled him halfway across the globe. Graham didn’t want to be a tourist in an alien land, though; he was determined to live it. An ordinary guy who liked trying interesting food, he moved to the capital city and embarked on a quest to find real Vietnamese food. In Eating Viet Nam, he chronicles his odyssey in this strange, enticing land infused with sublime smells and tastes.(Amazon)

5. "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, of the Alpha Company, carries various reminders of his love for Martha, a girl from his college in New Jersey who has given no indication of returning his love. Cross carries her letters in his backpack and her good-luck pebble in his mouth. After a long day’s march, he unwraps her letters and imagines the prospect of her returning his love someday. Martha is an English major who writes letters that quote lines of poetry and never mention the war. Though the letters are signed “Love, Martha” Cross understands that this gesture should not give him false hope. He wonders, uncontrollably, about whether or not Martha is a virgin. He carries her photographs, including one of her playing volleyball, but closer to his heart still are his memories. They went on a single date, to see the movie Bonnie and Clyde. When Cross touched Martha’s knee during the final scene, Martha looked at him and made him pull his hand back. Now, in Vietnam, Cross wishes that he had carried her up the stairs, tied her to the bed, and touched her knee all night long. He is haunted by the cutting knowledge that his affection will most likely never be returned.(Sparknotes)

[casbooks]

Books of 2023

Book 35 of 2023

Title: The Frost Weeds: Vietnam: 1964-1965 Authors: James Oliveri ISBN: 9781555717612 Tags: A-1 Skyraiders AUS ADF Australian Defence Force AUS Australia B-57 Canberra Buddhism (Religion) C-123 Provider C-7 Caribou CH-34 Choctaw FRA France LAO Laos LAO Laotian Civil War (1959-1975) LAO Pathet Lao LAO Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma LAO Prince Souvanna Phouma LAO RLA 33rd Laotian Elephant Bn LAO RLA Royal Laotian Army LAO RLAF Royal Lao Air Force Nungs O-1 Bird Dog SpecOps U-1 Otter US Ambassador Maxwell Taylor US CIA Central Intelligence Agency US Medal Of Honor US President Lyndon B. Johnson US Raymond Burr (Actor) US USA 1st Cavalry Division US USA 86th Engineer Bn US USA Col Roger Donlon (MOH) US USA Fort Dix NJ US USA Fort Dix NJ - Intermediate Speed Radio Operators Course (ISROC) US USA General Paul D. Harkins US USA General William Westmoreland US USA United States Army US USA USSF 5th SFG US USA USSF 7th SFG US USA USSF Green Berets US USA USSF Special Forces US USA USSF Team A-113 US USA USSF Team A-323 US USA USSF Team A-726 US USMC 9th MEB US USMC United States Marine Corps US USN 7th Fleet US USN United States Navy US USN USS Maddox (DD-731) US USN USS Ticonderoga (CV-14) US USN USS Turner Joy (DD-951) US USO United Service Organizations VNM 1968 Tet Offensive (1968) (Vietnam War) VNM A Louie Airstrip VNM A Shau Special Forces Camp (Vietnam War) VNM A Shau Valley VNM AUS ADF Australian Army Training Team (Vietnam War) VNM Battle of Hue City (1968) (Tet Offensive) (Vietnam War) VNM Battle of Nam Dong CIDG Camp (1964) (Vietnam War) VNM Cam Lo VNM Central Highlands VNM Cholon VNM Con Thien VNM Cua Viet VNM Da Lat VNM Da Nang VNM Da Nang - Red Beach Base Area (Vietnam War) VNM Da Nang Air Base VNM DMZ Demilitarized Zone - 17th Parallel (Vietnam War) VNM Dong Ap Bia VNM Dong Ha VNM Dong Hoi VNM Dong Nai River VNM DRV NVA Col Bui Tin (Engineer) VNM DRV NVA Col Dong Si Nguyen (Minister of Construction) VNM DRV NVA North Vietnamese Army VNM DRV VC Viet Cong VNM FRA Felix Poilane (Plantation Owner) VNM Gio Linh VNM Gulf of Tonkin Incident (1964) (Vietnam War) VNM Highway 1 VNM Highway 14 VNM Highway 548 VNM Highway 9 VNM Ho Chi Minh Trail (Vietnam War) VNM Hue VNM Hue - Business District VNM Hue - Capitol Building VNM Hue - Cercle Sportif VNM Hue - Duy Tan St VNM Hue - Hue Stadium VNM Hue - Hue University VNM Hue - Joan of Arc Cathedral VNM Hue - Le Loi St VNM Hue - Nguyen Hoang Bridge VNM Hue - Perfume River VNM Hue - Public Health and Hospital Complex VNM Hue - Tay Loc Airfield (Vietnam War) VNM Hue - The Citadel VNM Hue - Tran Cao Van St VNM Hue - Tran Hung Dao St VNM I Corps (Vietnam War) VNM Ia Drang Valley VNM III Corps (Vietnam War) VNM Lang Troi VNM Lang Vei VNM Lang Vei Special Forces Camp (Vietnam War) VNM Montagnard - Bru VNM Montagnards VNM Montagnards - Katu VNM Nam Dong VNM Nam Dong Special Forces Camp (Vietnam War) VNM Nha Trang VNM Operation Flaming Dart (1965) (Vietnam War) VNM Operation Ranch Hand (1962-1971) (Vietnam War) VNM Operation Rolling Thunder (1965-1968) (Vietnam War) VNM Phu Bai VNM Pleiku VNM Quang Tri VNM Quang Tri Province VNM Rao Lao River VNM Rao Quang River VNM Red River VNM RVN ARVN 1st ID VNM RVN ARVN 2nd Regiment VNM RVN ARVN 2nd Regiment - 3/2 VNM RVN ARVN 36th Ranger Bn VNM RVN ARVN 3rd Regiment VNM RVN ARVN 3rd Regiment - 3/3 VNM RVN ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam VNM RVN ARVN CIDG Civilian Irregular Defense Group VNM RVN ARVN General Nguyen Chanh Thi VNM RVN ARVN LLDB Luc Luong Dac Biet Special Forces VNM RVN ARVN MP Quan Canh Military Police VNM RVN ARVN Nam Dong CIDG Camp VNM RVN ARVN Vietnamese Rangers - Biet Dong Quan VNM RVN General Duonh Van Minh (Big Minh) VNM RVN Nguyen Cao Ky VNM RVN Nguyen Khanh VNM RVN RVNP Can Sat National Police VNM RVN SVNAF South Vietnamese Air Force VNM RVN Tran Van Huong VNM Saigon VNM Saigon - Brinks Hotel VNM Saigon - Brinks Hotel Bombing (1964) VNM Saigon - Capital Hotel VNM Saigon - Tu Do St (Rue Catinat) VNM Som Bai VNM Ta Bat VNM Ta Bat Airfield VNM Ta Rau VNM Tan Son Nhut Air Base VNM Thua Thien Province VNM Tonkin Gulf VNM US Agent Orange (Vietnam War) VNM US MAAG Advisory Team 3 (Vietnam War) VNM US MAAG Military Assistance Advisory Group Vietnam (Vietnam War) VNM US MACV Advisory Team 3 (Vietnam War) VNM US MACV Advisory Teams (Vietnam War) VNM US MACV Military Assistance Command Vietnam (Vietnam War) VNM US USMC KSCB Khe Sanh Combat Base (Vietnam War) VNM US USSF Mobile Strike Force (MIKE) (Vietnam War) VNM Vietnam VNM Vietnam War (1955-1975) Rating: ★★★★★ (5 Stars) Subject: Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.ARVN, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Specops.ARVN, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Specops.Green Berets, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.US Army.Advisor

Description: During the early years of the Vietnam War, a small group of American soldiers carried the fight to the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, often under difficult circumstances. Their sacrifices generally went unrecognized and unappreciated by a mostly indifferent nation. But a massive influx of American troops would soon alter the entire nature and perception of the war. THE FROST WEEDS graphically describes the horror, the heroism and even the humor of the Vietnam experience while offering a far different perspective of the war than that epitomized by the larger conflict that followed. It is an astonishing account of a small U.S. military advisory team struggling to deal with a ruthless enemy and an often exasperating ally.

Review: This was an excellent book by an excellent author. He was able to craft a good narrative and understood pacing and flow which is rare for many of these books. The tales he told of the early years of the vietnam war, the 64/65 period, of what it was like at Ta Bat, A Shau, and Khe Sanh, his explorations of Hue, and the battle of Nam Dong were well done and gave you a really good sense of who was there, what happened, and what the experience was like being an Advisor radioman attached to an ARVN unit. 

[afrotumble]

Pinckney Benton Steward Pinchard received his bachelor's degree in history at Alabama State College, but limited career opportunities in the South in the early 1960s led him to seek employment in New York City. Two years of selling newspaper advertisements and working as a Wall Street stockbroker brought him to the realization that he was better suited for a career in education and thus he applied for a position in the New York City public school system. After teaching music at several locations, he found a job teaching a special education class at P.S. 92. Obsessed with the plight of his inner-city pupils, he was glad to discuss their problems with anyone who would listen, including a social worker who encouraged him to write his thoughts and experiences in a diary. This resulted in the publication of his first book, Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher (1969), which was widely acclaimed. This initial success attracted the attention of major publishers who approached him to write books for children and adolescents.

An admitted need to reconcile social disparities and a desire to interpret events to young people and to motivate them to read and be influenced by accomplished individuals—particularly deprived youth whom he felt had far too few role models to read about—led him to author more than one hundred books on a diverse array of topics. Written for a general audience of juveniles, his titles include The War and the Protest: Viet Nam (1971), Religions (1973), Jobs in Business and Office (1974), The Consumer Movement (1975), Your Rights, Past and Present: A Guide for Young People (1975), Teen-age Alcoholism (1976), The Long Struggle: The Story of American Labor (1976), Who Are the Handicapped (1978), Gambling—Who Really Wins (1978), Werewolves (1981), and The New Americans: Cuban Boat People (1982).

[walkingatombomb]

Comics I Read Today

April 30

The ‘Nam #7 (1987)

The ‘Nam is war comic book set in the war in Vietnam as detailed by a fictional soldier. In this issue, the narrative is from the perspective of a Kit Carson Scout (a reformed Viet Cong who is used by American troops as scouts, guides or translators). He tells of how his country was invaded first by the Japanese then came the French then the Americans. He was a simple farmer then had to learn to kill. It’s a compelling story that was actually an amalgam of several real life stories.

The ‘Nam originally ran 84 issues and I knew of its existence but never read a single issue until today. I doubt that younger me would have enjoyed it the same as older me but I wish I had given it a chance.

[back-and-totheleft]

"Documentaries are less stress"

The following one-on-one interview with Mr. Stone was conducted in Brussels. As the guest of honor during the Millenium Documentary Film Festival Brussels—which runs from March 15 until March 22—to present his documentaries “JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass” (2021) and “Nuclear Now” (2022), and a masterclass as well, I got to sit down with him in a Brussels hotel for a conversation on his craft that he knows inside out. With his approval, this interview didn’t focus on his two documentaries, but rather dealt with general topics and his work as a filmmaker.

Mr. Stone, after your last feature film, “Snowden” [2016], you changed your modus operandi and became a documentary filmmaker. Why did you do that?

Documentaries are different. When you make documentaries, they’re not consuming your life. You don’t have to build the sets, you don’t have to hire actors or paint walls. You don’t have to think about a hundred different things. That also means you’re no longer creating an artificial world. A documentary is something real, you have witnesses, people who went through it or who were around when it happened. So the preparation for a documentary is very different; it’s a living environment parallel to you and you’re joining it. My documentaries are a lot about political ideas and about the country, so it’s something entirely different. Making a documentary means much less work, much less money and much less stress. It’s simpler to be a documentarian.

Several of your films are based on true events, and “JFK” [1991] and “Snowden” are documentary-like features. Were they maybe your most difficult films to make?

They are difficult in the sense that you have to check everything and authenticate it. Obviously, fantasy gives you a lot more freedom: if you’re doing films like “Natural Born Killers” [1994], “U Turn” [1997] or “Savages” [2012], those are fictional. They give you more freedom, and you can f*ck around. When you’re doing “JFK” [1991], you really have to pay attention. There’s so much out there, and the film is so difficult to authenticate because it’s not like a book. The dialogue is difficult because those are real people and you don’t know what they really said. So you’re taking dramatic liberties.

When you did “Snowden,” you met Edward Snowden in unusual circumstances. What was he like?

He was very straightforward; he remindend me of a very bright boy scout. He doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t do drugs. He’s quiet, shy, polite and pleasent. He had one woman in his life at that time. He’s a serious man; I was very impressed with him and he’s not a celebrity type attention seeker. Not at all. Some people said that I made him a white knight in the movie, but they don’t know who he really is. If they knew him, they’d realize he is very sincere, very articulate, and he really believed that his oath was to the constitution—which it is—and not to the NSA or to the CIA. He was a whistleblower at twenty-nine, so I wanted to know and explore how and why he did that at such a young age.

What film or filmmaker gave you the passion to become a filmmaker?

I went to the New York Film School and the message came from Martin Scorsese who was a teacher. I had done a short film of fourteen minutes, “Last Year in Viet Nam” [1971] and he liked it. He praised it and took it to class. That didn’t happen too often; short films were mostly criticized. That was the method; it was like a Chinese commune where you showed your work to the class and everyone went bla bla bla. But this time he threw it in the class and said, ‘This is a filmmaker.’ And he said, ‘Keep it personal.’ That’s what you have to do, keep it personal. That was very good. I felt very inspired by that and then I just kept going.

So then you began making personal films, and with “Midnight Express” [1978] and “Salvador” [1986], for example—not to mention your Vietnam War trilogy—you immediately put yourself on the map with message films. That reminds me of the films Stanley Kramer or Fred Zinnemann did, for example. Is that an accurate comparison?

That’s a tough question to answer, whether they are personal or not. You don’t know how Stanley Kramer really felt. He was an emotional man with a great conscience, and you know he was passionate about nuclear war; so he did “On the Beach” [1959] with that passion. And you know he wanted to be funny when he did a comedy [“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” 1963] with a lot of car crashes. He wasn’t funny, but he did make a point. “Judgement at Nuremberg” [1961] was about justice, bringing justice to the Nazis and America did the Nuremberg trials—the one good thing they did. And even then, it was compromised, but still he made the point of the Holocaust very clear. So I think we owe him because of the many films he did. They were motivated by passion. They weren’t motivated by politics, I don’t think so. It was in his heart. Of course, my interpretation of him may be different than critics who say, ‘He was just a producer.’ But I saw an early film he did with Frank Sinatra, “Not as a Stranger” [1955], and that was a very interesting film. Sinatra was great; he played the second doctor and Robert Mitchum was the first doctor who starts a relationship with a nurse who gives him the money to finish school. He uses her and then dumps her. But she comes back and plays a very good scene… But you asked a tough question. Zinnemann, I don’t relate to him the same way you do. I don’t. I knew him, I met him, but I don’t regard him in the same way. Kramer was special, although he made some stinkers too [laughs]. He also did a beautiful movie, “The Secret of Santa Vittoria” [196] with Anna Magnani, beautifully scripted, beautifully done. Anthony Quinn plays the major of this Italian town and nobody trusts him. He’s a layabout and Anna Magnani is his angry wife. That was a great movie and he should have gotten more credit for it, right?

Did it ever happen to you that you should have gotten more credit for a film you did?

Yeah. “Snowden” [2016]. I couldn’t finance it in the U.S. We moved the production to Germany because we thought we might be at risk in the United States. We had no idea what the NSA might or could do. So we financed it abroad, and that’s very disturbing: you make a film about an American and it’s not possible to finance it in the U.S.

Generally speaking, has it been easy for you to be an independent filmmaker and make most of your films without the financial support of the major studios?

I can’t rely on the studios, so I have always been independent. I bounce around with different independents. A lot of my films are owned by bankrupt corporations and sell-of assets. I work a lot with guys who get bankrupt [laughs]. I have been both ways and when I work with studios, the experience can be good. “Wall Street” [1987] was good, but the second Wall Street [“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” 2010] was not because that was made by [executive] Tom Rothman. He acted like a head and would tell you what to do. It’s a whole different attitude. We give studios the power, we entitle them—every filmmaker in some way has a relationship with the studios so he’s always thinking about them because he’s gotta deliver his film and they have the money. Sometimes you’re the slave of that money, and sometimes… f*ck ’em [laughs]. Some filmmakers are always fighting against the studios; it’s a tedious relationship because it’s a slave relationship. Unless you prefer independent. But then, of course, you have to go to them for distribution.

Alain Parker once told me he always wanted a production deal and at the same time a distribution deal, otherwise you have to go shopping with your film. Did you ever have to do that?

Of course. A lot. With “Nuclear Now” we were invited to Cannes where you can get a lot of publicity, but they wanted to hold the film for America in October, and by that time it was not noticed. But it’s okay; that’s the business and I get tired of promotion anyway. Besides, documentaries don’t need that. You just throw them out there and f*ck ’em. You know what I mean; you have to be a showman and you have to care. A showman cares about the results. To go through that again, watching box office, counting numbers,… all that stuff is pretty tiring.

Have you always been able to cast the actors that you wanted?

No, but I had pretty much freedom. I mean, it’s always a deal pressure kind of thing. They mention a few names and things happen. There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen, but somehow you have to be the master cook [laughs].

Does that mean you have to compromise?

Always. But you don’t have to say yes. I never say yes to an actor overnight. I have never done that. I have made mistakes, but I have never said yes to an actor right away.

When you write a screenplay, do you have certain actors in mind?

Yes, but that’s more elusive because by the time you go through the casting process, you have seen different interpretations and you may prefer an actor’s interpretation to your own. I had many actors reading for me—that helps—or I have them read on tape with a casting director and then I see the tape. You don’t have to be there always. Sometimes if you’re in the room, you’re the gorilla, you know.

In your films you always have a great cast of supporting actors, such as Sylvia Miles, Millie Perkins, Haing S. Ngor, Paul Sovino, E.G. Marshall, Eli Wallach, Madeline Kahn… Mel Brooks recently said that ‘Madeline Kahn was maybe the single best comedian that ever lived.’

Casting your supporting actors is always very special. Most of what you’re doing is picking supporting actors. The main actors line up on money deals; it’s a money situation with agents and lawyers. Whereas the supporting actors, that’s a different story, that’s really where the casting process kicks in.

How closely do you collaborate with your casting directors?

A lot because he or she will make suggestions and knows who is out there working or not. You don’t know and you can’t remember everything. Sometimes you have a thought in mind, like, ‘I want a Cary Grant type for this.’

You have a long and rewarding career as a filmmaker, with a string of highlights. Is there a secret, or is it always a challenge?

Well, it’s been okay. Is it a challenge? I would say yes. It’s a challenge to stay relevant, it’s a challenge to be interested in society but that naturally comes to me. My ideas may not be popular at the moment, but they are fresh—at least, to me, they are. I don’t talk like most directors, and I can’t stand most directors’ irresponsibility about political situations. Most directors want to be friends with everybody and avoid all controversy. But that’s not the way you should speak. You should speak your mind. But then you risk ostracism.

Did you ever have any problems with your actors?

Yeah sure. Some got drunk, some were uncommunicative and stubborn, some dropped out. Bill Paxton, for example, dropped out of “U Turn” [1997] and was replaced by Sean Penn because he didn’t understand his character.

How important are your three Oscars to you?

They look good in the corner. Memories. I think I’ve passed the level of merit. I see myself as a better filmmaker, although others may not agree. But the Oscars, it’s a game, you know. Oscar chasing is like high school politics where they want to be president of the class. I don’t like any of that.

You worked with a lot of great actors and big stars. Have you ever been starstruck?

Yes. When I was forty, I won an Oscar for [directing] “Platoon” [1986]. Liz Taylor presented me the Oscar on stage and then she kissed me. She was my sweetheart, my dream girl, during the 1950s and 1960s, so that was a special moment for me.

-Q&A at the Millenium Documentary Film Festival Brussels, March 15, 2024

[philippmichelreichold]

on Space Infantry by Dave Drake et al

Space Infantry is a Military Science Fiction anthology edited by Dave Drake, Charles G. Waugh and Martin Greenberg. It contains stories by a dozen authors spanning 3 decades. In order of appearance they are:

"The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears," by Keith Bennett;

His Truth Goes Marching On," by Jerry Pournelle;

But as a Soldier, For His Country," by Stephen_Goldin;

"Soldier Boy," by Michael_Shaara;

"Code-Name Feirefitz," by David Drake;

"The Foxholes of Mars," by Fritz_Lieber;

Conqueror," by Larry Eisenberg;

"Warrior," by Gordon R. Dickson;

Message to an Alien," by Keith Laumer;

". . . Not a Prison Make," by Joseph P. Martino;

"The Hero," by George R. R. Martin, and

"End Game," by Joe Haldeman.

Of the lot, Joe Haldeman, Gordon R. Dickson, Jerry Pournelle and Fritz Leiber are Hugo Award winners, though not for these stories. Mr. Drake and Mr. Haldeman served in Viet Nam. Their experiences color and inform their stories. Mr. Drake once said that his Hammers Slammers stories were partly therapy. Though clumped together as "Space Infantry," these stories run a wide gamut in attitude and outlook, and they need not strictly speaking be about Infantryman at all. Anyone simply seeking simple action adventure, bang-bang-your-dead, stories may be disappointed. There is so much more here than that. Anyone looking for high quality writing should read these stories. They stand out as excellent severally and separately. The book is essential to anyone with more than a superficial interest in Military Science Fiction-- especially anyone interested in the crafting or the history of Military Sci Fi.

The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears Mr. Bennett's story is not so much about ground sloggers as downed rocketeers who get the job done regardless of any obstacles and who coincidentally save their corps from absorption or disbandment. The basis for the title, according to Drake, is a song-- "The Mountaineeers Have Hairy Ears," whose lyrics I'll not reproduce here, and which carries the same emotional load of the Viet Nam Era, "don't mean nothin" in the context of having just had one's eye shot out. Mr. Drake was half a generation removed from Rocketeers, as I am from Drake's Slammers. In the context of today's milieu, the story is shockingly militaristic and imperialistic, much reflective of the attitude of the times in which it was written, 1950. No consideration is given to the real estate and no quarter to the natives. AS I said, the these admitted "Sons of bi-- er, Space" get the job done. There is of course a problem with some stories written in the 1950's. The idiom is changed. Readers of today may find it difficult to relate to.

His Truth Goes Marching On Dr. Pounelle is a Politcal Scientist and this story is as much a poli-sci treatise as it is a work of military science fiction. It is of course set in the Falkenberg's Legion universe before the collapse of the Co-Dominion and the ascension of Lysander to the Spartan throne, just prior to Ace Barton and Peter Owensford signing up with Colonel Falkenberg. Don't get me wrong, there's enough army life and gun play and slogging through mud for anyone's taste. There's also betrayal and a nuke.The story is well worth the read for anyone with a brain. But you won't know the truth till you read that last couple of paragraphs.

But as a Soldier, For His Country, Quoth the author, "It's a young man's story, venting frustration at the futility and lunacy of war." It grew into the novel, The Eternity Brigade. I'm one of those people made uncomfortable by this story. But guess what-- the purpose of good writing is not to make the reader feel good. Imagine the sheer unpleasantness and daily grind of war. Then imagine the worst parts. Imagine dying in battle. Then imagine being resurrected and even copied countless times for an age, till finally you meet yourself in battle. A well wriiten reductio ad absurdum.

Soldier Boy Michael Shaara won the Pulitzer Prize for The Killer Angels, a novel about the Battle of Gettysburg. "Soldier Boy" was also made into a novel; it tells the story of the lone soldier, at a number of disadvantages, that must come to grips with a superior opponent through his native intelligence and leadership skills. It's a well crafted story about a young man coming into his own. The antagonistis remarkable.

Code-Name Feirefitz Despite being in law school, David Drake was drafted to serve in Viet Nam. He eventually became a member of a Battalion Information Center with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. His experiences there form the basis of his Hammer's Slammers stories. The prime movers in "Code Name Feirefitz" are not the highly capable Captain Esa Mboya or his Golf Company Slammers, but two civilans. Their conflict is key to Mboya's own conflict between duty and conscience. The story contrasts the grittiness and hardness of the soldiers as they set about doing their duty with the composure and quiet persistence of Esa's brother Juma as he does his. Their dedication contrasts with the desperate selfishness of ben Khedda as he seeks to sacrifice anyone to survive. The faith of Jooma plays against that of the Kaid who will risk anything to save his people, and both stand out against the faithlessness of ben Khedda.

The Foxholes of Mars Fritz Leiber has won numerous awards-- one of the great masters of Science Fiction. Leiber's opening imagery and setting creation is masterful. Leiber's prose is deep and lush with layers of meaning. War is just the setting for a deep and not terrible pleasnt look deep into a man's soul-- the soul of a budding demagouge. I find no indication that this story won Hugo or Nebula. It should have. It's shocking that an anthology containing this story should be available for a penny. This story in and of itsself is priceless.

Conqueror Eisenber crafts his story well, creating a believable setting and a sympathetic protangonis in a story that starts out being a story about the lone foot slogger a long way from home and in need of human contact, validation of his own humanity. Ends up as a story about successful psy-ops and asymmetric warfare against an occupying force.

Warrior The first Gordon Dickson I read was the short story "Soldier Ask Not" in The Hugo Winners. Warrior is a side piece to his Childe Cycle stories, about the Dorsai general Ian Graeme. It is included in the anthology Lost Dorsai.

Though the action of the story takes place far from the battlefields of the Splinter worlds, it is full of strategy, including the principle of calculated risk, and tactics. (Including "Tactics of Mistake"-- this is a Graeme we're talking about.) It portrays Graeme as the Dorsai archetype-- not only the consummate soldier, but a man who would cross all of Hell and half of New York City to pay a debt for good or ill. And all the more so to exact justice forhis soldiers. Dickson's prose can be a little pompous and overbearing-- his treatment of villains a little dismissive, mere stick figures lacking depth. But then he wants Graeme to be overpowering-- to his advesaries, to the helpless bystander cops, and to the reader.

Message to an Alien Keith Laumer is a Nebula Award writer who is porbably undervalued today. His Retief stories are based on his experiecnes as a military attache in Burma. His Bolo stories were part of the inspiration for Drake's Slammers. This story is about the lone and disgraced soldier who was turned out for being righter than his superiorsthe civillian authorities could ever admit. He acts alone again and totally without anyone else's support to nip an invasion in the bud and stop a war. Laumer's disdain those with authority but lacking the sense to use it shows through. Dalton's mastery of the situation, the authoirites, and of the invaders is a pleasure to read.

. . . Not a Prison Make Martino's novelette is based on the unique premise of guerilla warfare carried out by low technology aborigines. He builds the story thoroughly, exploring the occupying forces attempts to mount an affect defence. The key is to force to the negotiating table people who have no interest in negotiations. The solution is unique to he situation, and the resolution acceptable to all. The Hero The United States has reached the point in its decadence/decay where it is sometimes more convenient to ignore its veterans and treat them with disdain then to give them the consideration and rewards they deserve. And so it is in "The Hero." Kagan serves honorably and well. When his term of enlistment is up, he demands his desserts, and his superiors balk. Can't conceive of him going to Earth. George R. R. Martin uses overstatement to drive home his point, contrasting the soldier with his bosses. In the end, it's clear that they are as dishonorable as he is honorable, as undeserving of his service as anyone could be.

End Game Joe Haldeman won an award for The Forever War. In the End Game, we find out what it was all for. Time has past. A lot of time has past, and Man is more like the Taurans than veterans like Marygay and William. There's a place for people like them called Middle Finger, heh heh. Anyone familiar with The Forever War knows Haldeman is a great writer, that he despises the stupidity and waste of war, and that he makes his case very well.

References

Space Infantry. ed. David Drake, Martin Harry Greenberg, Charles G. Waugh. 1989.

Space Infanty by Dave Drake et al. Philipp Michel Reichold. UL 19TH, 2017.

Soldier, Ask not. Gordon R. Dickson.

Hammer's Slammers. Dave Drake.

The Prince (anthology) Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling.

The Forever War. Joe Haldeman

#sciencefiction #review

[casbooks]

Book 26 of 2024 (★★★★★)

Title: Praying for Slack: A Marine Corps Tank Commander in Viet Nam: A Marine Corps Tank Commander in Vietnam Authors: Robert E. Peavey

Rating: ★★★★★ Subject: Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.USMC.Armor

Description: Two different wars were fought in Vietnam, the jungle-and-booby-trap one down south, and the WWII-like one up on the DMZ. "I was one of a handful whose Vietnam tour was evenly split between the First and Third Marine Divisions, and saw, firsthand, the difference 170 miles could make during the war's bloodiest year." Corporal Robert Peavey was a tank commander in I Corps (Eye Corps) on the DMZ when LBJ ordered a bombing halt over the North. His compelling first-hand account chronicles operations just south of the 'Z, operations that most Vietnam War histories have completely ignored. Peavey offers detailed, understandable explanations of combat strategy, strengths and shortcomings of standard-issue armament, and inter-service rivalries.

About the Author

Upon his return from Vietnam Robert Peavey graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology. For the last 25 years he has worked for Eastman Kodak where he continues today. He is currently a member of the board of directors of the United States Marine Corps Vietnam Tankers Association. Peavey now lives outside Atlanta, Georgia.

[philippmichelreichold]

on Space Infantry by Dave Drake et al

Space Infantry is a Military Science Fiction anthology edited by Dave Drake, Charles G. Waugh and Martin Greenberg. It contains stories by a dozen authors spanning 3 decades. In order of appearance they are:

"The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears," by Keith Bennett;

His Truth Goes Marching On," by Jerry Pournelle;

But as a Soldier, For His Country," by Stephen_Goldin;

"Soldier Boy," by Michael_Shaara;

"Code-Name Feirefitz," by David Drake;

"The Foxholes of Mars," by Fritz_Lieber;

Conqueror," by Larry Eisenberg;

"Warrior," by Gordon R. Dickson;

Message to an Alien," by Keith Laumer;

". . . Not a Prison Make," by Joseph P. Martino;

"The Hero," by George R. R. Martin, and

"End Game," by Joe Haldeman.

Of the lot, Joe Haldeman, Gordon R. Dickson, Jerry Pournelle and Fritz Leiber are Hugo Award winners, though not for these stories. Mr. Drake and Mr. Haldeman served in Viet Nam. Their experiences color and inform their stories. Mr. Drake once said that his Hammers Slammers stories were partly therapy. Though clumped together as "Space Infantry," these stories run a wide gamut in attitude and outlook, and they need not strictly speaking be about Infantryman at all. Anyone simply seeking simple action adventure, bang-bang-your-dead, stories may be disappointed. There is so much more here than that. Anyone looking for high quality writing should read these stories. They stand out as excellent severally and separately. The book is essential to anyone with more than a superficial interest in Military Science Fiction-- especially anyone interested in the crafting or the history of Military Sci Fi.

The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears Mr. Bennett's story is not so much about ground sloggers as downed rocketeers who get the job done regardless of any obstacles and who coincidentally save their corps from absorption or disbandment. The basis for the title, according to Drake, is a song-- "The Mountaineeers Have Hairy Ears," whose lyrics I'll not reproduce here, and which carries the same emotional load of the Viet Nam Era, "don't mean nothin" in the context of having just had one's eye shot out. Mr. Drake was half a generation removed from Rocketeers, as I am from Drake's Slammers. In the context of today's milieu, the story is shockingly militaristic and imperialistic, much reflective of the attitude of the times in which it was written, 1950. No consideration is given to the real estate and no quarter to the natives. AS I said, the these admitted "Sons of bi-- er, Space" get the job done. There is of course a problem with some stories written in the 1950's. The idiom is changed. Readers of today may find it difficult to relate to.

His Truth Goes Marching On Dr. Pounelle is a Politcal Scientist and this story is as much a poli-sci treatise as it is a work of military science fiction. It is of course set in the Falkenberg's Legion universe before the collapse of the Co-Dominion and the ascension of Lysander to the Spartan throne, just prior to Ace Barton and Peter Owensford signing up with Colonel Falkenberg. Don't get me wrong, there's enough army life and gun play and slogging through mud for anyone's taste. There's also betrayal and a nuke.The story is well worth the read for anyone with a brain. But you won't know the truth till you read that last couple of paragraphs.

But as a Soldier, For His Country, Quoth the author, "It's a young man's story, venting frustration at the futility and lunacy of war." It grew into the novel, The Eternity Brigade. I'm one of those people made uncomfortable by this story. But guess what-- the purpose of good writing is not to make the reader feel good. Imagine the sheer unpleasantness and daily grind of war. Then imagine the worst parts. Imagine dying in battle. Then imagine being resurrected and even copied countless times for an age, till finally you meet yourself in battle. A well wriiten reductio ad absurdum.

Soldier Boy Michael Shaara won the Pulitzer Prize for The Killer Angels, a novel about the Battle of Gettysburg. "Soldier Boy" was also made into a novel; it tells the story of the lone soldier, at a number of disadvantages, that must come to grips with a superior opponent through his native intelligence and leadership skills. It's a well crafted story about a young man coming into his own. The antagonistis remarkable.

Code-Name Feirefitz Despite being in law school, David Drake was drafted to serve in Viet Nam. He eventually became a member of a Battalion Information Center with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. His experiences there form the basis of his Hammer's Slammers stories. The prime movers in "Code Name Feirefitz" are not the highly capable Captain Esa Mboya or his Golf Company Slammers, but two civilans. Their conflict is key to Mboya's own conflict between duty and conscience. The story contrasts the grittiness and hardness of the soldiers as they set about doing their duty with the composure and quiet persistence of Esa's brother Juma as he does his. Their dedication contrasts with the desperate selfishness of ben Khedda as he seeks to sacrifice anyone to survive. The faith of Jooma plays against that of the Kaid who will risk anything to save his people, and both stand out against the faithlessness of ben Khedda.

The Foxholes of Mars Fritz Leiber has won numerous awards-- one of the great masters of Science Fiction. Leiber's opening imagery and setting creation is masterful. Leiber's prose is deep and lush with layers of meaning. War is just the setting for a deep and not terrible pleasnt look deep into a man's soul-- the soul of a budding demagouge. I find no indication that this story won Hugo or Nebula. It should have. It's shocking that an anthology containing this story should be available for a penny. This story in and of itsself is priceless.

Conqueror Eisenber crafts his story well, creating a believable setting and a sympathetic protangonis in a story that starts out being a story about the lone foot slogger a long way from home and in need of human contact, validation of his own humanity. Ends up as a story about successful psy-ops and asymmetric warfare against an occupying force.

Warrior The first Gordon Dickson I read was the short story "Soldier Ask Not" in The Hugo Winners. Warrior is a side piece to his Childe Cycle stories, about the Dorsai general Ian Graeme. It is included in the anthology Lost Dorsai.

Though the action of the story takes place far from the battlefields of the Splinter worlds, it is full of strategy, including the principle of calculated risk, and tactics. (Including "Tactics of Mistake"-- this is a Graeme we're talking about.) It portrays Graeme as the Dorsai archetype-- not only the consummate soldier, but a man who would cross all of Hell and half of New York City to pay a debt for good or ill. And all the more so to exact justice forhis soldiers. Dickson's prose can be a little pompous and overbearing-- his treatment of villains a little dismissive, mere stick figures lacking depth. But then he wants Graeme to be overpowering-- to his advesaries, to the helpless bystander cops, and to the reader.

Message to an Alien Keith Laumer is a Nebula Award writer who is porbably undervalued today. His Retief stories are based on his experiecnes as a military attache in Burma. His Bolo stories were part of the inspiration for Drake's Slammers. This story is about the lone and disgraced soldier who was turned out for being righter than his superiorsthe civillian authorities could ever admit. He acts alone again and totally without anyone else's support to nip an invasion in the bud and stop a war. Laumer's disdain those with authority but lacking the sense to use it shows through. Dalton's mastery of the situation, the authoirites, and of the invaders is a pleasure to read.

. . . Not a Prison Make Martino's novelette is based on the unique premise of guerilla warfare carried out by low technology aborigines. He builds the story thoroughly, exploring the occupying forces attempts to mount an affect defence. The key is to force to the negotiating table people who have no interest in negotiations. The solution is unique to he situation, and the resolution acceptable to all. The Hero The United States has reached the point in its decadence/decay where it is sometimes more convenient to ignore its veterans and treat them with disdain then to give them the consideration and rewards they deserve. And so it is in "The Hero." Kagan serves honorably and well. When his term of enlistment is up, he demands his desserts, and his superiors balk. Can't conceive of him going to Earth. George R. R. Martin uses overstatement to drive home his point, contrasting the soldier with his bosses. In the end, it's clear that they are as dishonorable as he is honorable, as undeserving of his service as anyone could be.

End Game Joe Haldeman won an award for The Forever War. In the End Game, we find out what it was all for. Time has past. A lot of time has past, and Man is more like the Taurans than veterans like Marygay and William. There's a place for people like them called Middle Finger, heh heh. Anyone familiar with The Forever War knows Haldeman is a great writer, that he despises the stupidity and waste of war, and that he makes his case very well.

References

Space Infantry. ed. David Drake, Martin Harry Greenberg, Charles G. Waugh. 1989.

Space Infanty by Dave Drake et al. Philipp Michel Reichold. UL 19TH, 2017.

Soldier, Ask not. Gordon R. Dickson.

Hammer's Slammers. Dave Drake.

The Prince (anthology) Jerry Pournelle and S. M. Stirling.

The Forever War. Joe Haldeman

[kayahforde-cs]

Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest (1972) is an interesting and compelling book that discusses heavy themes surrounding colonialism, invasion and exploitation. As MacLeod puts it, ‘The Word for World is Forest is a reflection […] on the necessity and cost of resistance’ (2015: 1).

Le Guin wrote this book during the time of the Vietnam War, which is heavily referenced throughout through the character Colonel Dongh, who enables and supports the enslavement of the Ashtheans (Watson 1975: 231). Dongh is a character who, like many other humans (‘yumens’, as the Ashtheans call them), are cruel and oppress the native Ashtheans on New Tahiti. Ashtheans are subjected to heavy colonisation and the abusive effects of it, such as forced labour, rape, and genocide (Debita 2019: 51). Indeed, despite Le Guin using the peace movements she was involved in as her outlet to keep her political views and her writing separate, I believe that Le Guin’s political stance is clear through her use of her characters in the book. (Savi 2021: 536, quoted in Burns 2010).

Through the atrocities that occurred during the Vietnam War, Le Guin states in her Author’s Introduction of The Word for World is Forest that ‘[she] never wrote a story more easily, fluently, surely - and with less pleasure.’ Le Guin was opposed to the idea of atomic bomb testing, and the war in Vietnam in general, and would often feel ‘useless, foolish, and obstinate’ (Le Guin, 1972) because of the higher authority destroying the lands and forests; killing other men in the name of peace. It is through this heavy opposition to this unethical method of achieving such an agenda that she created The Word for World is Forest. Le Guin ‘responds to the dehumanizing nature of war that made possible Viet Nam era atrocities’ (Savi 2021: 536, quoted in Lindlow 2012), and this is certainly evident in how the character Don Davidson treats the “creechies”, which he derogatorily calls the Ashtheans.

Le Guin also mentions in her Author’s Introduction that her unconscious mind created a pure evil character - Davidson - despite her knowing very well that purely evil people do not exist (Le Guin 1972). Unlike Raj Lyubov, a character that studies the Ashtheans and tries to understand their lifestyle and their culture, Davidson fails to understand Ashthean ways of living - during his conversation with Oknanawi in Chapter 1, he states that hitting a creechie is “like hitting a robot for all they feel it”, and they’re “dumb, […] treacherous, and they don’t feel pain.” Furthermore, Lyubov mentions Davidson’s sexual intercourse with a creechie, who was Selver’s wife, Thele. This sexual assault is what lead to her death, and what was the driving force for Selver to attack Davidson in Chapter 1.

However, it is Selver’s character (and the Ashtheans’ dreaming culture as a whole) that led my practical response to this book. As Savi states, ‘Ashtheans are experienced day-dreamers’ (2021: 544), and I created my etchings through the link between the Ashtheans’ connection to their forest and the practice of Buddhism. Looking at Indian, Japanese and Tibetan Buddhist art, I drew upon the beautiful and calming sceneries of mountains, glistening rivers, and lotus flowers blooming in the water. Nature was the key to ‘attain enlightenment’, and was considered the ‘Pure Land’ (Bloom 1972: 117). Buddhism, which is still widely practised, enables people to have a sense of belonging in nature, to be one with the leaves and the sky, and the flowing rivers (Kala 2017: 24). I made a link between Buddhists aiming to reach Nirvana, and the Ashtheans using the concept of dreaming to gain answers from their gods.

My etching consists of a pair of hands holding a bloomed lotus flower, which has a heart-shaped vine growing out of it, adorned with depictions of the various natural imagery we used to live in before our Modern Age. I wanted to represent humankind’s appreciation for nature, and how we should still be one with nature, and hold it in high regard, despite our destroying of trees and natural resources to aid and sustain human life. Reading about the humans’ destroying of New Tahiti to help an already-destroyed Earth in The Word for World is Forest, I felt an overwhelming urge to create a positive and peaceful outcome in response.

However, although I wanted to have a positive outlook on my practical response and the book as a whole, one cannot ignore the negative and depressing ending of the book. Although the Ashtheans were able to obtain their land back from the humans, they have been introduced to murder, despite them being harmless and nonviolent species before. Their old way of life is no more, and the world they used to live in will never be the same again. The strong reference to real life ecological issues is evident here - people’s greed and selfishness have destroyed the planet, both physically and spiritually. People are out of balance between their status as humans and the nature around them (Hurby 2017, quoted Farong 2017). It raises many questions about how humanity stands: will our world ever be the same even if we are able to save our forests and planet? Will we ever be the same if we regain our spiritual connection to our natural environments? For me, I will always ask the question: will Mother Nature ever forgive us for ruining Her planet?

Bibliography

Bloom, A. (1972) ‘Buddhism, Nature and the Environment’, The Eastern Buddhist, 5(1), pp. 117-119.

Brown, K.S. (2003) Tibetan Buddhist Art in Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Available at: https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tibu/hd_tibu.htm (Accessed 19 December 2023).

Debita, G. (2019) ‘The Otherworlds of the Mind: Loci of Resistance in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest and Voices (Book II of the Annals of the Western Shore)’, Cultural Intertexts, 9, pp. 51.

Hurby, D (2017) Taoist monks find new role as environmentalists. China Dialogue. Available at: https://chinadialogue.net/en/nature/9669-taoist-monks-find-new-role-as-environmentalists/ (Accessed 19 December 2023).

Kala, C.P. (2017) ‘Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources through Spirituality’, Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 5(2), pp. 24.

MacLeod, K. (2015) The Word for World is Forest in The Anarchist Library. Available at: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-the-word-for-world-is-forest-1 (Accessed 5 December 2023).

Savi, M.P. (2021) ‘Looking to Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest: A Mirror of the American Consciousness’, Extrapolation, 30(1), pp. 536.

Watson, I. (1975) ‘The Forest as Metaphor for Mind: “The Word for World is Forest” and “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow”’, Science Fiction Studies, 2(3), pp. 231-232.

[opspro2005]

Ok...so in light of the state of the world, and with shit about to seriously hit the fan, take a few minutes to read this article. Americans need to really KNOW what kind of general badassery we come from, are capable of producing, and what's going to be expected of us soon. The Battle of Ia Drang was the first real major battle of the Viet Nam War, and Command Sergeant Major Plumley, along with Lt. Col Hal Moore, Rick Rescorla (who died in the 9/11 attacks and is a fascinating story on his own), the writer Joe Galloway, Huey pilots Bruce Crandall and Ed Freeman are among the many heroes and badasses that we're going to need to live up to. So read some history and know what's expected of all of us.

[constitutionaladvocate]

Reading # 8 wisdom for the masses THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

"Conduct which is directed against a government and which tends toward insurrection but does not amount to treason is sedition by breaking down our laws. Treasonous conduct consists of levying war against the United States or of adhering to its enemies, giving them aid and comfort. “By breaking our laws and violating them is treason and acts against the government. Giving the institutions aid by breaking down the laws is assisting the enemies within to tear our system and godly principles, is treason and is in violation of the people." Quote of Carl Miller, Constitutional scholar, expert, educator, proponent, and defender; a highly decorated hero of the Viet Nam War, serving in the elite Apache Troop, member of the top-secret project "Blue Book", served in operation Eagle Snatch, and more. Threshold questions/ What’s hurting our nation? media and repugnant laws, illegal bills of pain diminishing rights, illegal making of laws with no actual authority. Obstructing true freedom by gastopo tactics of violating privacy and declared rights and many more to mention, and how? when? and where? See examples of additional threshold questions. The branches robbing the branches purse for false reasons. The robbing of the public who are suffering for illegal bills of pain and repugnant laws that conflict with the basic essential to peruse life liberty of happiness. Ask the homeless, there are many who have been destroyed by the corruption. They all have stories of encroachment and infringement, then the homeless do their best to survive after given up on life, restore there hope by stopping encroachment and infringement to justify by diminishing one’s basic rights to live. There is no justification to diminish one’s rights or take them away, its actual against the law of God, as long as no one is actual getting hurt, no crime unless there is a victim, that simple. If need any further understanding just ask, and I can create a full report, and share the wisdom our father above has given me and the gifts he has given me. Thanks. Love you all. 1-479-880-3369 1-479-336-9084 PO BOX 32 LONDON ARKANSAS 72847, DONATIONS TO DWANE KIRKLAND, THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAS DONATED TO ME.  https://paypal.me/behindthescenes443?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US Example Threshold questions. The government hurts people. Every state franchise and town cities and state are doing this to Americans. When they are to govern by constitution at a state and federal level. WE THE PEOPLES COMPLAINT /////////// Americas complaint, Complaint allegation against the DEEP STATE OPERTIVES THAT EVEN DON’T KNOW THEY ARE DEEP STATE OPERATIVES BY THERE ACTIONS OF VIOLATING THE BILL OF RIGHTS, city of Hamilton and all states city’s counties and franchises institutions of the United States of America. # 1 (the city of Hamilton and the police agencies)OR PLUG YOUR VIOLATORS NAMES AND INSTITUIONS ______________________________________________________________________, are involving criminally prosecuting people without a victim or property damages and justifying by safety- By tricking and enforcing stealthy hidden conflicting statues by distinctive difference by definitions of international commerce and nonprivate people traveling to pursue basic necessities of life and liberty. # 2 (the city of Hamilton)______________________________________________________ is using the officers to their advantage to enforce conflicting laws, even though an officer has a separation of powers for conducting police powers which is limited. The police are committing crimes their self as an officer by arresting individuals for crimes without no victims and no property damage and running plate checks on individuals while in a public institution enjoying life, without no probable cause, for personal information by violating the privacy and the 4th amendment, leading to further bill of rights violations on the public. # 3 (the city of Hamilton and its police agency and other institutions) ______________________________________________________________________ are obstructing one rights by infringing on them and violating the oath of the supremacy clause. And the bill of rights of the state of Montana, by obstructing the freedom to live without bills of pain and direct taxes by writing citations and illegal complaints under false jurisdiction, over stepping authority. # 4 (the city of Hamilton)______________________________________________ has continually turned a so-called privilege into a crime against its own people who are private and pursuing life liberty and happiness. It is not a mere privilege which a city may prohibit or permit at will- But a common right which one has under the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hope you understand. Kirkland in many states working behind the scenes. Dwane Eugene Kirkland UCC 1-207 1-308 w/o prejudice investigating law behind the scenes and sharing Discovery and findings that works. Exposing judges and lawyers who violate the actual law. investigator of Constitutional law. I help the public and win in court cases on shifting the burden of proof and exposing the robbers' violations of police officers and judges and lawyers dishonoring oath', committing treason against the sister states compact agreement declarations of rights that is in harmony with all states and supreme law of the land. Article 6, p. 2 the supremacy clause/ US , I work hard to teach those who will listen and learn the discovery I have tested and utilized behind the scenes to win in litigation and mitigation. As a American citizens designated claimed beneficiary of the iron clad contract, to help those who are being encroached and infringed and robed by governmental officials. To protect and preserve our God given rights and to restore the rule of law by helping others to understand the true intent of the Constitutions in harmony with all sister states. INGODWETRUST officeerkirkland@icloud.com 479-880-3369 479-336-9084 po box 32 London Arkansas 72847. officerkirkland@mail.com provisions@mai.com https://www.facebook.com/ https://vimeo.com/253382719 https://constitutionclub.ning.com/.../attached-complaint... https://www.facebook.com/dwane.kirkland.9210 9/20/2023 2:06:22 PM Reading for Constitutional discovery / old vids/ wisdom/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grVvOAVCrgM&t=220s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAtwkOnlC2E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mirxEGh3sc4&t=611s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imJKOMAlQ2c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcArO-G_4v0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0V3ZDQ238to&t=309s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ORKTlp079k&t=10s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae7k-8FeXl8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsoP8QLlxMo&t=193s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RugUZ-kPKag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roRqV4vHvx0 ******************************************************* Constitutional Counsel, Advocacy, and Investigations Headquarters Bill of Rights Offices in Harmony Across the Nation Post Office Box 32, London, Arkansas 72847 Telephone: 14798803369 This message is intended for use only by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, and/or otherwise exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Thanks. Love you all. 1-479-880-3369 1-479-336-9084 PO BOX 32 LONDON ARKANSAS 72847, DONATIONS TO DWANE KIRKLAND, THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAS DONATED TO ME.  https://paypal.me/behindthescenes443?country.x=US&locale.x=en_US

[denimbex1986]

'So much has been written about Barbenheimer that this article will try to squeeze out some more trivia, maybe uncover some hidden tidbits about the two most talked about films, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.”

Barbie at the time of this writing is happily sliding past a global one billion at the box office. That’s not bad for an 11 ½ inch doll. The film has also fostered a new interest in Barbie herself, the first grown women doll, and has increased Barbie fashion and memorabilia and of course, the color pink. There is a regular-sized house in Malibu that is bright bubble gum pink that is available for rental. Amy Schumer was originally considered for the title role. I think Amy could have pulled it off but she would have to be more svelte. Anne Hathaway was also on the list but she does not have the stereotypical coloring of the original doll nor did Wonder Woman, Gal Godot. The eventual star, Margot Robbie is Australian and Ken, Ryan Gosling, is Canadian but writer/director, Greta Gerwig is localish, hailing from Sacramento, Calif. and to prove the super human tenacity of the feminine gender she did some of her helming while pregnant, having delivered a second son in February.

The film is not just cotton candy fluff. It has gravitas and has aroused controversy. A religious website indicated that it catered to nostalgic adults pushing a gay, bi and transgender agenda (it doesn’t). Congressman, Matt Gaetz attended a screening in a pink sport coat and his wife in a pink dress but afterward she noted that it was not appropriate for children because it showed, “...no faith or family.” A crayon drawn map in one scene stirred the ire of not only Viet Nam but congressman Ted Cruz, who both figured it was drawn to placate Chinese censorship because of its depiction of the area around the contentious South China Sea (please!). Much homage is given throughout but none more blatant than that of the opening sequence which re-enacts the opening of the sci-fi classic, “2001.” With even more irony, the segment is narrated by eminent Shakespearean actress, Helen Mirren.

More than anything, the film highlights the importance of women’s rights and the long-standing movement that continues to struggle and inch along (which is probably why Gaetz et. al felt so uncomfortable). It empowers women to be what they want to be, whether that’s a mother, the President, an artist or anything in between. After all, that’s what Barbie’s all about -- imagination.

‘Oppenheimer’ is a brilliant note on America’s war culture Oppenheimer is brilliant. It was based on a book called, “American Prometheus.” From mythology we know that Prometheus was somewhat of a trickster having stolen fire from the gods and given it to us mortals. In this case the trickster is Christopher Nolan who is a true genius. The story he tells of a single-minded scientist who leads the team that develops the atomic bomb could have been deadly dull but his vision of Oppenheimer is haunting and riveting.

Christopher Nolan is noted for Memento, Inception, Dunkirk, Interstellar and the Dark Night Trilogy. He became interested in this project when Robert Pattinson gave him a book of Oppenheimer’s speeches after the filming of Tenet. He wrote the script in first person because he wanted to interject subjectivity as well as objectivity into the events.

Nolan’s structure is complex. Most of the 11 miles and 600 pounds of film is in color. Other sections are in high contrast black and white. The two are woven together during three hours in a non-linear fashion which is occasionally interrupted by surrealistic flashing images.

The cast is loaded with talent and is headed by Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer. It is his 6th collaboration with the director. Performers, both male and female became attracted to Murphy’s neon blue eyes. Matt Damon at times lost his momentum acting opposite him and often found himself, “...swimming in his eyes.” The principals, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Damon and Murphy attended the premiere fol-de-rol and then departed in solidarity with the SAG/AFTRA strike. In couple’s therapy Damon agreed to spend more time with his family only if Chris Nolan didn’t call. But call he did and Damon shines as General Leslie Groves. An unrecognizable Robert Downey, Jr. will certainly get a supporting actor nomination as Lewis Strauss.

The two films have single-handedly revitalized the theater going experience. These two films have captured the imagination of the American public and they could not be more disparate—from the ridiculous to the sublime or maybe vice/versa depending on ones point of view.'