#johnny got his gun

[mymakuu]

Some people aren’t ready for a 2024 game Character and a 1939 book Character to be friends

[demento-mori]

hello mouthwashing fandom. how many of you have heard of the films event horizon and johnny got his gun.

[tinkerbellaglowstone]

me and my fandom from the 60s and my nonexistent anti war 1939 fandom never heard of as a crossshipping pair

[petiteclover]

TIMOTHY BOTTOMS & KATHY FIELDS in Johnny Got His Gun, 1971.

[thebreakfastgod]

johnny got his gun is honestly one of the most haunting things I've ever read

yeah it is and i really liked it. its one of those things that i think only works as a book because youre able to be inside of joe’s head and the sensory experience is limited to only what he can perceive

[cygateyaoiluvr69]

Any Mouthwashing fans read the book Johnny Got His Gun??

I actually think some fans would do well to read it, especially ones who infantilize and reduce Curly to less of a person post crash. It's also just a fantastic story, albiet super fucking sad and I cry reading it.

[deepdeepsleepoftheinnocent]

the most challenging part of being autistic that they dont want you to know about is being hyperfixtated on a 1939 anti-war novel and its subsequent movie adaptation and its metallica fansong

[thoughtportal]

Donald Sutherland reading from Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

[breathofgod]

[mace-waz-here]

I wish everyone who lets me talk about this book a wonderful, amazing life, you deserve an amazing life and I’ll kiss your forehead

[creepynostalgy]

Dalton Trumbo and Timothy Bottoms on set of Johnny Got His Gun (1971)

[whatcha-reading-today]

Johnny Got His gun | Dalton Trumbo

The summary of this book is so simple: Joe, an infantryman in the US army during WWI is hit by a mortar shell, losing his arms, legs, and much of his face. He cannot communicate, hear, see, or smell, but finds that his mental faculties are all present and accounted for. When I read that I frankly thought this must be a short story because well, what more could you have to say? Apparently it was a lot. And oh my gosh did it work well.

We see Joe's life now and before spliced through his experience of realizing he first has a lost an arm, then both arms, and then both legs. The descriptions of Joe trying to sense where and what is happening to him, and around him is startingly written and well-paced this reads more like an intense thriller than anything else.

There are chapters that are repetitious words or phrases from Joe (like: Mama they took my arm my arm momma my arm). But they work so well to provide the reader with ample understanding of what Joe is feeling, how he's interacting with the world, and his mental status.

I absolutely loved the section where Joe was starting to map out time; it was described so viscerally and with such hope that you expect some kind of resolution or happy ending.

SPOILER FOR THE ENDING The ending, my God the ending. Joe develops a way to communicate by banging his head in morse code. It takes some amount of time...perhaps months? for a nurse to understand that the tapping (as he describes it) has a purpose and to find someone else who can attempt to communicate back. Joe's first full communicative chapter with some other human (aside from his internal monologue to the reader) is so painful and visceral. But so poignant. Trumbo's writing is so poetic and agonizing. Of course Joe is lonely! Of course Joe wants to die! But mostly right now he wants to not be alone and go outside to feel the sun. When this is denied he asks to be made an example of this is what war does to us! This is also denied. What's the point? Is this all nihilism and hopelessness? Perhaps, but it's war isn't that largely fruitless?

Two associated notes: My copy opened with a note from a mother (Cindy Sheehan) who's son Casey was killed in Afghanistan. I found her introduction extremely moving as she sympathizes and questions what Joe's mother must think. Was she told Joe is MIA? Or that he's dead? Does she--like Cindy; hope that even though she's been told her son is dead, that he might come home? That they made a mistake? This is agonizing in just a few short pages in the 2004 paperback edition.

Second, I had no idea that Metallica's 'One' was based on this book and even uses clips of the movie. Fun fact, in order to not pay royals on the film Metallica just bought the Johnny film to use at concerts. I don't know if I love that or not, but if more people see it, I'm about it.

I would consider this novel a must read anti-war piece, where the futility and nihilism are on display in spades. Trumbo's writing is so strong and vibrant that it is shockingly easy to read and parse the human at the midst of this story.

Format: Physical copy

Read in: September 2024

Favorite 2024 maybe all time

[mchpstudio]

[ image description is available in the alternative text and the first comment ]

Edit: @mchpstudio

CONTENT WARNING AND SPOILER ALERT FOR THE FOLLOWING CAPTION

For those who have seen the film and might be thinking: «How could you make an edit based on the film which, contrary to the song you chose, doesn't even have love as its main topic», – I know and understand what the film is about and my intention isn't to show some kind of love or to change the main focus of the film. I chose that song and pictures because I wanted to show how much the nurse and the work she does mean for Joe. Being deprived of everything else in life, thanks to her he can at least experience some kind of happiness as he's able to communicate, feel her gentle touching, Joe's not all alone anymore even though no one besides this nurse really cares about him. With my edits I intended to show that no matter how hopeless Joe's situation is, he's got that beam of light in the darkness – a person who's genuine and kind to him, who helps and understands him despite everything.

Content warning picture: @mchpstudio

Photography: from the film «Johnny Got His Gun» by Dalton Trumbo (he/him)

Lyrics: Be Somebody by Thousand Foot Krutch band

People in the pictures: a nurse (she/her), Joe (he/him)

» Don't repost my content

» Other pages: link in bio

» All my works: #mchpstudio

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for March 18th. It's an Animorph. The Animorphs book series is infamous for its creepy covers. I know the series was pretty popular, but I've always felt those covers were a real turn-off which kept me from even trying out the series. I was a Goosebumps guy, first and foremost.

Of course nostalgic fans now say Animorphs was a better series. More mature and better written, with a more interesting plot which evolved from book to book. And with more didatic elements.

And if the covers were creepy, that's cause the writing inside them was creepy too. The description of the morphing scenes were pretty gross, and there was a lot of heavy stuff going on. For instance, this passage from book 5:

"I saw Rachel, too. She had a dark look in her eyes. Like she hadn’t slept. Like something was really wrong.

Even Cassie seemed grim. It had gotten to all of us. It’s not so easy to just forget terror. It’s not easy to just ignore the memory of your leg being ripped off.

Of being dismembered. Torn apart.

One of these days, I thought, one of us is going to go crazy. Totally, lock-me-up-in-a-rubber-room nutso. It was too much. This wasn’t how life was supposed to be.

One of us would snap. One of us would lose it. It could happen, even to strong people.

I knew. It had happened to my father. I used to think nothing could ever destroy him. But my mom’s death had."

Jesus Christ, did I pick up a copy of Johnny Got His Gun instead of a kid's book by accident?

Still, I never read them when I was a kid, and, as an adult, they don't hold a lot of interest. It's kind of unpleasant to revisit stuff you loved as a child once you're older, because it can feel rather empty and small. And checking out the stuff you weren't interested in when growing up is even worse. There's no bittersweet memories there, just nonsense aimed at an audience you're no longer a part of.

Which is kind of why nostalgia is kind of a dumb thing. Sure, I could say the books and movies of my childhood were the best ones in the world, but only the ones I actually happened to check out. If I missed a movie in theaters when I was a kid and only see it twenty years later, I might not be too impressed. No good memories of it, after all.

That's not to say there isn't quality work being done, even in the baloney-factory that is kids' entertainment. It's just that nostalgia goggles can make even stuff that's unmemorable feel a lot more interesting, and not having nostalgic feelings for something can make it seem bland and hollow, just because you're no longer the target audience.

And it's a pity because, the Animorphs books aren't bad by themselves. They're just not interesting when the person reading them is an adult who knew nothing about the series other than "that thing with the creepy covers I saw in libraries when I was a kid".

Which just goes to show one should never judge a book by its cover. Or, to put it another way, publishers need to be careful when choosing covers for their books. Can you imagine a What If world where the Animorphs covers were painted by Tim Jacobus? Would look amazing.

Speaking of the covers themselves, today's Buddy was traced from this book's:

It features Marco, the most Buddy-like of the Animorphs. I originally made a mistake in the background that made it looks like this:

I think it looks better, even if it was an accident, but it breaks my rule of only using three colors, so I had to make a quick fix. Oops.

[rainonmyhands]

I would rather work in a coal mine deep under the earth and never see sunlight and eat crusts and water and work twenty hours a day. I would rather do that than be dead. I would trade democracy for life. I would trade independence and honor and freedom and decency for life. I will give you all these things and you give me the power to walk and see and hear and breathe the air and taste my food. You take the words. Give me back my life. I’m not asking for a happy life now. I’m not asking for a decent life or an honorable life or a free life. I’m beyond that. I’m dead so I’m simply asking for life. To live. To feel. To be something that moves over the ground and isn’t dead. I know what death is and all you people who talk about dying for words don’t even know what life is

[avatarchai]

"Joe dear darling Joe hold me closer. Drop your bag and put both of your arms around me and hold me tightly. Put both of your arms around me. Both of them." You in both of my arms Kareen goodbye. Both of my arms. Kareen in my arms. Both of them. Arms arms arms arms. I'm fainting in and out all the time Kareen and I'm not catching on quick. You are in my arms Kareen. You in both of my arms. Both of my arms. Both of them. Both. I haven't got any arms Kareen. My arms are gone. Both of my arms are gone Kareen both of them. They're gone. Kareen Kareen Kareen. They've cut my arms off both of my arms. Oh Jesus mother god Kareen they've cut off both of them. Oh Jesus mother god Kareen Kareen Kareen my arms.

[2022] Illustrating Johhny Got His Gun