all things now decay

Edward Thomas, His Pocket Watch and His Death

2010-07-21T05:22:00.000-07:00

In the afterword to his fine book, Touch and Intimacy in First world War Literature, Santanu Das relates the sad details of the connection between the poet Edward Thomas, his pocket watch and his death:

The hands of this watch are fixed at 7:36 am, a timeless testimony to Thomas’s death by an explosion that left no visible marks on his body: a mute companion to the last, the clock had faithfully recorded the moment when its master’s heart stopped beating.

Das then asks the question, why do objects like Thomas's pocket watch, preserved at the Imperial War Museum in its final state, marking the death of its owner, 'move and disturb us so much'?

He answers thus: '[t]hese objects not only congeal time but also conceal processes of touch’ and further, they

evoke the body of the user, traces of hands, quiescent but palpable. […] [T]hese objects have a precious, living quality for they are the archives of touch and intimacy – they have once held, protected or brushed against the bodies of their possessors in their youths or in the trenches and the hospitals, and through this intimate caress, these mute, insensate objects seem to have been touched to life, bequeathed with the very pulse of their owners’ being.

This final comment – the metaphorical animation of an ‘insensate object’ - is, perhaps, a step too far, nice though it is. However, Das does make an intuitive and thought-provoking statement on our love and fascination with historical artefacts – not just from the First World War, but in general – and how these objects can, somehow, bring us into closer contact with the subjects of history, in this case a soldier and poet who lost his voice through his untimely death in the trenches.

It is a simple and obvious point, but one that only occurs after you have read it. There in lies its power.

Parading on the BBC

2010-06-23T10:29:00.000-07:00

Parade's End Coming to the BBC

An article from The Guardian and a blurb in The Times - both from earlier this year - reveal that the screenwriter and playwright Tom Stoppard (pictured) is currently working on an adaptation of Ford Madox Ford's Parade's End to be shown on the BBC.

The Times states that Ford's quadrilogy will be split over five parts, The Guardian says it will be six. I guess which one you believe might be down to your own political swaying. Either way, much content will have to be cut out to fit in with the TV format.

For example, the majority of Parade's End is focalized through the eyes and minds of the characters who populate Ford's complex narrative and this is difficult to recreate on screen. One of the consequences of Ford's approach is a fractured timeline where the narrative constantly shifts back and forth in time as the characters' contemplate the past while situated in the present events of the story.

What we may well see is a more straightforward approach - the end result becoming a social and historical period drama with events unfolding either in chronological order or with information filled in via flashbacks.

Whatever the outcome, I look forward to viewing the end results but can't help thinking that much of the complex psychological content of the novels will be lost in translation. That said, it is good to see the First World War being given some screen time instead of being overlooked in favour of its younger (and somewhat Americanized) brother.

Hemingway on Ford Madox Ford

2010-06-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Ford Madox Ford in First World War uniform. Picture obtained here.

In my previous post, I featured some comments made by Ford Madox Ford about Ernest Hemingway. In the interest of equality, I thought it prudent to display some of Hemingway's thoughts on Ford.

The passage in question, entitled 'Ford Madox Ford and the Devil's Disciple', appears in Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, written during the last years of his life. However the events portrayed - a chance meeting between both writers in a Paris cafe - took place in the 1920's.

As Ford takes a seat at the table and orders a drink, Hemingway writes:

I had always avoided looking at Ford when I could and I always held my breath when I was near him in a closed room, but this was the open air and the fallen leaves blew along the sidewalks from my side of the table past his, so I took a good look at him, repented, and looked across the boulevard. The light was changed again and I had missed the change. I took a drink to see if his coming had fouled it, but it still tasted good.

And Hemingway continues:

The afternoon had been spoiled by seeing Ford [...]. I was trying to remember what Ezra Pound had told me about Ford, that I must never be rude to him, that I must remember that he only lied when he was very tired, that he was really a good writer and that he had been through very bad domestic troubles. I tried hard to think of these things but the heavy, wheezing, ignoble presence of Ford himself, only touching-distance away, made it difficult. But I tried.

Talk about being brutally honest. In my opinion, both in terms of what Hemingway says about Ford's character and what it reveals about his own personality, this autobiographical sketch, filtered through the distance of passing time (and after Ford's death), is cathartic for Hemingway in its open, confessional style.

Ford on Ernest Hemingway

2010-01-29T08:40:00.000-08:00

Ernest Hemingway: passport photo from 1923

I came across an extract taken from the New York Evening Post Literary Review from 3rd January 1925 that I found interesting. It appears in the excellent collection, edited by Max Saunders, of War Prose by Ford Madox Ford (Manchester: Carcanet, 1999, pp 219-221).

It contains some of Ford's thoughts on Hemingway and his sparse writing style:

Mr Hemingway [...] writes like an angel; like an archangel: but his talk - his matter - is that of a bayonet instructor.

Ford also provides an example of Hemingway's prose that is worth re-producing (I thought it might be from Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises however, it wasn't published until 1926/7. Perhaps it is from one of his short stories - if anyone knows where it's from I'd be pleased to know):

The first matador got the horn through his sword hand and the crowd hooted him out. The second matador slipped and the bull caught him through the belly and he hung onto the horn with one hand and held the other tight against the place and the bull rammed him wham against the wall and the horn came out and he lay in the sand and then got up like crazy drunk and tried to slug the men carrying him away and yelled for his sword but he fainted. The kid came out and had to kill five bulls because you can't have more than three matadors, and the last bull he was so tired he could not get the sword in. He could hardly lift his arm. He tried five times and the crowd was quiet because it was a good bull and it looked like him or the bull and then he finally made it. He sat down in the sand and puked and they held a cape over him while the crowd hollered and threw things down into the bull-ring....

First things first: how long is that second sentence without containing any punctuation! And where are the adjectives! In relation to the above, Ford writes:

That is very marvelous writing. If the American Father and Mother will just for a moment withhold their protests against the blood on the sand, they will realise that they now possess an incomparable picture and that that picture has been presented with almost fewer words than is believable.

It's not difficult to reach the conclusion that, in 1925, Ford was a great admirer of Hemingway's approach to writing. I wonder if the feeling was reciprocal....

The Hurt Locker

2010-01-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

The Hurt Locker (2008) is an incredibly tense film about the current war in Iraq that is filled with intense moments of action.

By turning her attention to one facet of the war - following the (mis)fortunes of a specialist bomb disposal unit in the U.S. Army - director Kathryn Bigelow is able to keep the plot focused but, at the same time, is able to explore some of the larger themes associated with modern warfare. Although on the periphery, these themes are what lingered in my mind after the film had ended.

Of particular interest were: how defective military hardware can be responsible for the loss of lives; the difficulty of dealing with feelings of guilt and culpability when a comrade is killed in action; and the alienation a soldier feels when attempting to re-integrate into life at home after a tour of duty has ended.

The first point is pertinent at this time due to the media attention in this country (Britain) upon the substandard equipment being supplied to our troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. It is alarming to see that this issue affects the American military as well.

At the same time, and of interest on an academic level, is the parallels that can be drawn between the events portrayed in Bigelow's film and those captured by writers who fought in the Great War.

For example, in Ford Madox Ford's tetralogy, Parade's End, Christopher Tietjens blames himself for the death of one of the soldiers under his command, O Nine Morgan. If Tietjens had granted the man home leave then death may have been avoided. Later, Tietjens experiences hallucinations about the dead soldier's eyes.

And in Siegfried Sassoon's poem, 'Repression of War Experience', we are told that the soldier who is the subject of the poem is 'quiet and peaceful, summering safe at home; / You'd never think there was a bloody war on!' The tone of these lines makes it clear that even on leave, the war weighs heavily on the combatant's mind.

Siegfried Sassoon Collection Now Online

2009-11-09T10:12:00.000-08:00

I received the following email through my subscription to the World War One literature google group and it revealed some excellent news:

The First World War Poetry Archive is pleased to announce that the Siegfried Sassoon collection is now live at:

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/collections/sassoon

This draws from collections at Oxford, Cambridge, New York Public Library, and the Harry Ransom Center. The primary focus is on manuscript variants of Sassoon's 'war poetry' contained in the collections 'The Old Huntsman', 'Counter-Attack', and 'Picture Show'.You are free to use the images for educational purposes (see http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/permitteduse.html).

In effect this represents the last collection that will be going live,as part of the project. The funding for this two-year initiative came from the Joint Information Systems Committee as part of their Digitisation Programme.

Please feel free to pass this on,

The First World War Poetry Archive Team

University of Oxford

What this means is that an incredible resource just got even better. I am sure that access to this material will benefit many researchers and anyone with a keen interest in literature, the First World War, or Siegfried Sassoon himself.

It may even save some people the time and money needed for a costly research trip!

All Quiet on the Western Front on BBC Radio 4

2009-11-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

The Saturday play on BBC Radio 4 this week (7th November) is an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front.

Lasting 90 minutes, it will be broadcast at 2.30pm and will then be available to download or stream from the BBC iplayer for 7 days.

Some Banker's do....Some do not

2009-08-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

One of the great rewards, for me, of studying literature is the discovery of quotations from a text that resonate with, and have relevance to, modern readers.

Take, for example, the following exert from Some Do Not, the first book in Ford Madox Ford's tetralogy, Parade's End.

The central protagonist, Christopher Tietjens, is having a conversation with the head of his bank, Lord Port Sactho, about the mis-management of the former's account. An employee of the bank (Port Scatho's nephew) has been meddling with Christopher's account in an attempt to 'ruin' Christopher's reputation and steal his wife, Sylvia, away from him:

"But good God," the banker said. "That means your ruin."
"It certainly means my ruin," Tietjens said. "It was meant to."
"But," the banker said - a look of relief came into his face which had begun to assume the aspect of a broken man's - "you must have other accounts with the bank . . . a speculative one, perhaps, on which you are heavily down. . . . I don't myself attend to client's accounts, except the very huge ones, which affect the bank's policy."
"You ought to," Tietjens said. "It's the very little ones you ought to attend to, as a gentleman making his fortune out of them. [. . .]"

It would appear then, from the above, that not a lot has changed in banking policy and attitudes over the last 90 or so years.

Radiohead Tribute to Harry Patch

2009-08-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

I received the following mailing list email yesterday from the lead singer of Radiohead, Thom Yorke:

Harry Patch (In Memory Of)

'i am the only one that got through
the others died where ever they fell
it was an ambush
they came up from all sides
give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves
i've seen devils coming up from the ground
i've seen hell upon this earth
the next will be chemical but they will never learn'

Recently the last remaining UK veteran of the 1st world war Harry Patch died at the age of 111.
I had heard a very emotional interview with him a few years ago on the Today program on Radio4.
The way he talked about war had a profound effect on me.
It became the inspiration for a song that we happened to record a few weeks before his death.
It was done live in an abbey. The strings were arranged by Jonny.
I very much hope the song does justice to his memory as the last survivor.

It would be very easy for our generation to forget the true horror of war, without the likes of Harry to remind us.
I hope we do not forget.

As Harry himself said
"Irrespective of the uniforms we wore, we were all victims".

Recently the Today program played the song for the first time and now it is available to download from our website.

Please go to http://download.waste.uk.com to download the song

The proceeds of this song will go to the British Legion.

To peace and understanding.

Thom

I am listening to the song as I write this post and would recommend any and all to download it. Even if you don't like the song, or Radiohead, it's only a pound and proceeds do go to a worthy cause.

Birdsong

2009-07-22T11:37:00.001-07:00

I noticed on imdb.com that Sebastian Faulk's novel, Birdsong, is currently under production and due for release next year (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1127876/).

It looks like a British production, with Michael Fassbender playing Stephen Wraysford and Paddy Considine taking on the role of Jack Firebrace.

Birdsong was a book I enjoyed, and one that I made quick work of when reading it several years ago. At the time, I did think the book would be an excellent candidate to make the transition from page to screen and am actually a little surprised it has taken quite so long.

I would have two main concerns with this particular project. First of all, like with any literary adaptation, there is the problem of what stays and what goes. Although War films often approach, and even encroach, the 3 hour mark, it would be a tall order to cram an entire novel into this time frame (my edition, by Vintage, is 503 pages). Therefore editing is inevitable and, if handled correctly, could lead to a thoroughly entertaining film. If dealt with poorly then the result is obvious.

Secondly, I would have a concern over the film's budget. Any period piece requires substantial funds to ensure accurate costumes, props, and set design. But a film dealing with the First World War, and including several action sequences, will require a large amount of money towards special effects in order that the film achieves historical accuracy, captures the scale of the conflict, and the destructive force of the combat. Failure in this area would leave the film open to critical attack and commercial failure.

That said, I eagerly await the finished article as it seems to me there has been a shortage of films dealing with WW1 in recent years (it is highly probable there have been some and I am not aware of them). The only one worthy of note, and that comes to mind, is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement (2005). However, with the the centenary of the Great War approaching, I am almost certain that Birdsong will be the first in a fairly long line of films, TV shows, radio productions, newspaper features, etc. to deal with this hugely important and significant subject.

The First World War Conference

2009-07-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

I attended the First World War: Music, Literature and Memory conference at King's College, Cambridge last weekend (11/12th July) and found the experience most rewarding.

Although my inferiority complex, propensity for timidity, and strong Scottish accent prevented me from speaking to as many people as I would have liked to, the event was definitely beneficial. As someone who will need to present a paper, at some point in the not-too-distant future, it was of great value to be in the position purely of observer.

It was re-assuring to see how supportive, receptive, and attentive fellow delegates were towards those giving papers. Praise was awarded when due, and perceptive questions were asked, and answered, creating spots of lively debate. There was a definite sense of support, or camaraderie, extended to all who attended, and there was, thankfully, an absence of aloofness.

In terms of content, the papers delivered were, on the whole, enlightening, engaging, and varied in their subject matter. I enjoyed all the papers I was able to see (some sessions had papers running concurrently), where topics included: Wagner's music in Mrs Dalloway; the 'musical microcosm' of British prisoners of war at Ruhleben Camp; and an insight into the First World War literature of Austria.

In conclusion, the conference provided me with fresh ideas and perspectives both in terms of authors and research avenues (more on this later). As well as being informative, the conference provided me with valuable insight into how these sort of things operate. In this respect it was most rewarding because I discovered that presenting a paper, in front of a knowledgable audience, will not be as terrifying an experience as I had pictured in my mind...

Yes, it will only be moderately horrific.

Jacob's Room

2009-06-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

I finished reading Virginia Woolf's experimental novel, Jacob's Room (1922), the other day and was struck by a couple of things: the connections to Mrs Dalloway (1925), and a line that features twice towards the books conclusion.

Woolf herself alluded to the book as an experiment and I think that, in many ways, it lays the foundations of narrative style found in the more successful and better known novel Mrs Dalloway. Particularly prominent is the similarity both books share in their descriptions of London, with its busy streets full of people, automobiles, and omnibuses, creating a somewhat buzzing and chaotic mood.

But of more significance is the evidence of her emerging narrative style - the 'stream of consciousness technique - that served her so well in the latter novel. In Jacob's Room the narrative flows and weaves its way through some 200 hundred characters but, unlike Mrs Dalloway, the narrator is almost always external to the characters, thus allowing for observations and conclusions about characters actions to be made, but without the internal approach that allows each character's consciousness to speak directly. What I'm alluding to, I think, is that Jacob's Room has a more intrusive and unreliable narrator than Mrs Dalloway; it doesn't flow quite as naturally between the characters' minds, thoughts, and actions.

Anyway, moving on, I was struck by the following line which appears towards the end of the novel, as Jacob's mother, Betty Flanders, tries to decide if the noise she can hear is the guns firing on the Western Front: 'she heard the dull sound, as if nocturnal women were beating great carpets.' What, if anything, is Woolf trying to convey through these words? Is Betty trying to forget about the War, and the danger her sons are in, by putting the sound down to something from everyday life? Is Woolf conveying the sounds of War through the only means available to her and all women who have not witnessed the War first hand, i.e. with feminist language? Or, is it simply a simile and I am reading too much into it!

Who knows?

Nostalgia

2009-06-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

Recently, I submitted a piece of work in which I agreed with the generally perceived opinion that Siegfried Sassoon's autobiographical prose is imbued with a 'nostalgic' and 'melancholic' mourning for a past long lost. Sassoon laments the loss of a pre-War England that can never exist again after the devastation of the First World War.

The point seems an appropriate one to make. Britain and her inhabitants were irrevocably changed by War. Yet, this sense of loss - of nostalgia for a more innocent past - is not unique to those affected by War and makes me wonder whether it is a point worth making at all.

Surely everyone, at some point, experiences a moment of contemplation - a remembrance of things past - where they wish to be back in a time or place they inhabited at an earlier point in their life. I felt it a few days ago.

At The Thermals concert, sipping a beer at the rear of the crowd, I observed three youths (no doubt well intoxicated) dancing and jumping in time with the music, with arms around each other at the front. From my sedate position I watched their energetic appreciation of the music with a little envy. In that moment I was transposed; I remembered what it felt like when I attended concerts in years gone by, and there was sadness.

It passed quickly as these nostalgic thoughts often do (who in their right mind would seriously want a permanent return: the sweat, the hangover, the social awkwardness). It was a lament for a time gone. A time when attending concerts with friends produced an energetic release of pent up frustration (teenage angst, I suppose).

It is not a mourning for the past on a level anywhere near that of those who went through the Great War, but a mourning nonetheless. After all that, it seems a bit too obvious to draw a conclusion that the purpose of Sassoon's autobiographical writing is to mourn for a world now gone. Mental note: more insightful answers are required....

It must be added, I still very much enjoy going to concerts, and The Thermals were excellent....

The First Post

2009-06-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

An introduction is required. My name is Stephen and I am currently reading for a Phd in English. The focus of this study is literature from the First World War and I'm particularly interested in the psychological trauma side of things. Yes, it's very cheery stuff.

Anyway, if I find out anything interesting along the way i'll be sure to post it here. And if I do, any comments are much appreciated (in advance).

So, let's begin...