Not Anti-War, Just on the Other Side

PJ Media ^ | 7 Mar 2015 | Ed Driscoll

[Rummyfan]

The British Website Spiked gets a lot of things right, and is often a fun Website, but they really missed the mark here, describing Dalton Trumbo’s infamous 1939 novel Johnny Got His Gun as “A triumph of anti-war literature”:

Any Metallica fan worth his or her salt will have heard of, if not read, Johnny Got His Gun. This pacifist novel by Dalton Trumbo was the inspiration behind their 1988 single ‘One’, a legendary song that shows the band at their best (aside from the rancid lack of bass in the mixing, but that’s a different story).

Published in 1938, Johnny Got His Gun is an under-appreciated gem of experimental American literature. Told in a narrative mixture of first, second, and third-person, Trumbo’s First World War-set novel is a dream and a nightmare

. The protagonist, Joe, regains consciousness in a military hospital only to discover that he has lost his arms, legs, eyes, mouth, nose and hearing. The novel is a gripping but depressing journey, through which Joe remembers his rosy – and pointedly physical – life in America, and his attempts to communicate with the outside world and to come to terms with existing as a conscious piece of meat. In its own extreme way, it highlights the sensory struggles that all those wounded or disabled must endure. The huge efforts made for the tiniest of victories –  such as telling the time of day by feeling sunlight on his skin  –  are situated in an unremittingly bleak context: Joe is imprisoned within his wounded body forever….

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TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:

[Rummyfan]

Peter Seeger… other than Stalin the richest communist ever…

[dfwgator]

When you mention Isolationism, people think of Lindbergh. But the Communists were the real isolationists, referring to the war as the “Imperialist War”.

That all changed on June 21, 1941.

[ansel12]

I read the book during basic training at Ft.Polk and Little Vietnam (Tigerland), one day I had K-P but decided to take the day off instead, so I went to the post library and they had a copy, a really interesting book that I intend to read again.

[hanamizu]

That all changed on June 21, 1941.

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It’s amazing to me how effortlessly they pivoted from being anti war to demanding we enter the war to help their beloved Soviet Union.

But then, do you think the leftists who are apparently perplexed about what a woman is were just as confused say, twenty years ago? They do, say, and think as they are told.

[FlatulusMaximus]

I saw the movie made from Trumbo’s novel many years ago. It was so depressing that I left the theater less than halfway through. It is the only movie I can say that about, and I’ve sat through some real stinkers!

[Publius]

The movie was directed by Abraham Polonsky, another one who had been blacklisted.

The "Trumbo" movie with Bryan Cranston was quite good. It captured his personality.

[ebshumidors]

From the point of view of many in his administration, it was the war to save Joe Stalin.

[Texas Eagle]

Great point. They’re not anti-war, they are pro-America-losing-the-war.

[traderrob6]

High school, depressing piece of literature for sure.

[ansel12]

There was no way out, the author had covered all the bases, similar to “The Road”, every angle of chance or hope was eliminated.

[Rummyfan]

Alger Hiss and Harry Hopkins among them. And I’m sure Averill Harriman made money somehow.

[marktwain]

That all changed on June 21, 1941.

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It’s amazing to me how effortlessly they pivoted from being anti war to demanding we enter the war to help their beloved Soviet Union.
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Thank both of you for reminding us all that the “issue is never the issue, the issue is always the revolution.”

The Communists have no morals or ethics. They have a lust for power, or they want utopia and will only stop when one of their own tells them they have achieved a workers paradise by creating a mediocre, corrupt, kleptocracy.