my latest submission to: The Literary Blog Hop
Good question this week. A manly one. Good, yet not that easy to answer:
If you were going off to war (or some other similarly horrific situation)
and could only take one book with you, which book would you take and
why?
If you answer your favorite book...and your favorite book happens to be, I don't know, Mansfield Park for example, it's going to cause you many problem of a literary and motivational purpose. It might also cause a problem of death. If you go to war (or any horrific situation where your survival chances go below 100%), you might want to keep yourself inspired to go on. Fighting despair is almost as important as fighting the enemy. Ladies arguing and spitting snide remarks at each other might not help.
OK, I'm being a bit of a shithead here. Hem...let's say a grim cops & robbers bonanza like L.A Confidential might not help either. I like the book, but it's just beside the point. In war, you need to keep your mind sharp, yet yearn for a better tomorrow. So I came up with one title that would keep me fresh and distracted while the bodies are falling outside the door...The Count Of Monte Cristo.
There are many advantages to bring this novel to war. Textual and non-textual advantages. First of all, it's fucking long. The french edition I have here is 1 500 pages. Let's say the war lasts a few years, you have material to do five or six read through without getting bored. Also, it's very heavy. Let's say you're bringing a hardcover with you, it can serve as a weapon or even as a shield. If you think the bullet-stopping-bible was a bad cliché, I'm sure Edmond Dantés can ricochet the bullets and kill your ennemies. The man is that good.
Because yes, he story is uplifting like no other. Edmon Dantès became an inspirational figure throughout Alexandre Dumas' story because he persisted, even when the sitation seemed hopeless, he saw a better day coming and he kept working at it. The man would escape the If Island prison and have the most terrible revenge known to mankind or he would die trying. It's the kind of story you want circulating around the campfire at war. You want heroes, someone that your soldiers will look up to. Hell, I think it should be a mandatory reading in military academies, a reading about keeping high spirits at all time, even in the darkest hour of war.
Oh and you should all read it. War or not, but I suggest you keep it for when you have time. You want to give Alexandre Dumas long stretches of your days and sink into the skin of Edmond Dantès, who's schemes put Machiavelli to shame.
OK, I'm being a bit of a shithead here. Hem...let's say a grim cops & robbers bonanza like L.A Confidential might not help either. I like the book, but it's just beside the point. In war, you need to keep your mind sharp, yet yearn for a better tomorrow. So I came up with one title that would keep me fresh and distracted while the bodies are falling outside the door...The Count Of Monte Cristo.
There are many advantages to bring this novel to war. Textual and non-textual advantages. First of all, it's fucking long. The french edition I have here is 1 500 pages. Let's say the war lasts a few years, you have material to do five or six read through without getting bored. Also, it's very heavy. Let's say you're bringing a hardcover with you, it can serve as a weapon or even as a shield. If you think the bullet-stopping-bible was a bad cliché, I'm sure Edmond Dantés can ricochet the bullets and kill your ennemies. The man is that good.
Because yes, he story is uplifting like no other. Edmon Dantès became an inspirational figure throughout Alexandre Dumas' story because he persisted, even when the sitation seemed hopeless, he saw a better day coming and he kept working at it. The man would escape the If Island prison and have the most terrible revenge known to mankind or he would die trying. It's the kind of story you want circulating around the campfire at war. You want heroes, someone that your soldiers will look up to. Hell, I think it should be a mandatory reading in military academies, a reading about keeping high spirits at all time, even in the darkest hour of war.
Oh and you should all read it. War or not, but I suggest you keep it for when you have time. You want to give Alexandre Dumas long stretches of your days and sink into the skin of Edmond Dantès, who's schemes put Machiavelli to shame.
