Ray Bradbury and D-Day

This is not what I was planning to post today, but there are a couple of things that ended up on my mind. One is that Ray Bradbury died.

Actually he died yesterday, but I found out today. I am not a huge Bradbury reader, though I think everything of his that I have read has had an impact on me, and that he has things that I plan to read and simply haven’t gotten to yet. However, one thing that has been clear to me, from interviews, is how much he loved writing, and that has struck a chord with me. There are actually a lot of things we disagree about. I love the internet, and technology, even if a lot of people use them badly. I loved college. However, we are in synch on that love of writing, and so I have old newspaper clippings from years ago because of things he has said that just resonated. So I am just going to throw out a few quotes and wish him well:

“Libraries raised me. I don’t believe in colleges and universities. I believe in libraries because most students don’t have any money. When I graduated from high school, it was during the Depression and we had no money. I couldn’t go to college, so I went to the library three days a week for 10 years.”

“The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance - the idea that anything is possible.”

[on writing 'Fahrenheit 451'] - "I wasn't trying to predict the future. I was trying to prevent it."

“I am one of those fortunate people who were born to be joyful writers discovered the fact early on.”

“Sense of humor is everything. You can do anything in this world if you have a sense of humor.

Many directors, producers, people haven't learned that -- that if you just salt people down a little and put a bit of butter on them and make them happy, then we can all work together.”

It’s a fairly meager collection from someone who has said so much and so well, but there is food for thought in there. The one that has struck me the most is the second. I am open to experience, lots of it, but I have sort of stopped believing in some things being possible. Frankly, doing so had seemed necessary, but it looks like I might be wrong again. I will get more into that later.

All of that being said, I suspect the best way to remember Bradbury, ever, is to read a book. The libraries are full of them.

Speaking of remembrance, the other thing I had not thought about at all is that today is June 6th, anniversary of the Normandy landings. Of course we just passed Memorial Day, when people fight between honoring veterans, remembering that war is bad, or trying to do both, and I had been thinking about it then. That’s a big topic, and seriously, I’m still trying to hold off on big rants, but I have some random thoughts that I will put out there.

First of all, and maybe this is just me taking any opportunity to talk about My Chemical Romance, but I thought one good thing to do would be to re-watch their video, the Ghost of You, which has them as soldiers playing at a dance, and then storming the beach.

I think it’s pretty well done, but one thing that I always realize when I am reading about World War II is how much more there is to know, so I am no expert, at all, and I haven’t even seen Saving Private Ryan for what would be the obvious comparison. However, I will say the video is shorter and less intense, based on my understanding, so I think that makes it more accessible in some ways.

So the part that really kills is that Mikey dies, and it’s not enough that he dies. First you need to see this shot of them all leaving the dance, and he turns and looks back and gives this shy smile, so endearing, and then he is on the beach breathing hard, getting ready to rush out from behind shelter, and then he is back on the stage, giving another shy smile (and from that time period, actually, maybe any time he was smiling was shy— he seemed to get a lot more confident later—but it totally works for breaking your heart here), and then he rushes out, you see his brother yelling for him knowing he is way too exposed, Mikey goes down, Gerard keeps screaming Mikey’s name and his buddies are holding him back (I assume it is Frank and Bob, but you can’t really see their faces in this part), medic Ray tries to patch Mikey up, but can’t, Mikey’s eyes go dead, Gerard stops screaming with a look of horror as his eyes get really big (like they are turning black), and the music cuts out and all you have is muted gunfire.

The other part that gets a lot of people is another kid that they show, not in the band, hiding behind a barricade, and he looks so young and scared. Mikey is of course the youngest in the band, and he was 25 when the video came out, but he looks younger.

I bring that up, because one of the primary criticisms that I have heard of Saving Private Ryan is that the people are all too old. The Tom Hanks (42 at the time) role would really be Matt Damon (28), and the others would be 18-21. I’m sure the casting was done because you want experienced actors who bring certain traits, and I get that, but there’s something valuable in remembering how young and raw the boys who get sent out are, and maybe the actual D-Day scene in the movie reflects that.

I don’t know if the average ages have changed, but I know that now they are targeting the poor, and that has largely translated to targeting the non-white, and there are several things about it that make me uncomfortable. It’s not just the inherent racism, or the unequal distribution of the nation’s responsibilities (the middle class will give the money, and the poor will give their lives, and the really rich will contribute the legal and financial expertise so we can have a super productive economy), but I also hate that these commercials that are targeted towards poor kids and their families and they are lies. It will help you pay for college! Well college is getting more expensive, and it may not be all covered, and there are certainly no jobs for you, even with a college education, and that’s assuming you come back alive.

There is another aspect to it also, which is going to be complicated to explain. It comes from Susan Brownmiller’s work, Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape. Obviously, the book is about rape, but one of the parts that surprised me the most was on rape in wars, which I can only explain badly, but if you want it explained well, read the book. It is more common in demoralizing wars. It didn’t happen much in World War II, where there was a sense of heroism and fighting evil, which made perfect sense. There were evil things happening on the Communist side in Vietnam, but it was a different situation, with different feelings and morale, and rape happened a lot.

Obviously, not every soldier gets corrupted, even in the worst situations, and there is absolutely an individual responsibility. At the same time, we need to think about what we ask soldiers to do. The suicide rate is very disturbing. Not all of that is necessarily an emotional consequence, as we start to learn more about some of the long-term effects of head trauma, but why were we giving them such inadequate equipment? Why were we giving huge no-bid contracts to companies that didn’t fulfill their responsibilities? Why did we give private security firms immunity when the low-paid troops still had to take the danger and the responsibility?

I know there’s a lot of Cheney in those questions, and I don’t blame Obama for getting us into Iraq or Afghanistan, and I give him credit for trying to get us out. We still need to take better care of those who have already served. That will require taxation. That’s fine. It is a moral imperative. And it’s time to get away from the idea that private contractors save money. Even companies that hire them all the time don’t do it to save short-term money—they do it to avoid a long-term investment. What we did was a lie about saving money for the purpose of damaging government and enriching cronies, and you were unpatriotic if you questioned any of that. That would be sickening even if it didn’t get people killed.