Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Men and War
As a 17 year old young man in Westford, Massachusetts my favorite English class was "Men and War" taught by a wise, grizzly old English teacher named Jim McNiff who was a Vietnam veteren. Having a teacher who taught in 'Nam gave him a certain aura to an impressionable bunch of teenagers. With time, I've come to appreciate the devastating effect that war has on men. Some of that understanding has come through men who fought in Vietnam along with Jim McNiff. "Winter Solder" a sobering documentary about Vietnam veterens organizing against the war, illustrates the horrifying tragedies that many of them experienced and perpetrated firsthand. In poetry, we can find the deeper scars that men encounter on the battlefield. In "After Our War" we see the emotional scars that soldiers carry with them back home characterized as body parts. "Will the myriad world surrender new metaphor? After our war, how will love speak?" In "Anna Grasa," the vulnerable inner emotional life of veterens is revealed in a young man's love for the security and safety that his beloved grandmother represents. More recently, the Iraq War has become another crucible in which men are made and destroyed. "The Marlboro Marine" shows how the posterchild of the US military tragically became the posterboy for PTSD. Another soldier-poet (Brian Turner), in AB Negative (The Surgeon's Poem) flips gender roles on us as a tearful, caring surgeon breaks down over the death of a young American female soldier. Ultimately, in "Here, Bullet" Tuner takes us even deeper to consider how we may carry war's death wish inside us all. After thousands of years of men making war on this planet, Tuner may unfortunately be right, "here is where the world ends, every time."
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3 comments:
I agree with Turner's comment. All these poem amount to how life is ending. In Here Bullet, its as if the bullet has a mind of its own, with the person inviting it. If every soldier thought like this it would end many peoples worlds. The War's describe have many negative affects on the soldier with none to few positive ones.
You story of Jim McNiff made me think; how does masculinity affect the way boys listen to teachers? We have previously discussed men vs. women teachers and the environment created, but I am wondering if our generation would lean more towards listening to a less masculine or more masculine teacher? Also, do you think that the cycle of wars you mentioned can be broken by parenting techniques, learning to identify emotions, etc., or do you think that it is a natural phenomena that will never end?
At that stage in my life, I was definately ready to listen closely to a "manly" teacher about war. I think "Raising Cain" mentions that boys gravitate towards male teachers generally, as they find them a bit more sympathetic to boyish behavior. Would your generation lean more towards listening to a less masculine or more masculine teacher? That's a tough question... I think there is a lot of variability and other factors at work in terms of why students like certain teachers. Can the cycle of war and violence be broken by parenting techniques and emotional intelligence? I think the authors of "Raising Cain" would say "yes," Jackson Katz would say "yes," and that's why they do the work they do. I think "Here, Bullet" points the other direction, that violence and self-destruction are part of human nature. I think I teach "Gender Roles" because I believe this stuff can be changed and reversed with education, but sometime poems like this and the seemingly unending violence around the world gives me pause. I think part of life is doing things regardless of whether you think they are going to be successful in the long run.
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