Thursday, May 21, 2015

Fussell Fussing



I’ve previously written about Paul Fussell’s “The Great War and Modern Memory,” and have to conclude that while Fussell has introduced me to other writers I should probably read, I’m probably not going to read this book again.

He makes a good argument. Over and over and over again. And over again. I’m pretty sure he could have argued that writers’ experience in World War I and their familiarity with common motifs and metaphors in English literature were going to influence each other and probably mean some of the motifs and metaphors would be used in an ironic fashion in a lot fewer pages than he uses in this book. And that’s okay. He’s an academic, and it’s his job to go on and on and on and on and on about what he believes in. I’m a blogger; I get that.

But I can also be brief.

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