As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I am currently taking a class called American Fiction at War: 1960 - Present. Throughout the semester, we've so far read four complete novels, with two more on the horizon before the semester lets out. While the books have all been different in a number of ways, covering various wars from various perspectives, the guiding theme throughout the literature we have read has, obviously, been that at their core, they are "war novels." What exactly a war novel is and what defines the genre is an interesting conversation in and of itself, but regardless, each novel so far has provided a highly personal, deeply introspective, and powerful first-person perspective on the war each author lived through. From Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 to Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, authors pour their hearts out into these novels, revealing intimate details about their lives and wrestling with issues that have defined their personalities. While I understand that, in many cases, authors write war novels as a kind of public/social good (as in, providing an important perspective on a conflict that should not be overlooked or forgotten), I think a topic that warrants exploration is the actual act of writing and publishing a novel as unavoidably personal as a first-person war novel.
The process of writing a novel can take years, and requires an enormous amount of mental effort to accomplish. Publishing that novel is perhaps equally as difficult- editing the novel, getting it noticed by a publisher, and actually securing print/distribution is incredibly taxing, as well as potentially financially disastrous. What I think is interesting is the fact that authors of war novels are willing to put in an enormous amount of physical and emotional effort into writing these novels without knowing for sure whether they will be published and noticed by the public. It can't be easy to confront these issues, so what is the motivation? Is it just the potential for financial gain, or is it therapeutic in a way to actually write everything down? What happens if the novels aren't picked up- do the authors then feel as though their life stories aren't worth hearing? It seems like the potential for failure might make the war these authors live through that much more damaging if the novel isn't successful...
Since I have not taken this course, or anything similar for that matter, it is really interesting to hear about the books you have read. I have never gotten the chance to read "Slaughterhouse 5" (yet) but I have heard really good things about the book and it is definitely on my list of books that I want to read (although it is a very long list). I agree with you that these authors probably wrote war novels as a kind of public and social good. Its really interesting to think about how each of these works affected the people and our country, during the time they were written and published. Some war works most certainly have inspired movements and led to dramatic change in our country and world. I am in another english class, and although it is different and we are not studying war novels, it reminded me of it because we study great American writers and their works. One thing that is stressed immensely in the class is how the time period and what was occurring then either inspired and influenced the novel, or how the novel influenced what was occurring during that time period- just something to think about.
ReplyDelete