Non Civil War Books and Movies

[Matt McKeon]

Little Dieter Needs to Fly
My new favorite filmmaker, Werner Herzog, did this documentary about a German American pilot, Dieter Dengler, a starving boy growing up in postwar Germany, to emigrated to the US in order to realize his dream to fly. He flew bombing missions to Vietnam, was shot down and became a prisoner. A documentary about war, surviving, its costs and lessons.

 

[Matt McKeon]

After months of short rations and torture, Dieter and a group of fellow prisoners killed their guards and escaped. Dieter and Duane Martin, another American flier stayed together trying to cross Laos to the Mekong River, then to Thailand. Duane is killed by a villager, and Dieter struggled on to the banks of the Mekong. He managed to signal an Air Force plane and is rescued, weight
ing 85 pounds, and riddled with parasites.

He was prone to anxiety attacks and could only sleep peacefully in the cockpit of an aircraft. When his enlistment was up, he became a commercial pilot, and survived four accidental crashes in his long career. In the documentary he is cheerful, even as Herzog returns with him to Laos, and recruits local villagers to impersonate his guards and recreate his long marches in the jungle. Describing his mistreatment, he might as well be talking about a stranger.

Herzog begins the film with a quote from the Book of Revelations, about a man from whom Death fled. Dieter, who hoards food in his California home and compulsively opens and closes doors to check if they are locked("an open door: you don't know how important that is") survived an ordeal few have ever experienced.

 

[jgoodguy]

could only sleep peacefully in the cockpit of an aircraft.

That is an interesting solution to his sleep problem.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
A surrealistic movie about the Japanese author, Yukio Mishima. He was one of Japan's most respected postwar authors, creating novels, short stories and plays. In his late thirties he turned to body building, learning and competing in kendo, and increasingly far right politics. His life ended in a bizarre incident in 1970 when, at the head of a small group, he attempted a coup to restore the emperor to power. The movie recreates the incidents of his life, as well as dramatizing his most famous novels.

 

[Jim Klag]

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
A surrealistic movie about the Japanese author, Yukio Mishima. He was one of Japan's most respected postwar authors, creating novels, short stories and plays. In his late thirties he turned to body building, learning and competing in kendo, and increasingly far right politics. His life ended in a bizarre incident in 1970 when, at the head of a small group, he attempted a coup to restore the emperor to power. The movie recreates the incidents of his life, as well as dramatizing his most famous novels.

Not familiar with the author or his books, but this movie sounds like it is worth a look.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Not familiar with the author or his books, but this movie sounds like it is worth a look.

I remember seeing a doc. about his life on The History Channel...when it was history instead of

and an big-ass swap meet.

 

[5fish]

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

I actually remember see this on the news back in the day. He and his thugs attack the base commander calling for the restoration of the Emperor. He is what we call the right winger kook...

There is some oddies about his time line... he was 20 when he finished high school... he missed the war...

On April 27, 1944, during the final years of World War II, Mishima had received a draft notice for the Imperial Japanese Army, and barely passed his conscription examination on May 16, 1944 with a less desirable rating of "second class" conscript. However, at the time of his medical check on the convocation day of February 10, 1945 he had a cold. The young army doctor misdiagnosed Mishima with tuberculosis, declared him unfit for service and sent him home.[47][27] Scholars have argued that Mishima's failure to receive a "first class" rating on his conscription exam (reserved only for the most physically fit recruits), in combination with the illness which led him to be erroneously declared unfit for duty, contributed to an inferiority complex about his frail constitution that later led to his obsession with physical fitness and bodybuilding.[

I did not realize how bad he botched his suicided...("Mishima Incident")

some of his quotes...

“...living is merely the chaos of existence...”

We live in an age in which there is no heroic death.”

“Nobody even imagines how well one can lie about the state of one’s own heart.”

“i still have no way to survive but to keep writing one line, one more line, one more line...” ... for the want a be writers...

“Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood.” ... for the want a be poets...

 

[O' Be Joyful]

I actually remember see this on the news back in the day. He and his thugs attack the base commander calling for the restoration of the Emperor. He is what we call the right winger kook...

There is some oddies about his time line... he was 20 when he finished high school... he missed the war...

On April 27, 1944, during the final years of World War II, Mishima had received a draft notice for the Imperial Japanese Army, and barely passed his conscription examination on May 16, 1944 with a less desirable rating of "second class" conscript. However, at the time of his medical check on the convocation day of February 10, 1945 he had a cold. The young army doctor misdiagnosed Mishima with tuberculosis, declared him unfit for service and sent him home.[47][27] Scholars have argued that Mishima's failure to receive a "first class" rating on his conscription exam (reserved only for the most physically fit recruits), in combination with the illness which led him to be erroneously declared unfit for duty, contributed to an inferiority complex about his frail constitution that later led to his obsession with physical fitness and bodybuilding.[

I did not realize how bad he botched his suicided...("Mishima Incident")

some of his quotes...

“...living is merely the chaos of existence...”

We live in an age in which there is no heroic death.”

“Nobody even imagines how well one can lie about the state of one’s own heart.”

“i still have no way to survive but to keep writing one line, one more line, one more line...” ... for the want a be writers...

“Perfect purity is possible if you turn your life into a line of poetry written with a splash of blood.” ... for the want a be poets...

There is a video of his "final act" but I can not find it.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Even Mishima’s formative years were a contradiction. Born in Tokyo, he was taken as a small child to be brought up by his aristocratic grandmother, Natsu, who kept him by her side constantly and forbade him to go outside to play with other boys. When he returned as a weak, sickly boy to his parents at the age of 12, his father, who was attracted to military discipline, tried to harden his masculine side by holding him up against a speeding train and ripping up his manuscripts, saying writing was ‘feminine.’ This tussle between the ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ side of his character continued throughout his life.

Yukio Mishima: The Turbulent Life Of A Conflicted Martyr

Read about Yukio Mishima one of Japans most controversial writers who engaged with the contradictions within Japans national identity and within his own...

theculturetrip.com

 

[Matt McKeon]

Not familiar with the author or his books, but this movie sounds like it is worth a look.

Its different.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Read Yukio Mishima"s novel "Life for Sale," a fast moving satire similar to Thomas Pynchon's "Crying of Lot 49" Worth looking at, although the knowledge he would commit suicide less than two years later permeates it. Currently reading Mishima's commentary on a classic work about the Japanese samurai. He is highly critical of current Japanese culture(1960s). Seems a little young to be so curmudgeonly.

 

[Nitti]

I picked up a book at a yard sale yesterday for 25 cents.i read it about 60 years ago and wanted to read it again.
HIROSHIMA by John Hersey.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Read Werner Herzog's "Conquest of the Useless." Its his reworked journal from filming "Fitzcarrado" in Peru in 1980-81. He recounts the primitive conditions he and his crew lived in, plagued by short supplies, insects, political and military turmoil on the border with Bolivia. A man consumed with a vision he must realize at almost any cost, a great ship moving up a mountain.

A few themes emerge: he really fucking hates Jason Robarts, slated to play the lead, but who hotfooted it home when he saw the Spartan set-up. That hatred was transferred to Klaus Kinski, the replacement for Robarts, But Kinski's crazed energy was what was needed.

Remarkably, Mick Jagger had a role. Herzog was quite pleased with him, he never complained and laughed off hardships. Unfortunately Jagger was forced to leave right after Robarts: all his scenes would have to be reshot now with Kinski, and Jagger was committed to touring with the Rolling Stones.

At one point, trying to get his ship up the mountain, surrounded by his technical crew, his cast, snakes, bugs, spiders,, and a thousand Indian laborers/extras, Herzog succumbs briefly to self pity. Never have I been in such utter solitude.

 

[rittmeister]

i'm reading carl schurz - ein deutscher kämpfer by dr otto dannehl (verlag: walter de gruyter & co, berlin und leipzig 1929)

i might have some scans later

 

[Matt McKeon]

Read Yukio Mishima's Runaway Horses about an abortive coup attempt in Japan in 1933. A small group of "pure" idealists seek to assassinate zaibatsu business leaders. Again the motif of ritual suicide, an act performed for its own sake, a small private squad, and hopeless attempt to "restore" the Emperor foreshadowing his own dramatic end. I didn't really understand this work, part of a cycle of four novels.

 

[rittmeister]

i'm reading carl schurz - ein deutscher kämpfer by dr otto dannehl (verlag: walter de gruyter & co, berlin und leipzig 1929)

i might have some scans later

 

[Matt McKeon]

A Gentle Madness
A book about people who love books, sometimes too much.

The section I'm in right now is discussing early American collectors. Thomas Jefferson was an avid book collector and used his funds and time in Europe to buy anything to do with America. He offered his six thousand plus collection to the nation as a library of Congress. A nasty political fight ensued between Jefferson's political supporters: the Democratic Republicans, and his Federalist opponents. Fortunately his offer was accepted, and his book, already cataloged by Jefferson's own system was purchased. In the voting it turns out the Harvard men and Yalies opposed the purchase, while the non college educated congressmen firmly approved, vindicating Jefferson's faith in the common man.

 

[Matt McKeon]

A Gentle Madness
A book about people who love books, sometimes too much.

The section I'm in right now is discussing early American collectors. Thomas Jefferson was an avid book collector and used his funds and time in Europe to buy anything to do with America. He offered his six thousand plus collection to the nation as a library of Congress. A nasty political fight ensued between Jefferson's political supporters: the Democratic Republicans, and his Federalist opponents. Fortunately his offer was accepted, and his book, already cataloged by Jefferson's own system was purchased. In the voting it turns out the Harvard men and Yalies opposed the purchase, while the non college educated congressmen firmly approved, vindicating Jefferson's faith in the common man.

Washington's much smaller collection was going to be broken up and sold, the thought of possessing a book with a Washington autograph an attractive one. A bookseller bought up the collection and declared he intended to sell it to the British Museum! A "parcel" of Bostonians passed the hat and bought the collection, which is why Washington's books are in Boston today.

 

[Matt McKeon]

Washington's much smaller collection was going to be broken up and sold, the thought of possessing a book with a Washington autograph an attractive one. A bookseller bought up the collection and declared he intended to sell it to the British Museum! A "parcel" of Bostonians passed the hat and bought the collection, which is why Washington's books are in Boston today.

After the Civil War, Francis Parkman, the historian, got five hundred dollars from the Boston Athenaum to collect everything printed in the Confederacy, newspapers, pamphlets, government documents, books, as much as he could get, which is why a treasure trove of Confederate material is currently in Boston.

 

[Matt McKeon]

After the Civil War, Francis Parkman, the historian, got five hundred dollars from the Boston Athenaum to collect everything printed in the Confederacy, newspapers, pamphlets, government documents, books, as much as he could get, which is why a treasure trove of Confederate material is currently in Boston.

Daniel Webster doesn't come out of this too well. First he voted and spoke against acquiring Jefferson's library, and therefore establishing the Library of Congress. Then he didn't pay John Audubon for the last volume of his illustrated bird studies. Audubon withheld the volume, and currently Dartmouth College, which has Webster's books, has an incomplete Audubon collection: a 1.6 million dollar oversight.

Confirming that all Dartmouth men are douchbags.