The Art of Survival

Matt McKeon

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The Art of Survival by Libby Murphy

This is a exploration, centered but not exclusively on the French Army, of how common soldiers and their culture and societies understood what they were experiencing in World War I.

The first chapter and introduction were horribly written, the worse kind of academese. I was shaken to my core. I have only so many years left have in this life. Should I spend it reading this crap? Or has the internet age permanently rotted my ability to focus for more then a few minutes?

I stuck with it, and suddenly it got good.
 

Matt McKeon

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The Art of Survival by Libby Murphy

This is a exploration, centered but not exclusively on the French Army, of how common soldiers and their culture and societies understood what they were experiencing in World War I.

The first chapter and introduction were horribly written, the worse kind of academese. I was shaken to my core. I have only so many years left have in this life. Should I spend it reading this crap? Or has the internet age permanently rotted my ability to focus for more then a few minutes?

I stuck with it, and suddenly it got good.
Murphy surveys popular literature and stereotypes of French poilus(hairy ones). By the way if you google "poilu" it has become a term for a subset of gay men. I hesitate to search for 'doughboy.'
Anyway, she deals with the official, flattering stereotypes: patriots with elan, flair, wit, endlessly inventive in adapting their trenches for convenience and comfort, using improvised or found materials. Their individuality, cleverness and initiative contrasts with the dull, rigid German invaders.
 

Matt McKeon

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Murphy surveys popular literature and stereotypes of French poilus(hairy ones). By the way if you google "poilu" it has become a term for a subset of gay men. I hesitate to search for 'doughboy.'
Anyway, she deals with the official, flattering stereotypes: patriots with elan, flair, wit, endlessly inventive in adapting their trenches for convenience and comfort, using improvised or found materials. Their individuality, cleverness and initiative contrasts with the dull, rigid German invaders.
But instead simply reinforcing French self regarding myths, the theme becomes struggling to survive in a hostile world, where the powerless achieve control over their situation through their wits. The trenches demanded, not an Achilles, but an Odysseus, inventive, deceptive and sometimes ruthless, whose goal is not glory or even victory, but survival.
 

Matt McKeon

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Popular literature, cartoons, magazines, and silent films celebrate Systeme D, slang for soldiers solving problems outside of official channels. Enlisted men, in a world of sudden death, arrogant or incompetent officers, ignorant or greedy civilians, surreal army bureaucracy, seek a filon, a safe place. They retain their humanity by asserting their own characters, intelligence and loyalty to mates.
 

Matt McKeon

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Popular literature, cartoons, magazines, and silent films celebrate Systeme D, slang for soldiers solving problems outside of official channels. Enlisted men, in a world of sudden death, arrogant or incompetent officers, ignorant or greedy civilians, surreal army bureaucracy, seek a filon, a safe place. They retain their humanity by asserting their own characters, intelligence and loyalty to mates.
I could go on. Murphy compares Bairnsfather's 'Old Bill' cartoons, and the classic Good Soldier Svejik, and Charlie Chaplin's ("Charlot") conscripted Little Tramp, now in the trenches.

Rugged, ghastly first chapter, then a very interesting and worthwhile book.
 
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