Summary
Dalton Trumbo: Johnny went to war
"He had no legs, no hands, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no mouth, no tongue. Lord what a dream... But it wasn't a dream... For he was alive... Oh no... He can't live like that because he'd surely go mad. And he can't die because he can't kill himself... on the whole globe he's the closest thing to the dead. He's a dead man whose brain still thinks... He could do all that chattering and bloodthirsty to the sons of bitches... listen, there is nothing worth dying for in this world... If they talk about dying for principles that are bigger than life, feel free to listen to them... How many of these sons of bitches have died in the war? sublime never to see the sun again? What is sublime when you are both blind and deaf? ... When you die, then you are dead and you wonder what you died for..." - This is an unequivocal condemnation of the war and all the violence experienced by the protagonist, wounded and disfigured to an unfathomable extent. disabled. The book Johnny went to war (1939) was an important underground literature that had a strong influence on the followers of the beat and hippie movements, but also on the entire post-war generation. Unfortunately, given that wars have been going on for millennia, and probably won't stop anytime soon, the uncompromising anti-war message of this terrifying story will, by all accounts, be relevant for a long time to come.
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