What We’re Reading

Thomas E. Ricks, Churchill & Orwell: The Fight for Freedom. Few names ring as triumphantly over the twentieth century as Winston Churchill and George Orwell. Churchill, as we know, was the British politician who foresaw the coming crisis with Fascism and Nazism when many buried their heads in the sand. Although he had made a name for himself as an adventurer and writer, Churchill was made famous for his defense of liberty and democracy in World War II. Orwell, who nearly died from a wound during the Spanish Civil War, was but a mediocre writer who found fame writing during the height of the war assailing fascism and then, later, socialism while remaining a principled man of benign socialism all his life (something that contemporary conservatives seem to forget). The lives of Churchill and Orwell were intertwined in the 1930s and 1940s with their mutual opposition to the various totalitarianisms that were sweeping the world; and although both men were very different from each other, Churchill and Orwell were champions of liberty and self-governance during a time “when so many of their peers gave up on democracy as a failure.” Ricks’ short dual biography of Churchill and Orwell, originally published in 2017, is a deeply relevant read even now at the end of 2023.

~ Paul Krause

Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers. The book that started it all. The book that gave birth to Kubrick’s war masterpiece Full Metal Jacket. It is a very short fictionalized, darkly satirical autobiography, which differs in some very important ways from Kubrick’s film. For example, Private Pyle’s death by suicide, after having killed his Drill Instructor, is treated sardonically, as an accomplishment. Unlike in the film, Pyle is not a person who is simply a slow learner, but someone whose main fault is not having the killer instinct. If in the film this is left unsaid and open to interpretation, in the book the Drill Sergeant is obviously proud of himself for having transformed Pyle into a killer, and says as much before dying. Even more interestingly, and building on the notion of the duality of man explored in the film, Joker in the book is , in terms of behavior and disposition, half-himself, half exhibiting the traits of Animal Mother from the film. He is duality in one person, not separated into two different characters. The book is quite shocking in its own way, and though it is clear Kubrick has faithfully reproduced the atmosphere and main themes of the book, Hasford’s work is well-worth reading for its own merits, and above all, for being one of the most thought-provoking books dealing with the Vietnam War. 

~ Filip Bakardzhiev

Virgil, The Aeneid. I had the opportunity this month to reread several passages from one of my favorite books, The Aeneid by Virgil. T.S. Eliot once remarked that this book is “our classic, the classic of all Europe.” In making such a claim, Eliot did not exaggerate. As a classic of Western civilization, Virgil’s Aeneid has taught generations of men and women the enduring norms of human existence. Among these norms is the necessity of piety for a well-lived life. For Virgil, piety is dutifulness to the gods, to tradition, to family, and to home. The main protagonist of his poem, pious Aeneas, flees burning Troy with his father, son, and wife. Aeneas carries his father on his back, shouldering his burdens with a sense of loving dutifulness. The image of Aeneas carrying his father on his back with his son beside him, and his wife close behind, is an image of piety. Aeneas quite literally carries his father and his father’s gods on his shoulders, bearing this responsibility with love. Piety, after all, is closely related to love. Aeneas is a man who loves the gods, his home, and his family. To carry his father on his back is not a burden but instead a labor of love that, ultimately, he will never tire of. Today, in Rome, readers can discover Bernini’s sculpture of Aeneas, wonderfully depicting this image.

~ Darrell Falconburg

James Joyce, Ulysses. A dear friend once told me that reading Joyce takes an acquired taste and ages well. His statement is ever true and present after tackling this novel for the second time. Joyce’s structural chaos, linguistic approach, and graceful synthetical movements are presented to readers with dignity and refinement through the day-to-day routine of Leopold Bloom, providing a glimpse to the uniqueness of the human condition, which is deeply rooted and reliant upon psychologically unconscious mannerisms. Bloom’s life in Ulysses is described in episodes, or phases of life Joyce uses to imitate mankind naturally organizing events. This strategic literary schema ultimately then grants respect towards Blooms’ – and other character’s – caricature. As a result, their episodic hopes and dreams become a way to dissociate themselves from unhappy lives, leading to an inward promise they can never uphold.

~ Sarah Tillard

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