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<blockquote data-quote="Gornostay" data-source="post: 15508" data-attributes="member: 344"><p>[ATTACH=full]2670[/ATTACH]</p><p></p><p>Gustav Hasford's <em>Short Timers</em>, which was the basis for the film 'Full Metal Jacket'. Short novel you can read quickly. </p><p></p><p>Like the film this is not an "anti-war" work, but lots of stupid people probably feel very satisfied saying it is. The war certainly sounds bad, but Hasford seems miserable towards the world in general. An impression I got from Kubrick's film is that The Marines didn't necessarily have to be <em>The Marines</em> to make the point. The plight of Kubrick's Joker is the plight of Kubrick's Alex. This is to some extent something Hasford is saying too. "There are plenty of civilian lifers". </p><p></p><p>Kubrick is if anything far more of a chud for suggesting far more definitively that anything positive or immutably human is found in the military. In the novel Private Pyle is not a giant baby-man who stands in for the internal baby you must ritually kill as one of your steps towards manhood, he's just a scrawny stupid redneck. It's all more like a succession of awful shit that happens which wears men down to a nervous nub. Which I'm sure is a rather legitimate depiction of many men's experiences in the war. This novel is a dramatised but probably relatively authentic depiction of what it was to be on the ground hating life so badly that all you want is to go home and also feeling like you might be so demented you'll never really feel <em>home</em> ever again. Hasford <em>was</em> there. Maybe I should read some more direct accounts for comparison. Maybe Hasford was just a particularly miserable person projecting his feelings rather broadly. I wonder how many of the horrific events in this novel actually happened to him.</p><p></p><p>I think Kubrick's film is a far more interesting work. It's Kubrick saying Kubrick things about the human condition, using the Vietnam War as a backboard. This novel is also interesting. It's <em>a</em> human giving his experience, and his own view of the human condition. Maybe he's no Kubrick, but I still like him fine enough to read the whole book in a day.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gornostay, post: 15508, member: 344"] [ATTACH type="full"]2670[/ATTACH] Gustav Hasford's [I]Short Timers[/I], which was the basis for the film 'Full Metal Jacket'. Short novel you can read quickly. Like the film this is not an "anti-war" work, but lots of stupid people probably feel very satisfied saying it is. The war certainly sounds bad, but Hasford seems miserable towards the world in general. An impression I got from Kubrick's film is that The Marines didn't necessarily have to be [I]The Marines[/I] to make the point. The plight of Kubrick's Joker is the plight of Kubrick's Alex. This is to some extent something Hasford is saying too. "There are plenty of civilian lifers". Kubrick is if anything far more of a chud for suggesting far more definitively that anything positive or immutably human is found in the military. In the novel Private Pyle is not a giant baby-man who stands in for the internal baby you must ritually kill as one of your steps towards manhood, he's just a scrawny stupid redneck. It's all more like a succession of awful shit that happens which wears men down to a nervous nub. Which I'm sure is a rather legitimate depiction of many men's experiences in the war. This novel is a dramatised but probably relatively authentic depiction of what it was to be on the ground hating life so badly that all you want is to go home and also feeling like you might be so demented you'll never really feel [I]home[/I] ever again. Hasford [I]was[/I] there. Maybe I should read some more direct accounts for comparison. Maybe Hasford was just a particularly miserable person projecting his feelings rather broadly. I wonder how many of the horrific events in this novel actually happened to him. I think Kubrick's film is a far more interesting work. It's Kubrick saying Kubrick things about the human condition, using the Vietnam War as a backboard. This novel is also interesting. It's [I]a[/I] human giving his experience, and his own view of the human condition. Maybe he's no Kubrick, but I still like him fine enough to read the whole book in a day. [/QUOTE]
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