Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.

Underground > Conversation >

Books for soldiers.

Page: (1)2

16:30 / 07.05.04

Through Michael Moore's website I found an interesting web site- Books For Soldiers

Mr. Moore is promoting this site because he has been sending the troops free copies of his books, and getting some very interesting feedback from disillusioned soldiers- Soldiers Letters

I checked it out and of course the majority of packages sent out seem to have strong Christian/Brainrot bias. You know- Chicken Soup for the Soul, Tom Clancy, etc. etc.

I started thinking how awful it'd be to have left wing views or esoteric beliefs and be stuck out in Iraq with your only reading material being provided through this site. Sure you can get Michael Moore, but the rest of it seems pretty assinine.

So how about we send the troops in Iraq some esoteric authors? Some Robert Anton Wilson, that sort of thing. I've already posted offering Bill Hicks. Whaddya think?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:42 / 07.05.04

< cheapshot 1 >Well, can anyone get a job lot of See Spot Run books?
< cheapshot 2 >Or can we send them a load of copies of Catch 22?

16:54 / 07.05.04

I suspect Catch 22 would be welcome with some soldiers, actually.
We could send 'em Dr. Strangelove as well

unheimlich manoeuvre

00:02 / 08.05.04

The Good Soldier Svejk by J. Hašek and
All Quiet on the Western Front by E.M. Remarque
so that they know they are keeping good company.

17:51 / 08.05.04

how about "why the world hates america"?
is that even likely to get through?

as for cheap shots, maybe this would be of use?

13:21 / 09.05.04

I considered sending the geneva convention on the rights of prisoners for about 2 seconds, then realised how utterly tasteless that would be.

I think this sort of thing is really important as a way of keeping soldiers involved in combat grounded in their humanity. Something that is obviously a problem given the recent torture photo's.

11:30 / 17.05.04

101 Days of Sodom.
I think they could do a lot better on the torture front than they have been. I mean, dog collars and smokin' redneck bitches? Damn, Haven't they seen Salo; Blood Sucking Freaks; or Ilsa, She-Wolf of the S.S.?
Maybe we could get Idi Amin in as a consultant, that guy knew how to party!

12:04 / 17.05.04

There's something about this thread that makes me feel a bit weird. I am sure that Nobody's Girl has nothing but the best intentions, but... I don't know. If I were a soldier in Iraq, operating in difficult conditions, I might resent people back home sending me texts to improve my mindset, make me see the inevitable futility of war, etc. ... What about something they might enjoy reading? (Actually, several suggestions would fall into this category, e.g. Catch-22, but you know what I mean)

I believe that among the books most widely read by British soldiers in the First World War trenches was the Oxford Book of English Verse... (see Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, a fantastic book, for more on this subject)

Anyway, what sort of things are they usually sent? (It has just occurred to me that they well be partly supplied with books by various interested groups, e.g. fundamentalist Christian organisations, in which case I have more sympathy with what you are saying.)

12:05 / 17.05.04

As you said in your opening post, my apologies...

13:35 / 17.05.04

Hmm...well, Starship Troopers comes to mind. The original version, mind, not the movie-adaptation-novel-travesty. Spike Milligan's War Diaries might make interesting reading for the soldier with more esoteric tastes. You could also include Sun Tzu's The Art of War in that category.

21:33 / 17.05.04

If it was good enough for us, it's good enough for them: Invisibles TPBs, anyone? There's sure to be plenty of censors checking things before they get sent, but I reckon these might just sneak under the radar. After all, they're only comics.

03:21 / 18.05.04

There's something about this thread that makes me feel a bit weird. I am sure that Nobody's Girl has nothing but the best intentions, but... I don't know. If I were a soldier in Iraq, operating in difficult conditions, I might resent people back home sending me texts to improve my mindset, make me see the inevitable futility of war, etc. ... What about something they might enjoy reading? (Actually, several suggestions would fall into this category, e.g. Catch-22, but you know what I mean)

Absolutely something I considered, if you visited the site you'd see that the way it works is the soldiers request items or people put up offers of items which the soldiers take up if they want.

I've offered up Bill Hicks CD's which a soldier has just requested, go figure!

The reason I thought to do this is my partners cousin served in the US military. He's a lovely bloke who has a passion for Alan Moore comics, slasher flicks, Michael Moore, Ralph Nader and smoking pot.
I just thought "Wouldn't it be awful to be a soldier like him isolated in Iraq or Afghanistan and your care packages were full of mawkish nonsense about ideologies you feel no connection to?"
I know it would make me feel isolated and alienated. Hence the grounding in humanity spiel

I know of one soldier who has had his mother request comics be sent out to him, if anyone has spare Invisibles to hand out.

13:56 / 18.05.04

How about some Rudyard Kipling?

"When you're wounded and left,
On Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out,
To cut up your remains,
Just roll on your rifle,
And blow out your brains,
And go to your Gawd,
Like a soldier."

13:57 / 18.05.04

The more things change...

18:12 / 02.07.04

I know when I was over there I enjoyed reading Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash both by Neal Stephenson. Of course I'm more of a geek bent. As far as the so-called 'rubbish' that you say has already been sent, those of us that did read read Tom Clancy or his ilk. There is nothing wrong with Chicken Soup books either really: their anecdotes are often uplifting. I would disagree with anyone wanting to send political books as opposed to books that celebrated military achievments and the sacrifices that one man/woman will do for another in a time of need. While I don't intend to belittle anyone's intelligence, we must understand that our brothers and sisters in arms are in a hostile environment. There is little room for opinion while on a battlefield, as far as whether or not they should be over there. Second guessing your purpose will only leave you with a sucking chest wound.

ONLY NICE THINGS

20:00 / 02.07.04

There is nothing wrong with Chicken Soup books either really: their anecdotes are often uplifting.

If you're Satan

flufeemunk effluvia

22:11 / 02.07.04

We could jsut send them... you know... good books. If I were overseas, I wouldn't mind some joy-core Terry Pratchett or another book which manages to be mildly lighthearted without being utterly mind-numbing or a plea to accept Jesus as your eternal savior.

09:41 / 03.07.04

Regardless of your or mine opinion on whether or not Chicken Soup for the Soul is crap or not doesn't change the fact that most of American service members are Christian in some form or another.

Basically just send whatever book you feel they might like. If it comes down to it that you don't have the same taste as them, they will still use the book...as toilet paper.

10:46 / 04.07.04

I second the notion of Flufatacus for Joycore books. Maybe Mort to show the soldiers the lighter side of Death.

Forget the uplifiting tripe and political crap just send them some damn good fiction.

ONLY NICE THINGS

11:34 / 04.07.04

Regardless of your or mine opinion on whether or not Chicken Soup for the Soul is crap or not doesn't change the fact that most of American service members are Christian in some form or another.

So was Thomas Aquinas. That doesn't in itself mean that he would appreciate the Chicken Soup for the Soul books.

Lord. Between that and Terry Pratchett, I for one am dressing as a woman to get out of my commission.

Surely question one here is what the aim is? Is it to help out soldiers with non-standard tastes, in which case CSFTS and Pratchett are a waste of effort (as plenty of people will be bowling those in), to make soldiers theeenk in a Michael Moore stylee (in which case, again, CSFTS and Pratchett, being actively inimical to thought, are not really winners) or simply to support our brave boys, in which case we *should* be sending out CSTFS, Pratchett and, indeed, Tom Clancy's Net Force. The original conception of this thread was, I believe, built around the first of these aims.

12:10 / 04.07.04

Well, now, Tannce, that's exactly what I was going to say.
This thread has been irritating me since its inception, with this general air of condescension towards the military, and I just figured out how to verbalise that feeling- are we trying to entertain, sustain, or subvert?
Personally, I'd send them something they can fucking use, like some William E. Fairbairn or Rex Applegate, better than the crap passed off as martial arts the military gets taught these days. Art of War and Book of Five Rings are other ideas.
Let's not forget these men and women are there to do a job, and the less crippling self-doubt and Vietnam-movie style drama and freaking out they experience, as if your snobbish literary manna could blow their training and beliefs out the window in the first place, the better chance they have of finishing that job and getting home in one piece.
And I'm sorry, but every time I see that smug, self-serving, pseudo-journalist Micheal Moore's smirking fat face, I want to punch it in. Never read his books or seen his movies, it's just a personal reaction to any flabby, passive-aggressive eunuch. I have this creeping dread it would be like punching marshmallow, and he wouldn't stop talking...

15:50 / 04.07.04

Let's not forget these men and women are there to do a job, and the less crippling self-doubt and Vietnam-movie style drama and freaking out they experience, as if your snobbish literary manna could blow their training and beliefs out the window in the first place, the better chance they have of finishing that job and getting home in one piece.

LMFAO! As I have already pointed out earlier in this thread, the soldiers request items (DVD's, video's, books, groceries and comics) that they want from people, not the other way round.
I'm sure it'd be easier on our stereotypes if all these soldiers were all clean-cut Christian boys and girls with a life long membership to the Republican party but the truth is that they're not. You really ought out check out the "Books for Soldiers" forum- they ALL want films like "Apocalypse Now", "Full Metal Jacket" and even "Three Kings". They ASK for them. I swear.

I wasn't proposing we send people unsolicited propaganda. I was suggesting that the population of the army has some people who would be interested in the same books and comics etc as people on Barbelith, so why don't we FULFIL THEIR REQUESTS? I have no real problem with "Chicken Soup for the Soul", but if I was only able to get entertainment from a clearly biased perspective whilst serving in the army I'd feel a bit ripped off, wouldn't you?

I have offered up Bill Hicks CD's, not pushed them, to soldiers. They accepted. How am I preaching?

And I'm sorry, but every time I see that smug, self-serving, pseudo-journalist Micheal Moore's smirking fat face, I want to punch it in.

Yeah, me too. He's an irritating man but I think if you checked out some of his TV or film stuff it'd endear you to him a bit more. His website had letters from soldiers who are feeling extremely disillusioned and exploited which is what moved me to post this thread. Don't forget that a lot of people in the military are there as a way out of the poverty trap not necessarily because they have authoritarian, "patriotic", Christian or conservative views.

11:03 / 05.07.04

Shh, I'm on a roll here, let's not spoil it with the facts.

DISpensing our LITerary MANna from our SECRET INVISIBLES AIRSHIP, raining Micheal Moore and... and STING ALBUMS on the battlefield, causing... 2001-like chaos as the... UNEDUCATED JARHEADS discover FREE THOUGHT and JOIN HANDS WITH THE ENEMY TO FORM A HUGE CIRCLE AND SING "WE ARE THE WORLD"! YES! THAT'S WHAT BARBELITH IS! It's the fucking MONOlith from 2001! Feed thhhhheee woorrrllddd...
Dooo theeyyy knooowww it'sss chhriiistmaaas tiiimeee....

Oh my god, I've burst my brain...

19:57 / 06.07.04

You may have burst your brain but you've now made my lungs collapse from too much laughing at your last post Lord Morgue.

21:35 / 06.07.04

If it were me, I daresay I'd want slightly-infantilising comfort reading, with pictures. The various Adventures of Tintin or something.

08:59 / 07.07.04

Let this be a lesson to you all- smart drinks and alcohol just don't mix.

wembley can change in 28 days

12:33 / 27.07.04

Hell, if I were there, I'd be happy to read the mindless rubbish thank you very much. I'd probably see enough depressing things on a daily basis, feel wretched enough about missing loved ones and home cooking, and generally want to take my mind off things. I'm not surprised that the brainrot is popular.

12:28 / 28.07.04

I hear what they really want is adult diapers, no lie- see, they can't safely go toilee in their N.B.C. suits, and the military won't give them diapers for some arcane reason...

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:39 / 28.07.04

I'm not sure we'll be able to get those to them on the Books for soldiers programme, is the only thing...

Can you read adult diapers? I suppose, post factum, one could read them in the same way that one reads tea-leaves...

09:17 / 29.07.04

The programme is not limited to books and CD's...when I looked through the requests there were soldiers requesting under-armour shirts, batteries and toiletries. On the whole, it sounds like the US army is, in certain areas, just as badly equipped as the UK one.

09:53 / 29.07.04

LOrd Morgue - will you please make a teensy weensy bit of effort and write something worth reading, instead of using your posts to show us all what a keeeerrrraaazy guy you really are?

If I had the misfortune to be out there, I'd just want some decent entertaining fiction to take my mind of the fact that a load of people are attempting to kill me. Snowcrash would be about right - anything entertaining, which with my tastes veers to the left field a bit. I would want propoganda for any world view thrust at me.

12:31 / 29.07.04

Why don't you read my diaper, Illmatic? I've just left a huge log entry.

12:51 / 29.07.04

This thread is irretrievably rotted and I am therefore going to propose that it be moved to the Conversation.

13:18 / 29.07.04

Fly free, little thread! I will yet liberate your enslaved bretheren from the tyranny of Ontopica.

14:01 / 29.07.04

Hilarous mate. Can you not write anything that actually addresses topics, and adds to them? I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you're not stupid.
Why is it always "I'm such a funny bloke"? The majority of your posts remind me of the "crazy" guy in the office, with the rotating bowtie and stream of "hysterical" impressions.

Page: (1)2