Responding to What Was Said
ET wrote this post over on her blog. I started to compose a response in her comments, but decided I had too much to say, so I'm posting it here instead. Sort of a preemptive strike against my comment being clipped out of her commets section and posted in mine here. So, here's my uneloquent reply to her blog's thread:
It's the individual stories which get to me the most during things like this. I got a little flipped out when I realized the woman P.O.W. was a cook who'd never expected to be in battle conditions, let alone a POW. My mind kept going over what she might have been thinking, as "just a cook," in that situation. Empathy. I'm putting myself in her place, and am further horrified by this mental exercise.
The "tribal" bit of "Riley's an SF dork, man" carries the empathy through in this case. Reading through the comments on the linked thread, I saw people thinking what shared reading experiences they've had with the captured private, and the idea of him being in such a vulnerable and dangerous position hurt all the more for this.
There is something more specialized about the reading of a book than living in a large city. There are specific trains of thought you've probably shared with this private if you've both read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress or The Man In The High Castle. Okay, so I'm pretty much repeating what ET's just said, but not saying it as well. But I think my point is it's when the story is personal that it hurts. Ten people dead don't mean as much until you find out their individual stories, and sometimes not even until you find out something specific which you have in common with them, such as dorkiness.
According to one of the comments posted at Electrolite, a lot of the guys over there have played RPG games. That just bugs me out 'cause in my head (irrationally), those soldiers and sailors and pilots (and cooks) have turned into Halifax and ET and a whole crowd of people I know and would rather not have blown up into little bits or tortured (usually).
There is also the concern for those with whom I've a relatively passing connection. There are a lot of students from U-Albany who have been called into duty. I am terrified by the idea of these kids (and they are kids; they're exceptionally young), these students, getting killed or (possibly even worse) disabled (physically or mentally) in this war started for unconvincing reasons by the Bush II regime. One of my professors cancelled a class last Thursday, first day of this war. He was nearly in tears as he spoke of the several students who had come to his door, wearing cammies, asking for an incomplete for the semester. His students, he called them. He couldn't imagine talking about literary theory after that.
It's the individual stories which get to me the most during things like this. I got a little flipped out when I realized the woman P.O.W. was a cook who'd never expected to be in battle conditions, let alone a POW. My mind kept going over what she might have been thinking, as "just a cook," in that situation. Empathy. I'm putting myself in her place, and am further horrified by this mental exercise.
The "tribal" bit of "Riley's an SF dork, man" carries the empathy through in this case. Reading through the comments on the linked thread, I saw people thinking what shared reading experiences they've had with the captured private, and the idea of him being in such a vulnerable and dangerous position hurt all the more for this.
There is something more specialized about the reading of a book than living in a large city. There are specific trains of thought you've probably shared with this private if you've both read The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress or The Man In The High Castle. Okay, so I'm pretty much repeating what ET's just said, but not saying it as well. But I think my point is it's when the story is personal that it hurts. Ten people dead don't mean as much until you find out their individual stories, and sometimes not even until you find out something specific which you have in common with them, such as dorkiness.
According to one of the comments posted at Electrolite, a lot of the guys over there have played RPG games. That just bugs me out 'cause in my head (irrationally), those soldiers and sailors and pilots (and cooks) have turned into Halifax and ET and a whole crowd of people I know and would rather not have blown up into little bits or tortured (usually).
There is also the concern for those with whom I've a relatively passing connection. There are a lot of students from U-Albany who have been called into duty. I am terrified by the idea of these kids (and they are kids; they're exceptionally young), these students, getting killed or (possibly even worse) disabled (physically or mentally) in this war started for unconvincing reasons by the Bush II regime. One of my professors cancelled a class last Thursday, first day of this war. He was nearly in tears as he spoke of the several students who had come to his door, wearing cammies, asking for an incomplete for the semester. His students, he called them. He couldn't imagine talking about literary theory after that.
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