(I'm giving my Dad a copy of Lardner's wonderful "I'd Hate Myself in the Morning" for Christmas--partly revenge for his giving me a Bill O'Reilly book for my birthday.)
So, yes, Johnny Got His Gun deserves resurrection. Pat Barker's Regegneration trilogy, on the same war, is also first-rate, but I think Trumbo's book is the greater artistic achievement. I'd like to see writiers like Trumbo & Lardner Jr get the Library of America treatment. (If Lovecraft deserves it, they sure do....)
Gary
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Message: 1 Date: Sat, 16 Dec 2006 01:06:19 -0600 From: Richard Menec <menecraj at shaw.ca> Subject: [lbo-talk] Johnny Got His Gun: an excerpt To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Message-ID: <00bf01c720e0$afcc1860$0200a8c0 at xphome48497306> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1;
reply-type=original
http://booksinternationale.pbwiki.com/Dalton%20Trumbo
"Johnny Got His Gun": an excerpt:
"Take me into the places where men work and make things. Take me there and say boys here is a cheap way to get by. Maybe times are bad and your salaries are low. Don't worry boys because there is always a way to cure things like that. Have a war and then prices go up and wages go up and everybody makes a hell of a lot of money. There'll be one along pretty soon boys so don't get impatient. It'll come and then you'll have your chance.
"Either way you win. If you don't have to fight why you stay at home and make sixteen bucks a day working in the shipyards. And if they draft you why you've got a good chance of coming back without so many needs. Maybe you'll only need one shoe instead of two that's saving money. Maybe you'll be blind and if you are why then you never need to worry about the expense of glasses. Maybe you'll be lucky like me. Look at me close boys I don't need anything. A little broth or something three times a day and that's all. No shoes no socks no underwear no shirt no gloves no hat no necktie no collar-buttons no vest no coat no movies no vaudeville no football not even a shave. Look at me boys I have no expenses at all. You're suckers boys. Get on the gravy train. I know what I'm talking about. I used to need all the things that you need right now. I used to be a consumer. I've consumed a lot in my time. I've consumed more shrapnel and gunpowder than any living man. So don't get blue boys because you'll have your chance there'll be another war along pretty soon and then maybe you'll be lucky like me.
"Take me into the schoolhouses all the schoolhouses in the world. Suffer little children to come unto me isn't that right? They may scream at first and have nightmares at night but they'll get used to it because they've got to get used to it and it's best to start them young. Gather them around my case and say here little girl here little boy come and take a look at your daddy. Come and look at yourself. You'll be like that when you grow up to be great big strong men and women. You'll have a chance to die for your country. And you may not die you may come back like this. Not everybody dies little kiddies.
...
============== Richard Ménec Bookseller news at: http://booksinternationale.pbwiki.com
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End of lbo-talk Digest, Vol 36, Issue 168 *****************************************
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