/lit/ - Literature

This is all ignorant military shit. Fuck the United States armed forces.

>>928840

>>928840

>Black Hawk Down -Mark Bowden
Very good, but not the masterpiece Amazon.com reviews would have you believe it to be.
>War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning -Chris Hedges
A bit preachy and repetitive, but not a bad polemic against those who live to fight.
>Jarhead -Anthony Swofford
Not that great. Gen Kill is way better.
>One Bullet Away -Nathaniel Flick
I enjoyed this one immensely. Flick is the sort of man I wish most soldiers were like.
>Generation Kill -Evan Wright
Probably my favorite on this list. Very enjoyable.

The Lone Survivor made me cry.

Sort of related.

>Black Hawk Down -Mark Bowden

I read this and watched the movie. The movie, while great, does not do the book justice. Yes, it's a great read.

>>928819
>Black Hawk Down -Mark Bowden
Interesting for learning about the event. Not a great read.

>Jarhead -Anthony Swofford
Basically just the ramblings of a marine during the first gulf war. But I enjoyed it for some reason.

I read Generation Kill. It was pretty enlightening. No one dies or anything, but to hear the rancor of the soldiers is pretty nifty. Especially if you have a fascination with the military but have reservations joining (I'm a pussy that doesn't want to die in some piss-ant random country)

War memoirs vary dramatically from powerful and prophetic to utterly worthless. That list, however, looks pretty good. I'm in general agreement with >>928882 but would argue the BHD is, in fact, the masterpiece Amazon's reviewers make it out to be.

>>928926

A lot of people diss Black Hawk Down, but I enjoyed it for what it was. Admittedly, I didn't re-read it frequently.

I think it's a testament to the stupidity of our society that a film and literature class would be teaching this shit.

>>928939
IT'S THE INDUSTRIAL-MILITARY..UH..C-CORPORATIST-COMPLEX MAN!

>>928946
This guy does not believe in the Military-Inustrial complex, he must be a retard.

>>928939

And what would you suggest?

You have to read all of those for one class?

>>928913

>Especially if you have a fascination with the military but have reservations joining (I'm a pussy that doesn't want to die in some piss-ant random country)

I wanted to go to Ranger school. Totally be running around yelling "RANGERS LEAD THE WAY" and fast-roping off Black Hawks.

They wouldn't let me in because my legs are all fucked up and deformed. I'm now a depressed stoner who writes stories about modern warfare and posts on 4chan. How I have missed my calling in life...

>>928946
>is implying that the american military industrial complex isnt one of the most earthshaking economic and political forces on this earth.

>>928964
I suggest teaching about Film and Literature in a film and literature class. Stanley Kubrick, Peter Bogdonavich, you know stuff that pertains to film.

>>928970

Don't worry, soon you'll only have to know how to press buttons to be an American soldier.

>>928970

You willing to share any? I'm into that kind of stuff and writing something similar.

>>928969

OP here

Yeah...it shouldn't be too bad. Not to mention watching the film adaptations of a couple of these and, presumably, some papers.

Really, I'm not that worried about reading all these. I'm more worried about having a biology class. I'm terrible at science and that is freaking me out far more.

>>928980
I bet you, like most teenagers, can't even explain the MIC without citing Chomsky. That's all.

>>928993

I would, but the last time I posted it /lit/ called it unmitigated shit. I wouldn't mind posting it again, though. It's not my fault I was born to be a soldier and not a writer.

>>929000
i was a military child, and my dead was a history major and an intelligence analyst for the government. I know a lot about the MIC, comes with the territory.

>>929012
>mind the type
>type

>>929008
*my dad

mind the type

>>929000
Chomsky does not believe in the Military Industrial Complex, silly.

>>929012
how Freudian.
also, what is MIC? im horrible with acronyms.

>>929012
You said "was", is he dead now? Is that why it slipped out?

>>929015
oh. MIC. i get it now.

>>929002
Maybe you are a reincarnation of a soldier who got his legs fucked up in World War I.

>>929020

retired

>>929008
Then you of all people should know that there are good people within the military trying to change the tide. They're job is to follow orders, but that doesn't mean they have zero effect on what sort of strategy is implemented.

Unfortunately, a lot of people who make it to 2+ stars are, more or less, professional asskissers, but I know good people in my family at the O4 and O5 levels who are not, contrary to the assumptions of some people, mindless attack dogs.

>>929016
>freudian

freudian? E is right next to D on the keyboard, dumbass.

>>929039
>They're
Fuck, typos are infectious.

>>929040
u mad. it was a joke, dawg. like you wanted your dad to be dead. get it?

>>929039
He's five foot-two, and he's six feet-four,
He fights with missiles and with spears.
He's all of thirty-one, and he's only seventeen,
Been a soldier for a thousand years.

He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you.

And he's fighting for Canada,
He's fighting for France,
He's fighting for the USA,
And he's fighting for the Russians,
And he's fighting for Japan,
And he thinks we'll put an end to war this way.

And he's fighting for Democracy,
He's fighting for the Reds,
He says it's for the peace of all.
He's the one who must decide,
Who's to live and who's to die,
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
How would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone,
He's the one who gives his body
As a weapon of the war,
And without him all this killing can't go on.

He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame,
His orders come from far away no more,
They come from here and there and you and me,
And brothers can't you see,
This is not the way we put the end to war.

>>929039
>Then you of all people should know that there are good people within the military trying to change the tide.

great way to read into what I said. Recheck my original statement.

>is implying that the american military industrial complex isnt one of the most earthshaking economic and political forces on this earth.

i guess what that really meant is that im a liberal who hates all soldiers regardless of what kind of character or what beliefs they have about themselves

>>929049
>thinks hes talking to the same person on anon-central

>i guess what that really meant is that im a liberal who hates all soldiers regardless of what kind of character or what beliefs they have about themselves

OP are you still there. Are you going to a military school, you is gonna need some serious sense to balance out that reading list. These are my recomends in the pic.

>>929027

>Maybe you are a reincarnation of a soldier who got his legs fucked up in World War I.

Sounds legit. The Gods apparently decided otherwise when it came to me re-enlisting.

>>929066
He already has a balanced list with
>War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning -Chris Hedges
but I second War is a Racket. Great stuff.

If you really want to kill people though, you should try a mall.

>>929066

OP here.

No, just going to a state school.

>>929002

Who cares what people on /lit/ say?You know what? Odds are your stuff isn't groundbreaking fiction.

But /lit/ calls everything unmitigated shit. They don't actually write anything themselves. They just call themselves writers and act all sophisticated by shitting on the work of others.

At least you have written unmitigated shit. Most people on /lit/ haven't written anything.

There's a lot of controversy about how factual this is, but it's a damn good story regardless of its truthfulness.

>>929097

Well said.

Also, I knew from the get-go that I wrote shit. But this guy basically told me to stop writing tales of modern warfare, and never look back.

I was slightly aghast at this. I've been plugging away at the genre for years. I've written a ton of stories about it. He might as well have told me to cut off my arm. I'm...attached to it, you could say.

Plus, all of my research, and the LIBRARY of books I have about modern warfare would go to waste. I have some +100 books on the subject, including Black Hawk Down which is why I'm in here right now.

>>929147
He's a journalist, but I really enjoyed the two books Thomas Ricks wrote on the invasion of Iraq, so much so that I felt like writing a few short stories on the subject myself. I'm not sure what the dude who criticized you said or why he said it, but it's certainly not a tired genre by any stretch of the imagination.

Now, if you were writing some sort of historical fiction piece set in Vichy France, I'd advise you to look for a fresher setting, but you probably know better than I do what fields are exhausted and which ones aren't.

>>929147
You should probaly stop writing modern warfare tales, everyone should probaly, its of special interest.

>>929171

Yeah, your story sounds similar to mine.

Except that it was documentaries about the Soviet War in Afghanistan that got me interested. Shit was intense.

Then I started reading about the Gulf War. From there I moved onto the Battle of Mogadishu, which again brings me back to the OP's choice of Black Hawk Down.