Re: The Foever War "This belonged to your father," she explained. "Better wear it if you're planning on going downtown without a bodyguard." It was a gunpowder pistol with ridiculously thin bullets (119).
Haldeman's depiction of a crime infested future may not be too far fetched. Feasibly, in twenty years (which would coincide with the time frame of the book's tumultuous future society), crime, progressing at the current rate, could be as bad as it is in The Forever War. No, I don't belong to the NRA, and, yes, I think Rush Limbaugh is full of hot gas. But I do feel that the world is becoming mighty dangerous. Why? I have heard the opinion that guns themselves are to blame, but how can this be? In the 1920's, anyone could walk into a hardware store and buy a Thompson Sub Machine Gun, complete with bullets, and walk out, no three day waiting period or FOID card required. How many little kids shot up school yards back then? Don't get me wrong; it doesn't help that guns are readily available, but something deeper is wrong with society, with people in general. The majority of my friends have been robbed over the past couple of years. My neighbor was raped last year. Her assailant was in the process of trying to kill her when the police arrived. My brother, a detective for the Decatur Police Department, tells me about grisly things that happen damn-near nightly in this town, and most of these don't even make the news. Older residents tell me it was never like this 30 or 40 years ago. What will it be like 30 years from now? Haldeman version may not be too far from the truth. --Erick Hubbard
Post 51
"...But artists to some extent have to reflect the temper of the times. Paintings and sculpture were full of torture and dark brooding: movies seemed static and plotless; music was dominated by nostalgic revivals of earlier forms: architecture was mainly concerned with finding someplace to put everybody; literature was damn near incomprehensible...." (131). I thought that this quote from Joe Haldeman's the Forever War was particularly interesting to me as an artist. The quote is talking about the art at the time that Mandella came back to Earth after his first campaign. I thought that it was interesting that Haldeman thought is necessary for art tom reflect the times. I think that in many ways this is inevitable. Because the artist is influnced from everything around them from the time of their birth it is invetable that the artist will is some way relfect back on their own life or its enviroment. Joe Haldeman shows us this because the Forever war it self is a reflection of the Vietman War which had a great nflunce ion him as he was directly involved in it. I think hat all the things that he says about art is relevant to how he describes earth at this time. I'm not to sure about the music stuff or the literature though it really doesn't make much sense to me for literature to be incomprehensible. I think that perhaps the only thing that I can relate to that type of literature may be stream of conciseness stuff such as Fualkner's writing. However, as a visual art major I can relate a great deal of dark and brooding art that has had a history of both reflecting bad times, but also it has popped up in times of relative prosperity in the world also. I think that for the artist it can be a sign of the times or maybe just a sign of the persons personal life. For instance during the Medieval era their were a lot of dark paintings about Revelations and demons and plagues. I think that Haldeman is right when he says that it reflected both the Church's influence and that of natural disasters of the times. Another example I can think of is Bosh's Garden of Earthly Delights as it reflected the fears people of the times had about the coming of the new era as the year changed to 1500. In more contemporary works artist have focused on the horror of the Holocaust. Hyman Bloom and Francis Bacon also struggle with dark and disturbing subject matter which might be accredited to their growing up in the 30's or the corruption of the political figures that they saw at the time. Yet some artists seem to thrive on dark subject matter because of events that have been more personal. A good example of this Gigger's work. For those of you that don't know him, he designed the aliens for the Aliens movies and Spieces. A lot of his subject matter revaloves around death and more horrific subjects. As far I know of his work it mostlly all spawned from the death of his wife in the mid 70's. I think that his work is not so much a sign of the times as it is a sign of his personal life, and his own struggle with death. In the Film genre I can see a lot of what Haldeman calls "static and plotless" in more contemporary films. Andy Warhol's films I think fit into this genre. I think that one might eve categorize some of David Linch's stuff I think that Haldeman might be right that film is going more toward plotlessness just because it is more reflective of everyday life. For the most the part a slice of life is pretty pointless or at least plotless. I don't know if this made any since to any one, but I thought that Haldeman sort of questions what art will be like in the future in this passage, and in some ways I don't see at any different that it has been for a long time. I wish that he had gone into a little more detail, but I think that him just questioning the future of art itself is nice. --Joshua Primm
Post 52
One of the things that I really enjoyed while reading Joe Haldeman's The Forever War was the fact that it was written in first-person. The only other book that we have read that was written in first-person was The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I think first-person brings the book to life and really makes the reader be able to absorb the book fully. This book was really interesting to me and one of my favorites to read. I enjoyed the action as well as the relationships between the characters. This book reminded me a lot of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It was different in a way because the battles were probably based on Haldeman's real-life experiences in Vietnam. --Jenny Hakes
Response to Post x
This is a response to Ryan's post about how the government will control the population in the future. I think it is already going on. We just tend not to talk about it because the limited number of family members is happening across seas, not here. I understand that the population is growing and the earth isn't but does that give government the right to decide? I understand why they would want to keep population down here and in the book. However, I am against it because a lot of innocent children are being killed or put into crowded orphanages because couples want boys not girls and if the rest of the world starts this method of population control it will basically become a war on the sexes. --Michelle Snoke
Response to Post x
I am responding to Jason Durbin's last post over Ender's game and the similarity to the Japanese animation movie Akria. I think that this post should be post 30, but it isn't labeled on the week 12 web site. Any how i thought that Jason made a good point in what he said about Akria and Ender's Game. I can the similarity between the two in the fact the government is developing small children genetically to make the perfect weapon. After that i loose the connection though. I think that this a really notable similarity. I also thought that the movie The Last Star Fighter showed a great similarity to the novel. The notion that the kid was selected by playing a video game on earth to go and fight an inter stellar was the major thing that i saw as similar. I also thought that the fact the child in The Last Star Fighter was the galaxies last hope in the battle was also much like Ender's Game. The major thing was that the video game was the test though. Also the movie war games showed a similarity in the concept that a psudeo-video game can actually be responsible for a massive war. I thought Jason made a good association, and i hope that you will consider War Games and The last Starfighter as perhaps take offs on Ender's Game's theme of using the video game or simulation as things that can represent actual war situations. --Joshua Primm
