Fun
New ‘Revisionist History’
Dear Kay,
As usual, I’m thinking about war.
I think about war all the time—it’s a fact of life that I cannot ever fully comprehend. The just war, the necessary war, the terrible war, the pointless war. They’re all around us, all the time. Wars shape our culture, our country, our friends and family.
I keep watching and reading to try to make sense of it all. It’s my duty as a citizen to think about war and its implications.
My son and I saw Dunkirk last week and felt the deep helplessness of the 300,000 soldiers stranded on that beach. Equally powerful was the heroism of the small craft owners (one played by Mark Rylance in a magnificent, still performance) who crossed the English Channel in their fishing boats and ferries to attempt a rescue.
Last night we watched Memphis Belle, the 1944 documentary by William Wyler, one of the directors featured in Five Came Back, the documentary about which I wrote earlier this year. Memphis Belle is a 39-minute film about a 10-man heavy bomber crew on their 25th, final mission over Germany. Wyler is aboard the bomber as it makes its final run, capturing extraordinary footage.
The scene that kills me is the briefing where the officers in charge reveal the details of the mission to a room full of very alert pilots, navigators, and radio operators. The officers have schemed up a plan for a thousand bombers to attack Germany on a single day, as intricate a doom ballet as you can possibly imagine. The flyers have one job: to carry out exactly what their superiors have laid out for them.
That’s war, in a nutshell. It’s the most excruciating dynamic: trust your leaders. You have no choice but to trust them.
What does this have to do with today’s Knit to This podcast?
Well, “The Prime Minister and the Prof” is about war. Malcolm Gladwell goes to the very top of the British government during World War II to examine Winston Churchill’s decision-making process. Gladwell delves into Churchill’s tight friendship with Lord Cherwell (far left in the photo above; I’m guessing you can find Churchill).
Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist whose podcast Revisionist History is often surprising. It’s sobering to hear about the capricious way Churchill arrived at some monumental decisions.
I know it’s heavy rowing to think about war, especially here in the context of MDK, where knitting is always fun. But sometimes a sheep-shearing video is a luxury. I hope you’ll take time to watch and listen to these programs. And if you don’t particularly feel like it just now, I honestly don’t blame you at all.
Love,
Ann
PS Memphis Belle is available on Netflix.
Thank you.
Thank you. I will not spoil my vacation with this, but as soon as I get home I will listen. We saw Dunkirk last week and were terribly moved by it, especially by the young performers whose identities were unknown to us. I, too, find it hard not to think about war these days…how can we not?
Enjoy your vacation! I continue to be struck by how restored I feel after a change in scenery and thinking.
Excellent, thanks.
I, for one, try to not think about war. My worrying about it changes not one scintilla of it. All of the power associated with it lies high in a stratosphere of people I cannot possibly know or influence except at the voting box when the time comes. Some of these leaders I helped elect and all of them I have prayed for to deal with domestic and foreign barbarians and neanderthals. What I can do is just create a life around me that reflects sanity, love and peace. Knitting, in an important creative way, helps me with all of that.
Can’t help thinking about the lyrics of the beautiful song: “Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me.”
Hard to be peaceful these days, but knitting does help!
Sanity, love, and peace. Yes!
I guess one way or another, war is about boundaries, (to put it in the simplest terms). I never thought of it like that, though, till reading this letter. I have always been a little afraid of watching war movies. However, one that comes to mind is Stalag 17. I also liked the movie about post WWII issues, The Best Years of Our Lives.
I think it is Michael Ondaatje in The English Patient who says that without boundaries there would be no wars – I’m sure I have over simplified his words, but reading them was a light bulb moment for me. That was the first time I really looked at the dark side of patriotism/nationalism other than in the historical context of fascist or nazi regimes. Not that history isn’t important, although we never seem to learn from it.
The Best Years of Our Lives is so heartbreaking, so helpful. You know, the director is William Wyler, the very same director who made Memphis Belle, the documentary I write about today. I think about his experience in that bomber, during which he lost his hearing almost completely forever afterward, and imagine how he struggled to find the next film he would make. It premiered in 1946, when the flood of veterans coming home likewise struggled to return to daily life.
My cousin once said to me – and as I grew up I realized it – that the story of “The Best Years of Our Lives” was the story of my father and his generation.
War (and all this bomb talk) makes me ill …as though killing people solves anything.
My friend is going to a “celebration” of the restored fighter pilot her father flew in WWII. My father was a radioman in a Sherman Tank, 3rd Army, 13th Armored Division. Destroyed parts of his hearing as well. He stayed away from war documentaries.
I think I am going to read Vera Brittain, or Wilfred Owen poems. and stop thinking of John Hersey’s “Hiroshima.” And put on some Barbara Cook cds.
Raveller Vanessanorth has done a free chart for the Dunkirk fair isle.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/inspired-by-dunkirk
And GQ has an article called “The Best Part of ‘Dunkirk’ is the Sweaters”
https://www.gq.com/story/dunkirk-sweaters-are-the-best-part-of-dunkirk
“sometimes a sheep-shearing video is a luxury.” Beautifully said. Thank you for reminding me of this.
I have just returned from a quilt retreat or, as we called it, “quilt camp.” Thirty women gathered in the Maine woods with three extraordinary teachers and one kick-ass facilitator to dye indigo, sew improv blocks, and hand stitch. While I was there I recommended this site to several people. “I don’t knit much,” they would sometimes reply. “I don’t either,” I would respond. And then I would try to explain why I follow Ann and Kay and how much I enjoy what you share here. I hope my new friends check you out today ~ this post explains it all. Thank you for caring about the world and for sharing all that you do.
Thank you so much, Sharon. I can only imagine the fun you all had in the Maine woods!
Yes, thank you. The sheep shearing video can be soothing, but it shouldn’t be the only thing we think about these days. Nobody should keep their heads down and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist.
Man, is that something I struggle with these days. It’s hard to watch; it’s impossible to ignore. Rinse, repeat.
I found Dunkirk truly wonderful but exhausting to watch because of all the tension. Recently read: In Farleigh Field: A Novel of World War II, quire good not great. However, (mild spoiler alert) a dead soldier in English uniform, was thought to be a spy and one of the reasons was that a women in the M1 office said his sock heels were not turned in the English manner. Do not underestimate knitters contributions.
Quite not quire. Sheesh.
Ha! That’s brilliant!
Another great post, thanks for the info about Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast, I’m heading over there now.
I love Revisionist History! Gladwell is so good at finding the drama in the backstory. He can get a little shrill and soapboxy at times, but his points and observations are all very good and not considered/noticed by most historians or pundits.
My first awareness of the Dunkirk evacuation was watching the 1940 movie ‘Mrs. Miniver” years ago on TV. (Sorry about the quotation marks…couldn’t get italics to work). I was so moved by what the Brits suffered and their courage. Interestingly, the film also was directed by Wyler. I watch it again whenever i get the chance. I highly recommend it for the beautiful setting as well as the wonderful actors.
it is “heavy rowing” to think about war, but it is always present. Knitting does help.
I will be checking out the podcast and will see “Dunkirk.”
Thank you.
Battles in Charlottesville, VA, on TV this morning. It is happening now. We are so much better than this.
Thanks for highlighting this topic especially these days. I, too, always think of war: baby boomer and daughter of a Korean War hero. I will listen to Gladwell’s podcast and let my friends know about it. We need to remember and be aware of how the powers that be operated.
I do feel helpless to affect current events. As someone said, “I vote.” It didn’t help much, but the Serenity Prayer, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference” is the best I can do. And to keep knitting.
Sometimes, the “heavy rowing” is a good thing, not pleasant but important. Thanks for this post, and for the wonderful photo of Winston and his men. Somehow, they really did save the world, so we can continue to ponder such things as knitting. God bless ’em, and all those men in those little boats.
My father enlisted as soon as he could after Pearl Harbor. He was a tail-gunner on a B25 and flew in missions over The Hump of Burma into China. I grew up listening to his stories, and in 1989 he went back through China ‘in search of ghosts.’ He wrote a book of that title comparing the modern China to the early 1940’s. He lived to be 89 and was one of last of his generation.
Did you see the Foyle’s War episode that included Dunkirk? I recommend the whole series, in chronological order of course. Foyle’s War is definitely binge-material IMO.
I’ve been meaning to watch it–thanks for the reminder. Broadchurch is about to run out!
If you’ve never watched it, I think you are in for a treat. I watched all of it years ago, and have a bit of a thing for Mr. Foyle. Also, to this day, when I pull the lid off one of my galvanized trash cans I sometimes think of one of Sam’s greatest moments and grin.
Dunkirk is incredible, though difficult to watch and imagine living. An incredible WWI book is “Regeneration” by Pat Barker. A must read. (The other two books in the trilogy are very good too).
One other thought: one of the best films from the war genre (or any other genre for that matter) is “Joyeux Noel”, a 2005 release about WW1 told from the English, French and German viewpoints. The audience in the little theater where I watched it, way back then, quietly and elegantly stood as one unified group, applauding in unison at the conclusion of the movie. The movie is so moving and illustrates more brilliantly than words can express about the young soldiers’ emotional and ethical conflicts as they wrestle with obedience to fighting battles dictated by their “superiors” while sacrificing their own basic humane values.
When Kissinger was negotiating nuclear treaties with the USSR, his lack of specific kniwledge also caused him to just throw out numbers of payloads, etc off the cuff. And that became the rule.