The War Prayer
May 28, 2007 4:37 PM Subscribe
Hmm...the film I could do without, but the story itself was great, thanks! I hadn't read this yet, although I'm a fan of Mark Twain.
I kind of hate it actually when someone tries to adapt a serious but darkly humorous story into a serious and strangely humorless film. This is exactly what happens with every film adaptation of a Vonnegut book. I mean, sometimes it's just better written down. Leave it alone!
posted by ChestnutMonkey at 5:21 PM on May 28, 2007
I kind of hate it actually when someone tries to adapt a serious but darkly humorous story into a serious and strangely humorless film. This is exactly what happens with every film adaptation of a Vonnegut book. I mean, sometimes it's just better written down. Leave it alone!
posted by ChestnutMonkey at 5:21 PM on May 28, 2007
As a big fan of the piece, I thought it was well executed. The director obviously tried to imbue the animation with a sense of universality, which Twain of course intended.
As funny as Twain was most of the time, I don't agree with Chestnut Monkey that this was a "darkly humorous story."
Not all satire is humorous; and "The War Prayer" is not funny.
Nor is the War in Iraq, defended in pulpits across the land, as was the Spanish-American war (esp. in the Phillipines), which was the particular object of Twain's ire here.
posted by kozad at 5:42 PM on May 28, 2007
As funny as Twain was most of the time, I don't agree with Chestnut Monkey that this was a "darkly humorous story."
Not all satire is humorous; and "The War Prayer" is not funny.
Nor is the War in Iraq, defended in pulpits across the land, as was the Spanish-American war (esp. in the Phillipines), which was the particular object of Twain's ire here.
posted by kozad at 5:42 PM on May 28, 2007
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
posted by Flunkie at 6:03 PM on May 28, 2007 [4 favorites]
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys!-- An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
posted by Flunkie at 6:03 PM on May 28, 2007 [4 favorites]
O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain...
At least in this story, the people have enough decency to make this the "unspoken" part of the prayer. With this war, the "glass parking lot" crowd is happy as hell to be screaming out this part of the prayer and yelling "Traitor!" at anyone who isn't.
posted by PlusDistance at 6:16 PM on May 28, 2007 [4 favorites]
At least in this story, the people have enough decency to make this the "unspoken" part of the prayer. With this war, the "glass parking lot" crowd is happy as hell to be screaming out this part of the prayer and yelling "Traitor!" at anyone who isn't.
posted by PlusDistance at 6:16 PM on May 28, 2007 [4 favorites]
Sixteen years ago in the library of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, NBC war correspondent Markos Kounalakis, came across Mark Twain's poem "The War Prayer.' Twain had written it just after the turn of the 20th century to protest war and American imperialism; it was first published in Harpers Monthly in 1916. The "prayer' is about a populace seeking God's help in achieving victory in war.
Today, in time for Memorial Day weekend, Washington Monthly president Kounalakis is releasing a 14-minute animated film based on the poem, on YouTube. He produced the film for $8,000. Everyone who pitched in on this project, including narrator Peter Coyote and Lawrence Ferlinghetti playing the minister, and graphic designer Akis Dimitrakopoulos, donated their efforts. -- SFGate
Twain wrote the piece in 1904, disgusted at the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine-American War (then known as the Philippine Insurrection*, an occupation of our new colony that dragged on for years without resolution). His family insisted that he not publish it, but he asked that it be published after his death instead.
Washington Monthly post (Kevin Drum).
* The Philippine Insurrection was the basis of the US Marine Corps' Small Wars Manual, which remains its bible to this day; its Army counterpart was recently revised.
posted by dhartung at 6:20 PM on May 28, 2007 [2 favorites]
Today, in time for Memorial Day weekend, Washington Monthly president Kounalakis is releasing a 14-minute animated film based on the poem, on YouTube. He produced the film for $8,000. Everyone who pitched in on this project, including narrator Peter Coyote and Lawrence Ferlinghetti playing the minister, and graphic designer Akis Dimitrakopoulos, donated their efforts. -- SFGate
Twain wrote the piece in 1904, disgusted at the Spanish-American War and the subsequent Philippine-American War (then known as the Philippine Insurrection*, an occupation of our new colony that dragged on for years without resolution). His family insisted that he not publish it, but he asked that it be published after his death instead.
Washington Monthly post (Kevin Drum).
* The Philippine Insurrection was the basis of the US Marine Corps' Small Wars Manual, which remains its bible to this day; its Army counterpart was recently revised.
posted by dhartung at 6:20 PM on May 28, 2007 [2 favorites]
"To The Person Sitting in Darkness" also brought to life.
There was a great website with all of Twain's writings on war and imperialism, but sadly its gone.
posted by homunculus at 6:23 PM on May 28, 2007
There was a great website with all of Twain's writings on war and imperialism, but sadly its gone.
posted by homunculus at 6:23 PM on May 28, 2007
Heh. I am half way through a Mark Twain documentary. Good timing, empath.
posted by YoBananaBoy at 6:24 PM on May 28, 2007
posted by YoBananaBoy at 6:24 PM on May 28, 2007
at the danger of nit-picking, TMK the USMC's Small Wars Manual was more about armed intervention in sovereign states' affairs "under the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine", to quote its introduction.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 7:01 PM on May 28, 2007
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 7:01 PM on May 28, 2007
I genuinely think Twain had something good to say about every situation in life and I reference this often.
posted by Roman Graves at 8:03 PM on May 28, 2007
posted by Roman Graves at 8:03 PM on May 28, 2007
I thought you meant the War Prayer Optimus Prime prays at the bottom of this page at get your war on.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:15 PM on May 28, 2007
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:15 PM on May 28, 2007
His family insisted that he not publish it, but he asked that it be published after his death instead.
Was his family a bunch of assholes or something? I've heard his wife hated his stuff, but I can't imagine not enjoying his writing.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:04 AM on May 29, 2007
Was his family a bunch of assholes or something? I've heard his wife hated his stuff, but I can't imagine not enjoying his writing.
posted by BrotherCaine at 12:04 AM on May 29, 2007
Surely it's "Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind", not "disappointed shells"?
posted by Aloysius Bear at 5:21 AM on May 29, 2007
posted by Aloysius Bear at 5:21 AM on May 29, 2007
Y'all must have hear the samizdat version of this recorded by Willie Nelson as "Jimmy's Road" during the first Gulf War, no?
posted by spitbull at 5:22 AM on May 29, 2007
posted by spitbull at 5:22 AM on May 29, 2007
I'm really not much of a Twain fan, and, not surprisingly, I didn't care for this one much, though I definitely agree with the "message." It seems like it might work better as an prayer in verse, like a poem. The only Twain I've ever really enjoyed is the Taming the Bicycle. Another unpublished work, I believe.
posted by mrgrimm at 6:25 PM on May 29, 2007
posted by mrgrimm at 6:25 PM on May 29, 2007
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