Believe it or not, the West also has heartfelt songs about war. Two of my favorites are "Flowers of the Forest" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TtgSbNaksg) and "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg). The latter sings about the "lucky" Australians who survived the train wreck of Gallipoli in WW I and managed to return home, but who were all broken up and whose lives would never really go back to normal again. I also once saw a film on this same subject, the name of which escapes me, and it also was quite powerful.
"So now every April,
I sit on my porch,
And I watch the parade pass before me.
I see my old comrades,
How proudly they march.
Renewing their dreams of past glories
I see the old men, all tired, stiff and sore
The weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask,
What are they marching for?
And I ask myself the same question."
When I listen to that song again, I realize that it could just as easily be singing about many other "lucky" survivors of all the other wars we've had since. Just to grab an obvious example, consider those few "lucky" Ukrainians who survive to return home all broken up, missing limbs (reports are that a huge number of amputations have been done), shell-shocked, you name it. The ones who sent them don't even care if they survive, let alone win, as long as it wears down Russia a bit.
A lot of great literature and song came out of the years just after WW I, and much of it is so powerful that when listening to the songs, reading the books, or watching the films, you truly feel like they are saying they really learned something from all that industrial slaughter. But yet here we are over a century later, and it keeps getting worse and worse.
If I'm not mistaken both songs were written by one Eric Bogle. Here's a version of The Band Played Waltzing Matilda that (to me) better captures the sadness and horror of the WW1 slaughter of the Australian colonial troops commanded by Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. It's sung by another Irishman Shane MacGowan. His band, the Pogues, were punk rock gods back in the day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD8ANMUlK34
Hi all, just a note to draw attention to Linh's selection from his 7 books of poems, collected as Blue Threads to the Soul. I wrote a brief review at the book's Amazon page citing 2 poems and 1 interview, and a long one with a dozen extracts and photographs of the book at Viet Nam letters, my Substack. 116 of my 117 subscribers read it on pasting last Thursday, then another 45 since announcing the letter at the listserv of the Vietnamese Studies Group. I expect 1 reader at a time to walk in for a while, petering out approaching 200 total. Join in or, you know, just read the book.
I should have said in the article that frequency of cursing varies greatly between countries. During my five months in English speaking Namibia, I never heard anyone curse, and I was in Winhdoek, Rehoboth and Swakopmund. This contrasted strikingly with South Africa.
Vietnamese are prolific cursers but Laos don't curse, and this I learnt from Viet residents in Laos.
I must confess that I'm an old white woman who curses like a sailor...I'm trying to train myself to say "bloody hell" instead of god dammit....as things are damned enough already.
"Of the Vietnam war movies I saw later, only Green Eyes, about a black vet looking for his lost son in Saigon, depicted my native land with understanding and respect."
Thank you. This is the answer to a question I've been meaning to ask.
Where are the photographs of a young Brigitte Trogneux, the First Lady of France? A few family pics of Brigitte as a young girl should dispel all the ugly rumours. I thought I would take a look on Yandex, and discovered that her family are chocolateurs, whose generations-old company, Chocolaterie Trogneux, is best known for its macarons.
Thank you, Linh, this post resonated deeply w/ me and apparently others too. Nothing lifts a man's spirits more than a classy cock tease.
Michael Rubbo, the redoubtable Aussie documentarian you mentioned, directed the film Much Ado about Something which proposes Kit Marlowe as the true author behind the writing of Shakespeare. To my mind, he should be every conspiracy thinker's candidate. Inestimably, he had the chops unlike the controlled opposition's aristocrat, Edward DeVere, who gets the Hollywood movie, Anonymous. What prevents him from serious consideration is that he supposedly died in a tavern brawl right before the Bard of Avon emerged on the scene. The fact that Marlowe had Intelligence connections and a need to escape England because of capital crime allegations by religious authorities explain the necessity for a faked death and coverup. Once abroad Kit needed a known front man to pose as the new playwright for his additional oeuvre. Will Shaksper, rural actor and small time businessman fit the bill.
I thought it was a good movie. Some scenes were funny, but I was actually crying at a few points in the movie. I was so moved emotionally that when it was over I had to sit down on the sidewalk outside the cinema in Shinjuku, Tokyo as I was still bawling. America’s War on Vietnam etched so deeply into my soul as a young child and teenager. Had the war gone on just a few more years I would have been drafted. It’s also why I became a broadcaster and wanted to become a war correspondent.
I have to differ with you on that as, for me, the most competent in their own language are far funnier than some chap who can only ‘fuck’, ‘shit’ and ‘cocksucker’ his way to linguistic ejaculation.
For instance consider Ryan Reynolds’ “This finger-licking, dead inside, pixie slab of third-rate dime store nut milk can eat your delicious cinnamon ring and kick rocks all the way to bald hell.” Ok – it was script written for Deadpool but it only takes a little practice to become adept.
My ideal world would be made up of people that could swear like that at each other as it wouldn’t lead to real violence but to raising a glass in salute whilst trying to think of a riposte.
I suspect every writer enjoyed his language's entire range. Even if they abstained from vulgar words in writing, they didn't flinch at hearing them, nor, I insist, avoid using them on occasions.
In Stragtegies of the Warring States, there's a famous curse, "爾 母 婢 也!" Your mother's a maidservant! Sounds tame until you realize maidservant sounds like cunt!
P.S. Done with article, I leave the café on General Uprising to see this on a lovely woman's T-shirt, "I WILL EVEN SHARE MY CAT WITH YOU." Classy cockteases still exist. I should be ashamed of myself.
Believe it or not, the West also has heartfelt songs about war. Two of my favorites are "Flowers of the Forest" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TtgSbNaksg) and "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFCekeoSTwg). The latter sings about the "lucky" Australians who survived the train wreck of Gallipoli in WW I and managed to return home, but who were all broken up and whose lives would never really go back to normal again. I also once saw a film on this same subject, the name of which escapes me, and it also was quite powerful.
"So now every April,
I sit on my porch,
And I watch the parade pass before me.
I see my old comrades,
How proudly they march.
Renewing their dreams of past glories
I see the old men, all tired, stiff and sore
The weary old heroes of a forgotten war
And the young people ask,
What are they marching for?
And I ask myself the same question."
When I listen to that song again, I realize that it could just as easily be singing about many other "lucky" survivors of all the other wars we've had since. Just to grab an obvious example, consider those few "lucky" Ukrainians who survive to return home all broken up, missing limbs (reports are that a huge number of amputations have been done), shell-shocked, you name it. The ones who sent them don't even care if they survive, let alone win, as long as it wears down Russia a bit.
A lot of great literature and song came out of the years just after WW I, and much of it is so powerful that when listening to the songs, reading the books, or watching the films, you truly feel like they are saying they really learned something from all that industrial slaughter. But yet here we are over a century later, and it keeps getting worse and worse.
If I'm not mistaken both songs were written by one Eric Bogle. Here's a version of The Band Played Waltzing Matilda that (to me) better captures the sadness and horror of the WW1 slaughter of the Australian colonial troops commanded by Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. It's sung by another Irishman Shane MacGowan. His band, the Pogues, were punk rock gods back in the day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD8ANMUlK34
I didn't know these were both written by the same person--interesting. I do know that they have been performed by a number of different artists.
Hi all, just a note to draw attention to Linh's selection from his 7 books of poems, collected as Blue Threads to the Soul. I wrote a brief review at the book's Amazon page citing 2 poems and 1 interview, and a long one with a dozen extracts and photographs of the book at Viet Nam letters, my Substack. 116 of my 117 subscribers read it on pasting last Thursday, then another 45 since announcing the letter at the listserv of the Vietnamese Studies Group. I expect 1 reader at a time to walk in for a while, petering out approaching 200 total. Join in or, you know, just read the book.
Many thanks, Dan!--Linh
Dan has also reviewed my novel 2010, Love Like Hate. Here are the links to Dan's reviews:
https://vietnamlit.substack.com/p/blue-threads-to-the-soul-i-of-1-so
https://vietnamlit.substack.com/p/love-like-hate-i-of-1
Love Like Hate - i read it in one sitting, on the bus to San Francisco, it was fantastic, OK?
what a strange movie it would be
Hi everyone,
I should have said in the article that frequency of cursing varies greatly between countries. During my five months in English speaking Namibia, I never heard anyone curse, and I was in Winhdoek, Rehoboth and Swakopmund. This contrasted strikingly with South Africa.
Vietnamese are prolific cursers but Laos don't curse, and this I learnt from Viet residents in Laos.
Linh
I must confess that I'm an old white woman who curses like a sailor...I'm trying to train myself to say "bloody hell" instead of god dammit....as things are damned enough already.
Hi Peggy,
Meet Brigitte, a barmaid at Pennsport's O'Jung:
https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2018/06/brigitte-pennsport_3.html
Philly culture at its best!
Linh
I consider elegant cursing an art form.I wish good luck with your brains for everybody.
"Of the Vietnam war movies I saw later, only Green Eyes, about a black vet looking for his lost son in Saigon, depicted my native land with understanding and respect."
Thank you. This is the answer to a question I've been meaning to ask.
Where are the photographs of a young Brigitte Trogneux, the First Lady of France? A few family pics of Brigitte as a young girl should dispel all the ugly rumours. I thought I would take a look on Yandex, and discovered that her family are chocolateurs, whose generations-old company, Chocolaterie Trogneux, is best known for its macarons.
Thank you, Linh, this post resonated deeply w/ me and apparently others too. Nothing lifts a man's spirits more than a classy cock tease.
Michael Rubbo, the redoubtable Aussie documentarian you mentioned, directed the film Much Ado about Something which proposes Kit Marlowe as the true author behind the writing of Shakespeare. To my mind, he should be every conspiracy thinker's candidate. Inestimably, he had the chops unlike the controlled opposition's aristocrat, Edward DeVere, who gets the Hollywood movie, Anonymous. What prevents him from serious consideration is that he supposedly died in a tavern brawl right before the Bard of Avon emerged on the scene. The fact that Marlowe had Intelligence connections and a need to escape England because of capital crime allegations by religious authorities explain the necessity for a faked death and coverup. Once abroad Kit needed a known front man to pose as the new playwright for his additional oeuvre. Will Shaksper, rural actor and small time businessman fit the bill.
And there's 'what the living fuck' a favorite these days. Lord knows I've had some dead ones 😁
Disclaimer: no necrophilia tho!
It's often hard to tell.
I love how great poets can be as bawdy as, well, fuck:
"The young blondes with the tight pussies came too late." - Charles Bukowski
"Groping back to bed after a piss
I part the thick curtains, and am startled by
The rapid clouds, the moon's cleanliness."—Philip Larkin
“I shall be a sinful man to the end and think upon my deathbed of all the nights I wasted in my youth.”—Yeats
I'd go so far as to say a poet with a dead libido is a dead poet.
I saw the movies “Heaven and Earth” and thought it was done respectfully; for me it was quite emotionally moving. Have you seen it, Linh?
Hi Robert,
I don't remember it well. Years ago, I thought it was too melodramatic, even hysterical.
I tend to get too worked up watching Vietnam movies...
Linh
P.S. My half brother and mother are extras in that movie. They appear at the end. He walks off a plane and she's a barmaid.
Fantastic! 👍🏾🤩
I thought it was a good movie. Some scenes were funny, but I was actually crying at a few points in the movie. I was so moved emotionally that when it was over I had to sit down on the sidewalk outside the cinema in Shinjuku, Tokyo as I was still bawling. America’s War on Vietnam etched so deeply into my soul as a young child and teenager. Had the war gone on just a few more years I would have been drafted. It’s also why I became a broadcaster and wanted to become a war correspondent.
‘Those who never curse aren’t funny’?
I have to differ with you on that as, for me, the most competent in their own language are far funnier than some chap who can only ‘fuck’, ‘shit’ and ‘cocksucker’ his way to linguistic ejaculation.
For instance consider Ryan Reynolds’ “This finger-licking, dead inside, pixie slab of third-rate dime store nut milk can eat your delicious cinnamon ring and kick rocks all the way to bald hell.” Ok – it was script written for Deadpool but it only takes a little practice to become adept.
My ideal world would be made up of people that could swear like that at each other as it wouldn’t lead to real violence but to raising a glass in salute whilst trying to think of a riposte.
Hi Jon,
I suspect every writer enjoyed his language's entire range. Even if they abstained from vulgar words in writing, they didn't flinch at hearing them, nor, I insist, avoid using them on occasions.
In Stragtegies of the Warring States, there's a famous curse, "爾 母 婢 也!" Your mother's a maidservant! Sounds tame until you realize maidservant sounds like cunt!
Linh
P.S. Done with article, I leave the café on General Uprising to see this on a lovely woman's T-shirt, "I WILL EVEN SHARE MY CAT WITH YOU." Classy cockteases still exist. I should be ashamed of myself.