Unhappy Far Off Things

I finished Dunsany's Unhappy Far Off Things last night. It was really great. It's listed as a short story collection, but it's not really stories, and it's not fiction. Rather it's description after description of the devastation of France caused by the First World War. All written in Dunsany's beautiful prose. It was truly amazing. He said he wanted to write to show the horrors the French people had gone through. The images of the deserted and desolate landscape of what had once been towns and villages were so moving. It reminded me a little of the anti-war poems of the Han dynasty that I'd read. You actually felt like you were there with him after the devasation. It was the destruction of the first world war, but it was almost a little post-apocalyptic with it's empty towns, and abandoned villages.

I've been thinking a lot lately about American's attitudes towards war, and just people in general. Tales of the second World War and how it affected everyone were always really interesting to me. Here however no one remembers what it was like to have a war fought on their soil. They don't see first hand the devasation it causes and the huge costs. World war II ended up being great financially for the US, while the rest of the world was trying to rebuild. Perhaps that's part of the reason that soldiers now a days have such a hard time. They've seen the realities of war close up, and the people back home can't even begin to imagine what that's like. It sets them apart and causes another gulf.