Journey's End

[cheshcat]

On Wednesday evening, Nomad and I saw R.C. Sheriff's Journey's End at the Playhouse.

*long slow exhalation*

I must struggle to find words, as to say it was intense is inaccurate. It is unthinkable. It is unbelievable. It is overwhelming. All that a proper drama about WWI ought to be. It is also the most informative piece about war that I have ever

Comments

[bethanthepurple]

A fair portion of my family fought in the Great War. The stories were passed on to my mum, and because of them, she refuses to watch most war films because most of them use the horrific suffering as a vehicle for a plot.

My great grandad survived, but suffered shellshock whenever he stood on tarmac or near a road until the day he died aged 80.

[cheshcat]

Whoo. I can completely understand NOT enjoying suffering and violence as pointless vehicles for plot. There has to be substance or it is just exploitation of other people's stories for your own profit.

What was your great grandad like? I suspect like most of his generation, he didn't talk about it.

It infuriates me the way that traumatised soldiers were further victimised by the medical professional and the military, labelled as cowards, shot as traitors, given electro-shock therapies.. All for physiologically and psychologically induced conditions that were valid.

[bethanthepurple]

I think because he had (what would now be called) panic attacks whenever he left his garden, he didn't really get to hide the effects much. This is my French family, and because they all experienced the invasion (twice) I suppose there was more of a communal thing.

My mum was told about it, which is why it upsets her so much. There's a lot she hasn't told me.

[dragonmamma]

As I said to Nomad ,my grandfather was there. And no he wouldnt talk about it. He survived and lived til he was 88. A really strong (in mind and body) man who was bent double with osteo arthritis of the spine that locked him totally into 1 position. Caused by or at the very least started by the trenches full of water.
What strikes me most when I see war graves is how terribly young they all were.
It's impossible to understand the cutting down of so much humanity for whatever reason. Maybe the agitators of today should be forced to watch such things then maybe they would stop.
No sorry, That's a very naive hope.

[acelightning]

I remember reading, quite a while ago, about a palm-reader who was very popular in England at the beginning of World War I. All the young men who were about to be drafted came to see her, of course. But she soon had a breakdown, and refused to read any more. Every single one of them had a "life line" that abruptly ended less than a year into the future.

Most of the men (there still weren't very many women in the services) in World War II were just as young - drafted or enlisted at 17, perhaps (or even boys as young as 13 who managed to lie about their age and enlist), and rushed through training, they'd wind up in command positions if they lived to be 21.

[dragonmamma]

yes when I went to the war graves place in Souda Bay on Crete, all the gravstones I read said between 17 and 21 years old. At that time my daughter was 23 and my 2 nephews were 24 and 28 respectively. It kind of put it into perspective, the thopught that had they been there they would already have been dead for some years.
I suppose you have to be a parent for the significance of the ages to really hit home.