Five Things: November 16, 2023
"Culture handbooks don't produce culture, people do." Five things for November 16, 2023.
How I Could Just Kill a (Virtual) Man
RPGs, simulations, and strategy games are my preferred genres, but I've played and enjoyed several shooters that prioritized story over gameplay (BioShock Infinite), explored the moral gray areas of violence as a solution (Spec-Ops: The Line), or whose sci-fi settings simply put things in a less problematic context (Halo). The timing of Hardline's switch from military fantasy to militarized police fantasy couldn't possibly be worse, either, in light of the ongoing problems in Ferguson, MO, one of the more egregious examples of a systemic cultural problem in this country that most video games either completely ignore or cynically tap into.
Mozer, Bethea and Me (for Veteran’s Day)
The original version of the poem, written back in 2003, was entitled Mozer, Bethea and I (as published in Handmade Memories), and it had a ranty, overly political ending that tried to be a little too clever and felt like a different poem from the opening, I tightened it all up, including a bit more nuance in Mozer's section, while heavily revising the closing to end up with what I think is a far stronger, more personal, more relatable work. Veteran's Day isn't a time for generic sentiments, positive or negative, but a time for personal reflection. I'm generally ambivalent about my time in the military because I met far too many people who defied easy stereotypes of what it means to be pro- or anti-war, and I've always had nothing but respect for anyone who has served, not to mention a fair bit of curiosity about why they did so.
On Memorial Day
Take a moment today to remember those who died, and those who came back less than whole. It's not just a long weekend, and it has nothing to do with politics.
Like Hope, But Different
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs]
(Warning: Put down any hot beverages you may be drinking before pressing play.)
On a more serious note, via The Atlantic‘s excellent Andrew Sullivan, comes Kaboom: A Soldier’s War Journal and a post, “Wisdom from the Homefront“, about some of the mail soliders in Iraq receive from American schoolchildren:
…my favorite portion of the miscellaneous stack of our mail room are the letters written to soldiers by American schoolchildren. Most of them offer the same commonplace banalities sent our way from the greater American public – thank you for what you do, please return home safely, we’ll pray for you. Empty words from an empty people; they want to show that they care, but this experience is so unlike anything in their realm of understanding only trodden clichés can fill their vacuum of confusion. I’m not bitter – yet – I’m just commenting on reality.
Charlie Foxtrot Entertainment
A number of new comics publishers have targeted specific niches over the years, seeking to better serve and/or exploit untapped audiences in an effort to carve out a viable niche for themselves. Whether its minorities, women, GLBT, pre-teens, etc., it’s a topic I’ve covered specifically or peripherally several times in the past, so this latest effort caught my eye as taking a unique angle and, perhaps, having the most potential next to those targeting Christian readers.
MILITARY VETS FORM ENTERTAINMENT PRODUCTION COMPANY
Military veterans Ernesto Haibi, Tom Waltz, Gerry Kissell, Robert Scott McCall, Steven Fish and Michael Abrams, along with Richard Pille, who served as a civilian contractor for the U.S. military in Vietnam, announce their formation of Charlie Foxtrot Entertainment, Inc., an entertainment company whose primary focus is on making motion pictures, comic books and other entertainment about soldiers and the military.
Gerry Kissell of Charlie Foxtrot Entertainment states, “All of us at Charlie Foxtrot feel that in a time when war is at the center of mass consciousness of this great nation, somehow Hollywood, and others in the entertainment industry, manage to produce less than 1% of their over all productions about the military. There has been a gaping hole in entertainment, whether it is in film, television or in publication, regarding our soldiers serving in harm’s way. We see it as our job to fill that void, and to expand the coverage, making certain audiences and readers have the chance to experience what and who our soldiers really are, and to let our military know that they are not forgotten and are appreciated, and to insure that they are not dehumanized and relegated to being just some anecdote on the evening news. They are not just cannon and news fodder. Our men and women in uniform are amazing people, doing amazing things, and its time everyone knows it. We have made our creed simple and to the point, ‘By soldiers, about soldiers and for soldiers’.”
First project on their list is the epic war comic series, CITY of FIRE, due out in early 2007.
Fun With Reviews
I posted my aforementioned review of Combat Zone: True Tales of GI’s in Iraq, Vol. 1 TP to Amazon.com yesterday, as I do with anything I review that they happen to sell, and have already received two emails about it from people not thrilled with what I wrote. (Mind you, in the 2+ plus years of reviewing stuff there, I’ve only ever received one email in response!) The first was from someone in the 82nd Airborne assuring me that Zinsmeister’s stories were true, if combined, and was polite and straightforward in the process. The second one, not so much on the polite:
Guy,
I am really pissed at your biased opinion of this Comic novel. Did you bother to research to see if the stories that were in the novel are in fact true to what took place?, were you there? I doubt it! So, why would you say “supposedly depicting real life accounts” And to compare it to the “Jessica Lynch” situation, come on!!Karl Zinsmeisters Book “Boots on the Ground,” had you taken the time to read, is a true and accruate report on the 82nds time in Iraq during the first part of the war. The comic novel is taken some of the stories from that book and brought it pictorally(all be it cartoon like) to life for me. I say that because my son is a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne and was there when Karl was embedded with them. From day one of Operation Iraqi Freedom for a year and then back again for last years elections, the stories that my son has told are the same stories that are in both the book and comic novel.
There is no way it could have been made up. “A disservice to the men”? how many did you ask before making that assumption? My son appreciates the work that Karl put into this, to tell the story as it was, not how the media wants us to see it.
The next time you write a review of something of this nature you should do your homework before making yourself look stupid and ignorant. Or maybe just stick to reading your imaginary character comic books, and leave the more mature ones to some one with better knowledge of what he is talking about.
A proud father of a Soldier
serving with the elite 82nd Airborne.