Generation Kill

You know sometimes I think there should be a rule of war saying you have to see someone up close and get to know 'em before it's ok to shoot 'em. -- Col. Potter, M*A*S*H

Provocative post title, eh? A few weeks ago I finished a book by Evan Wright called Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War (2004). Wright is a journalist at Rolling Stone, and Generation Kill originally started as a 3-part series for the magazine. He traveled into combat with the 1st Reconnaissance Marines in the initial invasion of Baghdad in March 2003. His writings focus mainly on the one Humvee he was riding in, as well as the other men in the platoon (Recon Marines, by the way, are the most elite Marines, who learn advanced tactical maneuvers, and how to scale walls, snorkle with all of their gear, things like that.)

I liked this book. A lot. It was by turns hilarious and truly horrifying. The marines were dealing with a shocking situation, and many orders from above which made no sense. The writing felt very authentic, and really captured the variety of people; from the Dartmouth grad who wanted to liberalize the military, to young men straight out of high school. If you are sensitive to swearing, this is probably not the book for you, since the dialogue is pretty raw and real. The marines are introspective, funny, conflicted, scared and wanting to do right for themselves and (usually) for the Iraqis. When I was studying in England I unintentionally went to a parade for the return of the Anglian Regiment from Afghanistan, which turned out to be one of the best things I did there (for specifics, see here). I had the same experience reading Generation Kill--it gave me a lot to think about.

All of this dovetails well (at least in my head) with a series of works I saw at the Whitney Museum a few days after finishing the book: Jacob Lawrence's War Series (1947).

(there are 14 works total, with 5 on display at the Whitney; seen here are Victory and Another Patrol. Thanks to Amica Library online for the images.*)

Jacob Lawrence was drafted into the Coast Guard in 1942, and served there until his term of duty ended in 1946 (for wikipedia-basics on Lawrence, see here). He received funding from a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1947, which is when he completed War Series. I sometimes forget that art history should predominantly involve *looking* at art, and Lawrence's use of color certainly makes looking worthwhile. These are small scale works, but the monumental blocks of color draw the viewer in. Although the figures are stylized and abstracted, there is still a strong sense of narrative and mood, particularly because of the coloration. Victory was the most poignant for me--the soldier appears isolated and dejected, and not victorious at all. Lawrence really portrays the individuality of the figures, while painting all of the works in varying shades of blue, grey, green, brown, and a splash of red--military colors, plus blood.

Also, Lawrence painted the War Series in egg tempera, an "archaic" medium made of pigment, water, and egg yolk (for more, see Jacob Lawrence: A Catalog Raisonn'e, Peter Nesbett and Michelle DuBois, U of Washington Press, Seattle, 2000.) Egg tempera paintings are made up of layered glazes, which creates a shiny finish. Why did Lawrence choose this medium? Well, I'm not sure. But here's what I think. Lawrence was commenting on the miseries and misinformation about war, and by using an older, antiquated medium, he challenged older, antiquated views that war was glorious and that dying for ones country was noble: dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori.** Egg tempera was used to depict Christian icons and saints of old...and dejected, conflicted, determined young people of now. Jacob Lawrence, like the men and women of Generation Kill, show that there is a lot about being in war that anyone who hasn't experienced it can never understand. But it should be our goal to try.

*for whatever reason, the Whitney Museum's online catalog had no record of these works or any images. Get it together, Whitney!
**if you have not read Wilfred Owen's Dulce Et Decorum Est, read it. Read It Now!