The bomber bombs the bombed

I’d be interested to know what ‘Smith’ thinks of it as well, his Bomber Command connection being similar to Swift’s.

Regards,

Yes … I’d be interested in what I think of it too! But I haven’t read it, wasn’t even aware of its existence. I’ll see if I can track down a copy (a quick search shows me it’s not in the library here).

Just a handful of semi-random comments, based on Kev’s and Brett’s reviews.

It is suggested but not made explicit that Swift is a poet, or anyway he’s undoubtedly of a poetic disposition, and therefore well disposed to word play:
– He talks of the bombed and therefore naturally of the bombers (those giving and receiving with respect to the verb “bomb” … for example “the driver drove the driven”).
– My grandfather is a myth too! “a fiction or half-truth, especially one that forms part of an ideology” He served at Anzac Cove and in France. I know that heroic story. I also know a bit about his mundane reality from his army records … for the most part he went here, went there, mucked about, did this, did that, got disciplined, etc. I’ve read many accounts of war referencing predominant boredom interspersed with brief moments of action (and I’m not slighting anyone in this context).
– To suggest that we (our airmen) have the moral fortitude to stop after 100,000 sorties or whatever is abject nonsense … you’re absolutely right that Swift has missed the point. Reflect on the very opposite in terms of LMF!

Anyway, I haven’t read it (yet) but will do so.

I will also pull Sebald’s On the Natural History of Destruction off my shelf and flick back through that. IIRC he references a lot of contemporary German (the “bombed”) accounts and I think I recall some of that being poetry.

Interesting Kev, all the best, Don