“He consumed works of art the way other people consumed beer and meat and potatoes. They fed his ego with proofs of his own imagination and sensitivity. He was constantly finding his own idealized self and nothing else in the works that he admired...Love of her was love of his own imagined self, and surely that was madness.”
From the novel A Time of Soldiers, by Andrew Jolly
A Time of Soldiers has been one of my favorite books since I first read it in 1985. It’s an obscure novel that few people have read, and Stephen King & Saul Bellow have nothing to fear from it. But nonetheless its one of the books I turn to when I feel introspective. The book argues that we become what we do, that what we become must serve a greater purpose than ourselves, and that men who fail in that, face moral desolation.
While assigned to the Korean DMZ, an officer I held in deep respect suggested I read it. To my surprise the book was based in West Texas, New Mexico, and central Texas; basically my home, so I was intimately familiar with most to the places described in the novel.
After I read it, I told him I enjoyed it, and asked him why he had suggested that I read it. He smiled and replied, “Pacheco, if you go through life seeing everything only in terms of black and white, you’re going to have a hard time of it in this world.” To this day I don’t know whether it was a warning or a complement.
I still see the world in terms of black and white,”but I am no longer content say ‘God is thus. Man is thus,’ and then make an end of it.”*
JP
*From the novel The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris West (1963), which I am currently rereading.
(Painting- Lady Agnew by John Sargent)
From the novel A Time of Soldiers, by Andrew Jolly
A Time of Soldiers has been one of my favorite books since I first read it in 1985. It’s an obscure novel that few people have read, and Stephen King & Saul Bellow have nothing to fear from it. But nonetheless its one of the books I turn to when I feel introspective. The book argues that we become what we do, that what we become must serve a greater purpose than ourselves, and that men who fail in that, face moral desolation.
While assigned to the Korean DMZ, an officer I held in deep respect suggested I read it. To my surprise the book was based in West Texas, New Mexico, and central Texas; basically my home, so I was intimately familiar with most to the places described in the novel.
After I read it, I told him I enjoyed it, and asked him why he had suggested that I read it. He smiled and replied, “Pacheco, if you go through life seeing everything only in terms of black and white, you’re going to have a hard time of it in this world.” To this day I don’t know whether it was a warning or a complement.
I still see the world in terms of black and white,”but I am no longer content say ‘God is thus. Man is thus,’ and then make an end of it.”*
JP
*From the novel The Shoes of the Fisherman by Morris West (1963), which I am currently rereading.
(Painting- Lady Agnew by John Sargent)
1 comment:
Thanks for the book recommendation, John. This sentence especially makes me want to read it: "The book argues that we become what we do, that what we become must serve a greater purpose than ourselves, and that men who fail in that, face moral desolation." I've been working on the first part of that with my daughters lately. They think they have to figure it out, get the big picture, go from whole to parts, and I say, start small, develop good habits, make small good choices every day because you become what you do.
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