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Today is my last day of work before I go on a week long vacation. It's something I've been looking forward to, since that's pretty much the only vacation I take out of the year, but it also tends to put me in a rather reflective mood. It's because its my personal turning-of-the-year point, I think, the point where I mark a completed cycle of my personal life.
I've made it to the penitentiary chapter of From Here to Eternity, and I've got to say, I wasn't expecting Maggio to end up in the stockade before Prewitt. The whole book is still really interesting, even if I don't necessarily agree with the points it sometimes try to make. I'd talk about it more, but I'm not exactly sure how to say it, or where to start.
The overarching themes are pretty clear by this point, IMO. This is a story about people searching for love, connection, and value in a world that seeks to deny and oppress all of these things. Prewitt, the main character, consistently gets himself hurt because he cares - about his honor and sense of right, about his friends, and about his lovers. He's a trumpeter, first and foremost, and cannot bring himself to be anything but true to the music he makes, outright saying at one point that if he were to deliberately diminish his art so people could enjoy it a simpler level, he would no longer be a musician at all.
Milt Warden, the second protagonist of the novel, is a little less direct, in part because he's older and one hell of a lot more cynical. Unlike Prewitt, he's willing to play the world's dirty games, but deep down, he doesn't seem to like it. A lapsed Catholic and brother of a preacher, Milt drinks hard (even by the standards of all the characters in this book, who all drink all the time), deals dirty, and absolutely cannot seem to silence the little voice in his head telling him the truth, no matter how hard he tries.
He's also very much in love with his commanding officers wife, and she, in turn, with him.
Both Milt and Prewitt, in the end, are willing to take huge risks for love and connection, putting everything on the line to, and I quote "touch another human soul."
I have more thoughts, but I think what I have to say is long enough it really belongs on my website rather than my dreamwidth, and probably after I've actually finished the book.
I've made it to the penitentiary chapter of From Here to Eternity, and I've got to say, I wasn't expecting Maggio to end up in the stockade before Prewitt. The whole book is still really interesting, even if I don't necessarily agree with the points it sometimes try to make. I'd talk about it more, but I'm not exactly sure how to say it, or where to start.
The overarching themes are pretty clear by this point, IMO. This is a story about people searching for love, connection, and value in a world that seeks to deny and oppress all of these things. Prewitt, the main character, consistently gets himself hurt because he cares - about his honor and sense of right, about his friends, and about his lovers. He's a trumpeter, first and foremost, and cannot bring himself to be anything but true to the music he makes, outright saying at one point that if he were to deliberately diminish his art so people could enjoy it a simpler level, he would no longer be a musician at all.
Milt Warden, the second protagonist of the novel, is a little less direct, in part because he's older and one hell of a lot more cynical. Unlike Prewitt, he's willing to play the world's dirty games, but deep down, he doesn't seem to like it. A lapsed Catholic and brother of a preacher, Milt drinks hard (even by the standards of all the characters in this book, who all drink all the time), deals dirty, and absolutely cannot seem to silence the little voice in his head telling him the truth, no matter how hard he tries.
He's also very much in love with his commanding officers wife, and she, in turn, with him.
Both Milt and Prewitt, in the end, are willing to take huge risks for love and connection, putting everything on the line to, and I quote "touch another human soul."
I have more thoughts, but I think what I have to say is long enough it really belongs on my website rather than my dreamwidth, and probably after I've actually finished the book.
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