What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?
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Re: What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?
Nathan Bedford Forrest: The Hero in Fiction
None Shall Look Back (1937)
Thus far the War Between the States has failed to produce an epic like The Iliad, a narrative account of the four-year conflict that would include the exploits of all the heroes of both sides. In fact, few Southern novelists have written fictional accounts of Confederate warriors— possibly because not enough time has elapsed, possibly because there are many good histories and biographies that perform the chief function of the epic—to help a people remember their heroic past.
However, a few genuine literary talents have attempted to create epic portraits of Confederate heroes, and one of the best of these is Caroline Gordon, a novelist whose literary works are only now, after a half century, beginning to win the attention they’ve always deserved. Her portrayal of Nathan Bedford Forrest in None Shall Look Back, recently reissued by J.S. Sanders, Inc., should be read by every student of Confederate history, not merely because it accurately portrays the ebb and flow of battle, but also because it defines the crucial role of the military hero in a time when a nation and its people are in jeopardy.
. . .
A cautionary word to readers used to viewing the War through the eyes of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia: Caroline Gordon came from Kentucky, spent much of her time in Tennessee, and shared the belief of her husband Allen Tate and her close friend Andrew Lytle that the Confederate government concentrated most of its resources in the defense of Richmond while fatally neglecting Tennessee, Mississippi, and the other western states, where the War was really lost.
Yet her quarrel was not with Lee or Jackson, who were aggressive generals, but with the likes of Braxton Bragg, cowards afraid to risk all when the chips were down. In the Allard family, Bragg has his counterpart in Fontaine, whose function in the novel is to provide a passive alternative to the actions of Forrest and Rives— heroes who go to war willingly. As Rives, following Forrest, takes his chances on the battlefield, Fontaine, like Bragg, is weak and ineffectual.
Consequently, he presides over a disintegrating community back home. Foraging Union soldiers plunder the plantation. The slaves are disloyal. he children become unruly. And this breaking up of order occurs because Fontaine is not man enough to prevent it.
None Shall Look Back (1937)
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Re: What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?
I finally finished Dear Reader. Probably not the most accurate book I could have read, it is written from the perspective of Kim Jong Il so it repeats much of their propaganda (Korea is the birthplace of civilization, for instance), but it is written very tongue in cheek, regularly criticizing the Jap devils and sunken eyed, hook-nosed US imperialists, while giving an honest view at the thought process on north Korean "Juche" culture, their government and constructing their society. It came out when Obama was still president so it doesn't touch much on Kim Jong Un and not at all on Trump, but there is plenty of history on Kim Il Sung and the Korean revolution post-WWII through the millennium. I liked it. Shit's harsh in those labor camps.
On recommendation from the Dear Author I just bought The Open Conspiracy: Blue Prints for a World Revolution by HG Wells, a book from 1928 that supposedly predicts much of the social justice/collectivist mindset that is permeating our culture today. We'll see
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Re: What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?
So, is it good?
Shamedia, Shamdemic, Shamucation, Shamlection, Shamconomy & Shamate Change
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Re: What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?
COME THE FUCK ONenthralling thriller like, meticulously researched
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Re: What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?
So far, yes, but I’m not very far yet.
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Re: What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?
Flashback
viewtopic.php?f=61&t=3185&p=210570#p210570
An nescis, mi fili, quantilla prudentia mundus regatur? - Axel Oxenstierna
Nie lügen die Menschen so viel wie nach einer Jagd, während eines Krieges oder vor Wahlen. - Otto von Bismarck