looking for war

"It is well that war is so terrible;
else we would grow too fond of it."
-- Gen. Robert Edward Lee

i blame stephen crane's the red badge of courage for heightening my level of interest in war. i finally got around to reading the book last week and it left me thinking about war so much.

now, i'm like an addict clamoring for war-related stories, war movies, and even stories and movies that are not exactly about war but with war as a backdrop. got something in mind which you'd like to share?

sure, war is ugly. it doesn't matter whether it's fought so primitively with teeth, bare hands, sticks and stones, axes and swords, or with guns, missiles and bombs. it's ugly. it is a monster that scars not just fighters in the war zones but even mere spectators and generations yet to exist as well. it displaces and disrupts not only populations but philosophies and psychologies, too.

although ugly, although terrible, war is exciting. i'm not saying this because i like war. i don't. i'm not an advocate of war. i already said it's ugly. nevertheless, i'm interested in it. i'm interested in the way it changes people and dictates the affairs of men. ain't our history in this planet highlighted with stories of war? ain't most of our technological development directed by war -- the preparation for and/or prevention of it? i'm interested in the way war defines our "past", "present", "future", and our humanity.

war is ugly. war is terrible... and there's something about it that keeps me thinking.

as i was reading crane's book, i got the impression that every war, no matter how big or small, makes a gazillion stories. however, due to the complex nature of humankind, a lot of these stories would always be left untold. a story (or stories, for that matter) could either die or live with every war victim -- whether officer, soldier, family, descendant -- without being passed on.

i remembered my grandfather who died of complications due to old age a few months ago. during his burial, a gun-salute was done in his honor. he was a war veteran. he fought during the second world war. but we never got to know what the war meant for him because he never spoke about it so openly.

i remembered, too, a line from the "speech of surrender" aired from corregidor during the fall of bataan on april 9, 1942: "men fighting under the banner of unshakeable faith are made of something more than flesh, but they are not made of impervious steel."

war is really something. i... okay, cut. i have no wish to make a thesis out of this. i rambled on and on when all i intended was to ask for titles of war stories and war movies i might have missed. haha.

aside from war, i'm also currently interested in:

fruit carving -- because i saw paolo bediones giving it a try in thailand's carving institute no less. speaking of paolo, i'm glad he and miriam quiambao are together in one show again.

spywork -- detective work, whatever you call it. intellectual stimulation. mental challenge. something for the adrenaline. what else? i think i have the knack for it.

stupid movies -- they're no-brainers. they're fun. and i'm sarcastic.

a passport with a red jacket -- why red? because i am ambitious. you could say diplomat-ic thinking (and my equally crazy friends could say, "in preparation for world domination"). plus, it's free to dream.