Writer's Block: You should have been there

[rebness]

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The French Revolution, 1790s
Absolutely every appalling, terrible thing about it. The march on Versailles, the guillotine, the arrest of Robespierre. Such brilliant, bloody, awful history which changed so much in Europe and the rest of the world.

Gavrilo Princip assassinating Archduke Ferdinand,　28 June 1914
This would make one of those great TV movies where you stop a dramatic event happening　and history gets all messed-up. Could I just stand there and watch Princip shoot? Or would I knock that sandwich out of his hand and give him a smack to the face for all of Europe? Ooh.

The Christmas Truce, Christmas Day, 1914
This is one of the saddest and most poignant events, to me, in history. On Christmas Day, 1914, various troops along the Western Front (British, French and German) called a truce. They sang carols and played football with the same people who had been shooting at them hours before. It makes me tear up, even now, to think of honest, ordinary men caught up in this stupid war showing humanity at such a time.

The bombing of Hiroshima, 6th August 1945
No, no, wait. I don't mean in a gloating way. This is another fantasy where somehow history changes and some people are warned and escape before Enola Gay releases that terrible weapon. And obvs. I don't mean I'd want to be at the epicentre.

The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, 1922
Imagine seeing that tomb opened up for the first time in thousands of years. Just imagine it.

Comments

[pandorasblog]

I'm with you on that last one. I've always wanted to be Howard Carter in that moment. (Lord Carnarvon, not so much. The whole dying part was tres ironic and awkward.)

I'm also fascinated by the Christmas Truce. I've read different soldiers' diary accounts of it and just... I don't know many stories that better sum up the contradictions and futility of war waged by politicians safe behind the lines, and paid for by front-line troops.

There was a tri-lingual film about it, which was on over Christmas a couple of years ago - I think it's just called Merry Christmas. Harrowing but very powerful...

[rebness.livejournal.com]

LMAO. Yeah, I'd opt not to be Carnarvon, too.

Yes, exactly on the soldiers. The war was just one big muscle-flexing exercise, rather than the altogether more worthy fight of World War II with Nazism. These people paid for the politicians' ambitions with their life blood. To see humanity overcome that idiocy at such a time leaves me breathless. I really recommend you read The Thirty-Nine Steps, which takes a very bitter look at the motivation behind World War I (er, there is some strange anti-Semitism in it, though).

Thank you for the film rec! I'll check it out!

[pandorasblog]

What gets me is that nobody learns anything. I mean, I was reading the other day about how in WWII they could only stagger sending out soldiers because Britain couldn't equip as many as were needed.... but lack of equipment didn't stop soldiers being sent to their deaths in the Iraq War.

And, well, there's the whole Rise Of The Right thing, and the Government Scapegoating A Hated Minority In A Recession thing, so that I keep thinking I've accidentally fallen into the 1930s... pah!

I must read The Thirty-Nine Steps; I've always had a soft spot for the film(s)...

[fanged-angel.livejournal.com]

My history geekery went all over the place just now. Epic moments are epic! The discovery of the tomb would have blown my mind away.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Yes! History is epically epic! <3

[mothergoddamn.livejournal.com]

What about that time I saw a pigeon with no toes?

[rebness.livejournal.com]

That was far too Epic for this post. It deserves its own.

Also, my history geekage is loving that icon. It reminds me of one of those Russian propaganda posters. Awesomesauce.

[jadedscorpion.livejournal.com]

The Christmas Truce--I heard something about that on the radio, and no one I ever talked to have ever heard anything about it. So I didn't imagine it. (Course, I spend all day at work with people who can't believe we've cracked the great mysteries of why the sky is blue or the grass green.....) It's such a haunting story. I don't want to imagine how they felt in the morning when they had to go back to killing each other.

Supposedly my grandpa was nearby when Hiroshima was bombed--he told me it was the most horrifying event of his entire lifetime, just knowing that we not only had such a horrible weapon, we just used it on civilians, and knowing that a horrific amount of people just suddenly died in agony. Then they were all expected to go on like nothing happened.

[rebness.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my dad told me about it years ago, but I only read the full story recently. The idea of them having to overcome their own nature and kill again is just too horrible for words.

Oh, wow. It's interesting to see another reaction from the American side with regard to Hiroshima. I've read and watched a lot about that day and remember the pilot and his crew, and those around them, being adamant that it had to happen, it was just a job. But surely everyone couldn't have felt like that? Surely the sheer numbers -hundreds of thousands dead within minutes - horrified some. Well, now I now that it did one, at least.