[Vision2020] History and experience

[Joan Opyr]

Don Kaag writes:
>As for Wilfred Owen... at least he knew what he was writing about.  He had 
>"been there and done that".  And that means for all of your English degree, 
>you will never truly understand his poetry.  You don't have the referents.

I'm puzzled by this assertion, especially coming from a history teacher.  
You of all people should know that we needn't live a particular experience 
to have an understanding of it.  This is why we developed language in the 
first place, so we could tell one another.  It's so much more convenient to 
say, "Watch out, there's a cave bear inside," than to send each individual 
member of the tribe to look for him or herself.

I wasn't at the Battle of the Somme, Mr. Kaag.  Neither were you.  Lucky for 
us, then, that we have Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon.  They spoke for 
the men in the trenches to an audience of the people who sent them there.

This is why Wilfred Owen decided to enlist: "I came out in order to help 
these boys--directly by leading them as well as an officer can; indirectly, 
by watching their sufferings that I may speak of them as well as a pleader 
can. I have done the first" (October, 1918).

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment



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