Tuesday 13 August 2019

Vietnam

I've become involved in an almost unbelievably fascinating exercise involving the generation and dissemination of narratives about the experiences of Australians in the Vietnam War. It is like nothing I've ever come across before. There's no way I can write about what's happening, what I'm witnessing, what I'm not intervening in, and what sort of impact it's having on me personally. I am talking about it all the time to everyone I spend time with; I need to discuss it; but it's frustrating discussing the nuances in a scenario with a person who's getting their perspective on it entirely from you, and is maybe not really that interested in the things you're doing independent from how they're your pal.

So I don't have anything I can say, not really, except to lamely remark again that the whole thing is immensely fascinating, and really difficult, in multiple registers. My utter captivated absorption in the thing is magnified by the material I have somehow selected to occupy my abundant spare time. I'm halfway through two new books that are both extremely good although extremely different from each other: Patrick Mullins's biography of William McMahon, and Mark Dapin's book about myths around Australia's commitment in Vietnam. A few weeks ago I attended a screening of Danger Close, which I have to go and see again; I am seriously contemplating going to work on Sunday, and even sillier, bringing Leonard along with me, to attend the Vietnam Veterans Day march and ceremony. The weekend combo of inertia and chores will probably win out over that impulse, but still, I would like to be there and see it. There is still something entrancing about observing people making a mass public spectacle of their private relationships to the past.

1 comment:

casp said...

Vietnam Veterans are a fascinating group. If a helicopter goes overhead some of them will still raise their arm overhead involuntarily. It means "Safe to Land". When I see that I also wonder what else has stuck with them/become part of them.