Top- the field at Serre, the Somme, where 585 men out of the 700 Accrington Pals who went over the top on 1st July 1916 were killed or wounded in the first twenty minutes of the battle.
Bottom- the view towards the British lines at Beaumont Hamel, as seen from the German front line. The Newfoundland Regiment lost 700 men on the same day as they tried to cross the ground in the centre of the picture.
I'm increasingly uncomfortable with the way in the last few years the poppy has been politicised but remembrance is important. I also think as a nation we need to find a way to move forward from the world wars of the Twentieth century. There is an unhealthy obsession with aspects of them in some areas of British and English life.
This is new from an ambient/drone outfit called Private Mountain. Just A Strange World is seven minutes of immersive, melancholic noise and beautiful swirling soundscapes. The track Private Mountain that follows it is similar but twice as long and with water and birds.
5 comments:
But we have learned nothing. That Prick Robinson on R4 this morning basically calling Corbyn soft because he wouldn't want to partake in nuclear annihilation. We really are a fucked up species.
Anyway, this is good.
Its pricks like him that are making me not want to wear a poppy. The glorification of war and the military has gathered pace and the macho posturings of the likes of him, especially on social media, plus the stupid outrages about people not wearing them are horrible. The whole language of heroes and bravery and paying the ultimate sacrifice doesn't actually help anyone understand or remember, its just knee jerk stuff.
What they also forget is that some of the boys died screaming and terrified and shitting themselves, some didn't hear the shell coming were blown into so many pieces there was nothing to bury, some were shot at dawn by their own side for 'cowardice' (read shellshock), some survived and killed themselves years later, unable to cope with what they'd seen. These things are as much the reality of WWI as talk of bravery and thank you for serving but it all gets washed into a patriotic stew. Frankly, football doesn't help with its own poppy nonsense.
I'll stop now.
I have very similar feelings. My grandfather fought 14 -18 and the only time he ever mentioned it to me was when I was doing WW1 in 4th year History and all he said was it was a lot more hellish than any of your books will tell you. My uncle who fought in Burma, didn't even collect his medals and had nothing but contempt for the officer class and anybody who reveled in their war stories.
I have stopped wearing a poppy still give to the Erskine Care Homes but fuck the poppy fascists and the gutter press
"I'm increasingly uncomfortable with the way in the last few years the poppy has been politicised" spot on.
Nice. Somewhat cosmic. A strange world indeed.
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