In this second blog post, the opening six paragraphs of the essay “I Can Spin Some Bullshit If You Want”: Narrating (and Bridging?) The Civil-Military Divide in Phil Klay’s Redeployment (https://journal-veterans-studies.org/articles/10.21061/jvs.v6i1.139/) will be analyzed and contextualized in order to truly understand the message behind Gauthier’s piece of writing, and how he builds off of the work of Klay to form his own conclusions.
After reading and annotating Gauthier’s interpretation of Klay’s story, it is noticeable that Gauthier intends to focus on the deeper topic beneath the term of “bullshit” that frequently reappears throughout ‘Redeployment” (https://www.amazon.ca/Redeployment-Phil-Klay/dp/1594204993). Gauthier’s willingness to uncover the relevance behind the repeated use of this term struck my interest, as during my reading of the story, I also felt that the veteran’s use of “bullshit” didn’t elaborate or even explain the context of the situation to the reader. Unlike Klay, in Gauthier’s summary, he focuses upon the civil-military divide that exists within our society. He examines how this meaningless connection is generated by a mutual responsibility to engage in a topic that neither involved individual knows how to properly navigate or understand.
This particular discomfort with truly confronting the brutality of war, reminded me of the show “Homeland” (https://www.amazon.com/Homeland-Season-1/dp/B008QTV3X0), and how returning soldier, Nicholas Brody, is simply unable to go into detail about his time overseas with his wife, Jessica Brody. One would imagine that in the comfort and privacy of his own home, Brody would be able to confide in his dedicated wife by sharing the horrors of torture, death and isolation, however, this disconnect between civilian and soldier is magnified by the shallowness of their conversations about his experience.
In his essay, Gauthier dives into the intricacy of this dynamic involving two different perspectives, as the veteran struggles to convey the reality of his past experiences to the civilian, and the civilian has no personal connection to the war. This creates a sense of disinterest that hinders the average civilian’s capacity to retain relevant knowledge about war, from a veteran who has undergone such unthinkable conditions. Upon reflecting on Klay’s eye-opening story of Redeployment, Tim Gauthier boldly states, “it matters little to them whether these wars end or not”. In my opinion, this idea happens to be the most significant of his thoughts and serves as the real message behind this introduction. As readers, we can now see the prominent issue that stems from having an inability to connect our own lives/narratives with the completely contrasting viewpoints of veterans: as a society, we don’t care whether the wars overseas happen or not. Gauthier touches on how citizens only seem to pay attention to soldiers during obligatory moments of remembrance (baseball games, communal events etc). He uses the term “alienated group” to describe the military and returning soldiers, which paints an ugly truth about the unity of our society today. This general theme of failing to remember our soldiers overseas, begs the question as to why our society still feels the need to participate in these wars.
To summarize, I feel that Gauthier used Klay’s example of the term “bullshit” to draw upon the civil-military divide between citizens and veterans. From there, I interpret the deeper meaning of this relationship to serve as an indication of how our society is forgetting about the importance/meaning of the wars overseas. In order to rebuild this connection between the general public and the military, veterans need to feel like their opinions will be properly heard and respected (allowing them to elaborate further than just the term “bullshit”).
Hey Callum. I really enjoyed reading this blog post. I thought it was really interesting how you connected Klay’s ‘Redeployment’ to the show Homeland with regard to the lack of civilians’ understanding of the veterans’ experience at war. I also like that you highlighted how citizens only pay attention to soldiers and their experiences when they have to (like on Remembrance Day). This provides a real example of the disconnect between civilians and veterans in our society. Overall, I thought this was a really insightful and interesting post!
Good post, I found the comparison to Homeland interesting. I’ve never seen the show, but the narrative of a soldier who can’t readjust to regular society is really on point to what Klay writes about. I also agree with Gauthier on the point that most citizens don’t care about the destructive impacts these wars have and how they benefit from them.
Andrei