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[Just As I Thought] [By: Paley, Grace] [June, 1999]
A lively account of family, community and political life, as well as thoughtful and passionate essays on war, racism, feminism and other aspects encountered in the colourful life of this unique writer, regarded as one oF America's finest short story writers
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First published January 1, 1998
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About the author
Grace Paley
131 books406 followersGrace Paley was an American short story writer, poet, and political activist whose work won a number of awards.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
April 13, 2018
I randomly pick this book and I am mostly disappointed by it. One reason or rather the only reason I read the book is because I wanted to know the writer and how she would tell her story. The genre does not matter that much if the writing is good. Since I know nothing about her other works, nor anything else about her; my opinion on her writing is quite unsentimental. The dedication itself sets the tone of the rest of the book, in regards to language.
It seems like the author has always considered herself a writer, but I suppose she is primarily an activist. If the reader only seeks information about politics, culture, war, and feminism especially pertaining to the period after the second world, particularly, in regards to the United States, one can quickly go through this book. However, don't expect too much from the book.
It seems like the author has always considered herself a writer, but I suppose she is primarily an activist. If the reader only seeks information about politics, culture, war, and feminism especially pertaining to the period after the second world, particularly, in regards to the United States, one can quickly go through this book. However, don't expect too much from the book.
January 7, 2016
Perhaps not the best introduction to Grace Paley? I think I should have started with her short stories. These little essays and memoir-like bits inspired me to learn more about Paley as a person (she seems to have been so wild, delightfully civilly disobedient; her insistence that feminism and anti-war movements ought to be cojoined), but I was nonplussed by the quality of the prose. In places, it sings; in many places, it is flat and almost (dare I say it) elementary. I couldn’t tell if that was her style (extremely plain and flat) or if it was just a haphazardly edited collection. I liked her piece on Isaac Babel and her notes on teaching writing. Still. I am looking forward to reading her fiction.
“Some of this will probably seem naïve to some people. It’s a naïveté it’s taken me a lot of time and thinking to get to.”
“Some of this will probably seem naïve to some people. It’s a naïveté it’s taken me a lot of time and thinking to get to.”
May 1, 2016
I would have loved have read this collection of essays as a seventeen-year-old. What an amazing woman~ written almost as an autobiography this book encapsulates Grace Paley's life. I highly recommend it for the older teen, mother, daughter, grandmother. We are the better for the Grace Paleys in the world.
July 1, 2022
Some of the essays here are better than others. My favorites were "My Father Tells a Story: 'I Should Have Been a Lawyer," about her dad's time in prison in Russia and "Six Days: Some Rememberings," about the author's experience in prison in Greenwich Village for protesting the Vietnam War. I also liked "Other Mothers." These essays reminded me the most of her fiction. Some of the other ones in the collection were boring to me because in them, she explains her stances on political issues, and I am already aware of the explanations for those stances, probably because I live in 2022!
December 11, 2007
This is such an inpsiring collection of work. MY favorite story is called "Walking Around" or "Neighbors." I wish that my memory was better of the exact title. The book is somewhere in my parent's home.
June 26, 2008
As much as I love Grace Paley and admire her history of political activism, the speeches got a little old. I much prefer her stories, and as soon as I came to this decision, I shut the book on ole GP's non-fictitious literary endeavors.
March 5, 2012
didn't read all of these essays/articles -- too varied for my current interests -- but I remain thoroughly taken with Paley as a great activist writer. what can I learn from her, whose life is so different from mine?
August 11, 2012
Great snapshots into the mind and life of an activist woman that I didn't know much about. She has some great essays about Vietnam during the Vietnam-American war and an article on abortion that I really liked.
January 30, 2008
The story about being in a NYC jail is so well done--I'm sometimes tempted to read it aloud. Grace Paley rocks--I miss her!
June 1, 2008
There are wonderful essays here that I continue to learn from and share with students. Now that Grace has passed on, I treasure this volume more. Also, I think prose and stories are her strength.
February 15, 2010
Grace Paley is one of those fighting women whom I greatly admire. This is a collection of essays covering much of her life
April 8, 2018
A Look into the Book of Grace Paley
Just as I Thought by Grace Paley weaves together through the art of narration her own life during the time of the depression in a socialist era. The art of this memoir is the attention to detail that we get from the authors vantage point. We are seeing everything from Paley’s point of view as she is in the present and when necessary we get clips of first person narrative to immerse the reader. This how almost all the scenes are and it gives the story a much more intimate feel because we are not being forced the emotions of a child but rather a distant contemplating adult. We can see the growth of Paley as she retails the harsh days of her youth. Along with the distant touch of Paley looking back on her past when necessary she goes deeper into the story and switches to a more personal first person “When I first tried to write this scene, I imagined my mother saying, That’s all right, mister, we’re comfortable.” (50). This allows the reader to see a much closer look at the emotions and actions of the characters in Paley’s life at the time. We get a more raw and honest interpretation of the scene when Paley drops in a first-person anecdote. This is where the creativeness of the story really hits home as well. By switching point of views Paley is able to add her own flare and expressions to the story. She doesn’t take away from the truth or embellish the plot of her life but rather paints it as a picture for the audience making it much more entertaining and lively to read.
Another interesting tactic that Paley uses to recreate her life, present and past is she skips around in time showing her audience very specific scenes at specific times. Some chapters will show her learning in a socialist school at the age of nine and others flip flop through time showcasing certain characters. This is where we see the attention to detail as Paley leads us to certain places within the memoir and allows us a glimpse at the characters of her life at her own pace. Much like the chapter dedicated solely to Isaac Babel the audience is given characters and plots in her life very tactfully. Isaac Babel played a large role in Paley’s life and career so she shows this by dedicating a chapter to him and allowing her audience a chance to meet him under her vision of him. “Babel would probably be called a minimalist today, but there’s hardly a maximalist or mediumistic who can tell a story, engage and shape a character with so much of the light and darkness of history, with grief and humor” (245) Paley is using her own opinion and description of Babel’s work here in order to play in to what she wants the audience to get out of his character. She wants to show us these specific things about him at this specific time so that the audience is structured toward a way of thinking. The fact that Paley does not use a chronological method to her writing shows that she intends to group scenes and characters for the audience’s benefit. When Paley talks about her mother it isn’t just one scene in one chapter in order from a young girl to a woman but rather intimate scenes displaying a common thread “I see that my mother gazes sadly at me, not reproachfully, but with an anxious look, as I wander among the other mothers, leaning on their knees, writing letters, making long phone calls” (57).
Paley’s use of dialogue in her memoir is sparse but it makes a big impact on the scene. The moments seen with dialogue usually show an important moment or a time for learning and change in Paley’s life. Through this you can tell that the sparse use of dialogue in scenes highlights its importance when it does show up. Paley uses voice and conversation to showcase key moments of her past, for example the conversation with Faith and her parents was memorable because of its dialogue. Lines like “’A state! What’s so great about becoming a state? They already have the honor of having more dead and wounded guys from the last war, percentagewise’” (148) are used to show personality and make bold statements that define a character or scene for Paley. This technique is done very well by Paley as she truly does show the audience what it needs to see and nothing more. This lets the audience make educated opinions on the characters and her own life as she is drawing them in. These elements make Paley’s story one of intrigue and reflection that is hard to find in many memoirs.
Just as I Thought by Grace Paley weaves together through the art of narration her own life during the time of the depression in a socialist era. The art of this memoir is the attention to detail that we get from the authors vantage point. We are seeing everything from Paley’s point of view as she is in the present and when necessary we get clips of first person narrative to immerse the reader. This how almost all the scenes are and it gives the story a much more intimate feel because we are not being forced the emotions of a child but rather a distant contemplating adult. We can see the growth of Paley as she retails the harsh days of her youth. Along with the distant touch of Paley looking back on her past when necessary she goes deeper into the story and switches to a more personal first person “When I first tried to write this scene, I imagined my mother saying, That’s all right, mister, we’re comfortable.” (50). This allows the reader to see a much closer look at the emotions and actions of the characters in Paley’s life at the time. We get a more raw and honest interpretation of the scene when Paley drops in a first-person anecdote. This is where the creativeness of the story really hits home as well. By switching point of views Paley is able to add her own flare and expressions to the story. She doesn’t take away from the truth or embellish the plot of her life but rather paints it as a picture for the audience making it much more entertaining and lively to read.
Another interesting tactic that Paley uses to recreate her life, present and past is she skips around in time showing her audience very specific scenes at specific times. Some chapters will show her learning in a socialist school at the age of nine and others flip flop through time showcasing certain characters. This is where we see the attention to detail as Paley leads us to certain places within the memoir and allows us a glimpse at the characters of her life at her own pace. Much like the chapter dedicated solely to Isaac Babel the audience is given characters and plots in her life very tactfully. Isaac Babel played a large role in Paley’s life and career so she shows this by dedicating a chapter to him and allowing her audience a chance to meet him under her vision of him. “Babel would probably be called a minimalist today, but there’s hardly a maximalist or mediumistic who can tell a story, engage and shape a character with so much of the light and darkness of history, with grief and humor” (245) Paley is using her own opinion and description of Babel’s work here in order to play in to what she wants the audience to get out of his character. She wants to show us these specific things about him at this specific time so that the audience is structured toward a way of thinking. The fact that Paley does not use a chronological method to her writing shows that she intends to group scenes and characters for the audience’s benefit. When Paley talks about her mother it isn’t just one scene in one chapter in order from a young girl to a woman but rather intimate scenes displaying a common thread “I see that my mother gazes sadly at me, not reproachfully, but with an anxious look, as I wander among the other mothers, leaning on their knees, writing letters, making long phone calls” (57).
Paley’s use of dialogue in her memoir is sparse but it makes a big impact on the scene. The moments seen with dialogue usually show an important moment or a time for learning and change in Paley’s life. Through this you can tell that the sparse use of dialogue in scenes highlights its importance when it does show up. Paley uses voice and conversation to showcase key moments of her past, for example the conversation with Faith and her parents was memorable because of its dialogue. Lines like “’A state! What’s so great about becoming a state? They already have the honor of having more dead and wounded guys from the last war, percentagewise’” (148) are used to show personality and make bold statements that define a character or scene for Paley. This technique is done very well by Paley as she truly does show the audience what it needs to see and nothing more. This lets the audience make educated opinions on the characters and her own life as she is drawing them in. These elements make Paley’s story one of intrigue and reflection that is hard to find in many memoirs.
December 31, 2023
LITERATURE in PUNK ROCK - Books #59
------------------------
SONG: Grace Paley (2004)
BAND: Cleveland Bound Death Sentence
BOOK: Just as I Thought by Grace Paley
https://youtu.be/UdZ7x6cX9mo?si=QsDDr...
-------------------------------
Cleveland Bound Death Sentence was a loose recording project consisting of punk-rock luminaries Patrick Constello (Dillinger Four) and Aaron Cometbus (Crimpshrine, Pinhead Gunpowder).
The name was “borrowed” from Scott Schoenbeck (Promise Ring, Dashboard Confessional) whom formed an earlier “Cleveland Bound Death Sentence” in Milwaukee, WI circa 1988.
-------------------------------
The song “Grace Paley” appears on the 2004 Gateway Handshake EP on No Idea Records. The subject of the song is Grace Paley, an American short story author, poet and anti-war activist/pacifist. Paley was the recipient of numerous literary awards the 1960s forward; her Collected Works (1994) (short-stories) was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.
The Cleveland Bound Death Sentence song however focuses on Paley’s work as a political activist for peace, nuclear de-proliferation and feminism. The song, replete with allusions to Paley’s poetry, tells the story of a group of friends heading out to see Grace Paley speak and surprised to see her outside of the event, sitting on the curb, approachable, exchanging smiles and a wink with them.
-------------------------------
“Just as I Thought” is a self-collated, semi-autobiographical collection of essays from across Paley’s life. The collection takes Paley from her Bronx childhood, as the daughter of Russian-Jewish socialists, in the 1920s and ’40s to her later role as an elder stateswoman of the American literary left.
The Gateway Handshake EP included a lyrics comic book from indie comic-book artist Caroline Paquita
------------------------
SONG: Grace Paley (2004)
BAND: Cleveland Bound Death Sentence
BOOK: Just as I Thought by Grace Paley
https://youtu.be/UdZ7x6cX9mo?si=QsDDr...
-------------------------------
Cleveland Bound Death Sentence was a loose recording project consisting of punk-rock luminaries Patrick Constello (Dillinger Four) and Aaron Cometbus (Crimpshrine, Pinhead Gunpowder).
The name was “borrowed” from Scott Schoenbeck (Promise Ring, Dashboard Confessional) whom formed an earlier “Cleveland Bound Death Sentence” in Milwaukee, WI circa 1988.
-------------------------------
The song “Grace Paley” appears on the 2004 Gateway Handshake EP on No Idea Records. The subject of the song is Grace Paley, an American short story author, poet and anti-war activist/pacifist. Paley was the recipient of numerous literary awards the 1960s forward; her Collected Works (1994) (short-stories) was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award.
The Cleveland Bound Death Sentence song however focuses on Paley’s work as a political activist for peace, nuclear de-proliferation and feminism. The song, replete with allusions to Paley’s poetry, tells the story of a group of friends heading out to see Grace Paley speak and surprised to see her outside of the event, sitting on the curb, approachable, exchanging smiles and a wink with them.
-------------------------------
“Just as I Thought” is a self-collated, semi-autobiographical collection of essays from across Paley’s life. The collection takes Paley from her Bronx childhood, as the daughter of Russian-Jewish socialists, in the 1920s and ’40s to her later role as an elder stateswoman of the American literary left.
The Gateway Handshake EP included a lyrics comic book from indie comic-book artist Caroline Paquita
March 3, 2017
"La importancia de no entenderlo todo" Ed. Círculo de tiza.
Inspirador, y de una poética muy directa. Un estilo muy urbano y muy humano.
Relatos interesantes:
* "Otras madres" - 1975
* "Declaración de unidad de las mujeres en sus protestas contra el Pentágono" - 1982
*BRUTAL "De poesía, mujeres y el mundo" - 1986 (recoje la poesía "Es responsabilidad")
*BRUTAL "Un día inventé una historia" - 1985
Reflexiones:
* "Eso de los átomos pacíficos no existe, y en nuestra época hemos declarado la guerra al futuro,que antes era una promesa de esperanza"; en "Historia de Karen Silkwood Drive" (1977) sobre una sentada anti nuclear, sus detenciones..., reflexiones a pie de activismo.
* "Cada vez tengo más claro que esa es la verdadera esencia de la desobediencia civil no violenta: la terquedad más absoluta" ----- "Aún así, No Violencia no significa seguridad personal. El pacifismo no es "pasivismo".Y cuando lo es, es inútil. De manera que intentaré, junto con otras personas, cambiar este mundo de la manera más terca que sea posible sin causar dolor ni muerte, pero también sin evitar la confrontación en un conflicto, incluso provocándola..." en "Ampliando los límites de la acción" - 1984
* "la guerra está inventada por los hombres (...) porque yo, de niña, era más bien un niño, como tantas chicas a las que les gusta meterse en todo y estar donde está la acción (...) Pero cuando mi propia vida fue desarrollándose, cuando empecé a leer, y a pensar y a vivir dentro de mi propia vida, cuando empecé a trabajar como escritora, dejé de ser un chico. Dejó de gustarme serlo, dejé de querer serlo. (...) una vida en la que se me exigirían comportamientos,sentimientos, pasiones y entusiasmos que no quería y que no significaban nada para mi" ----- "La palabra "imaginación", tal y como nos la enseñan desde nuestra niñez, significa imaginar fantasías. Decimos "qué imaginación tiene ese niño. Qué listo es, ha imaginado demonios y duendes". Pero la verdad (cuando digo la verdad, claro, me refiero a una parte de ella) es que quizás lo que nos haga falta ahora mismo sea imaginar lo real. Es ahí donde fallan nuestros líderes, Y nosotros deberíamos ser capaces de imaginar las vidas de otras personas"; En "De poesía, mujeres y el mundo" - 1986
* "No puedo imaginarme sus vidas, pero si sé que los "desconectores" son ellos. Nos han infundido angustia. Sin embargo, en el filo de esa angustia brilla una luz testaruda llamada esperanza. La esperanza no es algo efímero. Es una realidad que brota del nacer y el renacer de la humanidad a lo largo de su historia, una historia en la que la valentía, la solidaridad, la lucha obstinada y la imaginación han sido lo bastante poderosas como para modificar las derivas pavorosas de la guerra y la opresión"; En "Un día inventé una historia" - 1985
* "Siempre iba muy erguida. Creo que había desarrollado esa postura corporal tan saludable a base de plantarse frente a innumerables sinvergüenzas e ignorantes. A veces frente al acoso colectivo del estado (nuestro estado) y otras frente a la decidida maldad de los ignorantes"; En "Kay Boyle" - 1994
Inspirador, y de una poética muy directa. Un estilo muy urbano y muy humano.
Relatos interesantes:
* "Otras madres" - 1975
* "Declaración de unidad de las mujeres en sus protestas contra el Pentágono" - 1982
*BRUTAL "De poesía, mujeres y el mundo" - 1986 (recoje la poesía "Es responsabilidad")
*BRUTAL "Un día inventé una historia" - 1985
Reflexiones:
* "Eso de los átomos pacíficos no existe, y en nuestra época hemos declarado la guerra al futuro,que antes era una promesa de esperanza"; en "Historia de Karen Silkwood Drive" (1977) sobre una sentada anti nuclear, sus detenciones..., reflexiones a pie de activismo.
* "Cada vez tengo más claro que esa es la verdadera esencia de la desobediencia civil no violenta: la terquedad más absoluta" ----- "Aún así, No Violencia no significa seguridad personal. El pacifismo no es "pasivismo".Y cuando lo es, es inútil. De manera que intentaré, junto con otras personas, cambiar este mundo de la manera más terca que sea posible sin causar dolor ni muerte, pero también sin evitar la confrontación en un conflicto, incluso provocándola..." en "Ampliando los límites de la acción" - 1984
* "la guerra está inventada por los hombres (...) porque yo, de niña, era más bien un niño, como tantas chicas a las que les gusta meterse en todo y estar donde está la acción (...) Pero cuando mi propia vida fue desarrollándose, cuando empecé a leer, y a pensar y a vivir dentro de mi propia vida, cuando empecé a trabajar como escritora, dejé de ser un chico. Dejó de gustarme serlo, dejé de querer serlo. (...) una vida en la que se me exigirían comportamientos,sentimientos, pasiones y entusiasmos que no quería y que no significaban nada para mi" ----- "La palabra "imaginación", tal y como nos la enseñan desde nuestra niñez, significa imaginar fantasías. Decimos "qué imaginación tiene ese niño. Qué listo es, ha imaginado demonios y duendes". Pero la verdad (cuando digo la verdad, claro, me refiero a una parte de ella) es que quizás lo que nos haga falta ahora mismo sea imaginar lo real. Es ahí donde fallan nuestros líderes, Y nosotros deberíamos ser capaces de imaginar las vidas de otras personas"; En "De poesía, mujeres y el mundo" - 1986
* "No puedo imaginarme sus vidas, pero si sé que los "desconectores" son ellos. Nos han infundido angustia. Sin embargo, en el filo de esa angustia brilla una luz testaruda llamada esperanza. La esperanza no es algo efímero. Es una realidad que brota del nacer y el renacer de la humanidad a lo largo de su historia, una historia en la que la valentía, la solidaridad, la lucha obstinada y la imaginación han sido lo bastante poderosas como para modificar las derivas pavorosas de la guerra y la opresión"; En "Un día inventé una historia" - 1985
* "Siempre iba muy erguida. Creo que había desarrollado esa postura corporal tan saludable a base de plantarse frente a innumerables sinvergüenzas e ignorantes. A veces frente al acoso colectivo del estado (nuestro estado) y otras frente a la decidida maldad de los ignorantes"; En "Kay Boyle" - 1994
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 25, 2018
"I think that one of the aspects of Wolf's work that bothers — I mean enrages — the male critics of West Germany, apart from her disinterest in Hemingway, is her criticism of male hierarchical modes, her disinterest in the hero. "As long as there are victors," there's not too much hope for the world. The only hero is the anti-heroine Cassandra, who sees how decent Aeneas will finally, going forth, only re-create the same patriarchal system. "We have no chance against a time that needs heroes." Cassandra sees her death before her, and all the other deaths. She can't do much, but she can see. That is her task on earth, to see, to teach seeing, to tell."
July 18, 2022
Paley writes with power and fluency on issues that touched her personally: pacifism, anti-imperialism, women’s rights, anti-poverty work. Although many of the essays were published ~50 years ago, very little seems dated. Reading this collection in 2022 is an education in where we women came from, the progress we made in the 20th century, and, by comparison, how much we’ve lost since the rise of right wing evangelicals and their misogynist policies. Ditto, worker’s rights and capitalist exploitation.
August 3, 2017
Grace Paley's essays carried me back to the era of my student days. The child of Russian Jewish immigrants, Grace Paley was raised to challenge institutional injustices and to work for its victims' advancement. She labelled herself an anarchist. She worked ardently to protest the Viet Nam war. This book is both a memoir and a chronicle of her activism. Her voice is articulate and compelling.
March 27, 2019
Did I ever imagine reading a collection of essays and speeches by a leading feminist and non-violent protestor from America’s final half of the 20th Century? Thanks to the Brain Pickings newsletter I did so - and enjoyed meeting Grace.
December 6, 2019
Grace Paley is amazing. These were (sometimes) hard to read essays - each beautifully crafted and thoughtful. Fun to hear thoughts from my youth
May 6, 2022
She sounds like a reasonable person
August 28, 2022
Don't write what you know about,
Write new things that you find out.
Write new things that you find out.
October 26, 2023
Brilliant. Period.
to-buy
September 7, 2015From Brain Pickings
July 12, 2023
write all your mistakes down so you don’t make them again
April 8, 2017
There were some gems in this collections of decidedly leftist articles, essays, poetry, musings and manifestos spanning from the 60s to the 90s. I especially liked and appreciated the writings that dealt with feminism, the Vietnam protests and grassroots activism. Paley spent her entire life being stubborn and fighting non-violently for the end of war, nuclear arms and energy, womens' equality, workers' rights, gay rights and much more. She was a vanguard and much of what we're seeing today with grassroots actions being led by women* is a mirror to what she and her fellow women accomplished in the 60s and 70s.
Some snippets that really resonated with me:
1. Social media à la 70s while protesting at a proposed nuclear plant location: typing a press release on a typewriter, taping it to a frisbee and throwing it over the fence to the media
2. The Friends saying "Speak truth to power", which Paley modified to say "Act truth to power"
3. Paleys' notes on teaching writing assignments, including writing about something you don't understand and especially, not writing about yourself for the first year of writing since "When I find only myself interesting, I'm a conceited bore. When I'm interested in you, I'm interesting."
4. Understanding vs caring - many people understand poverty, bombings, suffering. But they don't care so either turn their heads to it, or continue actually inflicting the pain. This got me to thinking, why? Is empathy somewhere in between these two?
5. A war "ends", maybe officially or unofficially, but it really doesn't end for the people involved on either side. Paley really experienced this first hand in Vietnam and then as an experienced protester in the early 90s with the Gulf War.
6. Paley's immediate visceral reaction to the Gulf War reminded me of protesting that war the first night at the Federal Building in Westwood near UCLA. No thinking, we just went, despite the fact that it was a "popular" war. But victory wasn't so sweet even for the victors and we continue to learn about more and more Vets who come home pretty broken even if they "win" a war. The Gulf War was a turning point in modern wars as it were -- not only, as Paley noted, because the press all of a sudden became "embedded" with troops (aka controlled as to what they saw), but also because real war became an anonymized video game. In a class at UCLA, one of my professors said she nearly fell out of her chair when she watched the evening news, which showed clear footage of a camera on a bomb while it zoomed toward a building, only going to black when it hit the target. Now 20 years later we have drones who do our dirty work, guided by someone on another continent. Soldiers can guide a bomb to destroy things and kill people with a billion dollar joy stick. Do these drone soldiers dream of electric sheep or of burnt bodies?
*I read a stat that the current progressive grassroots activism movement is made up of over 80% women. From anecdotal personal evidence, this appears to be true in my city.
Some snippets that really resonated with me:
1. Social media à la 70s while protesting at a proposed nuclear plant location: typing a press release on a typewriter, taping it to a frisbee and throwing it over the fence to the media
2. The Friends saying "Speak truth to power", which Paley modified to say "Act truth to power"
3. Paleys' notes on teaching writing assignments, including writing about something you don't understand and especially, not writing about yourself for the first year of writing since "When I find only myself interesting, I'm a conceited bore. When I'm interested in you, I'm interesting."
4. Understanding vs caring - many people understand poverty, bombings, suffering. But they don't care so either turn their heads to it, or continue actually inflicting the pain. This got me to thinking, why? Is empathy somewhere in between these two?
5. A war "ends", maybe officially or unofficially, but it really doesn't end for the people involved on either side. Paley really experienced this first hand in Vietnam and then as an experienced protester in the early 90s with the Gulf War.
6. Paley's immediate visceral reaction to the Gulf War reminded me of protesting that war the first night at the Federal Building in Westwood near UCLA. No thinking, we just went, despite the fact that it was a "popular" war. But victory wasn't so sweet even for the victors and we continue to learn about more and more Vets who come home pretty broken even if they "win" a war. The Gulf War was a turning point in modern wars as it were -- not only, as Paley noted, because the press all of a sudden became "embedded" with troops (aka controlled as to what they saw), but also because real war became an anonymized video game. In a class at UCLA, one of my professors said she nearly fell out of her chair when she watched the evening news, which showed clear footage of a camera on a bomb while it zoomed toward a building, only going to black when it hit the target. Now 20 years later we have drones who do our dirty work, guided by someone on another continent. Soldiers can guide a bomb to destroy things and kill people with a billion dollar joy stick. Do these drone soldiers dream of electric sheep or of burnt bodies?
*I read a stat that the current progressive grassroots activism movement is made up of over 80% women. From anecdotal personal evidence, this appears to be true in my city.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews