War Journalism

We recently did a class workshop on war literature. War reporting alternatively fascinates and terrifies me. I used to be obsessed with being a war correspondent, but I honestly don't know how I'd react in that sort of situation.

We read 4 excerpts of novels:

Dispatches by Michael Herr

The Good Soldiers by David Finkel
The Forever War by Dexter Filkins
If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien

They are all very different to one another, and I have to say that my favourite would have to be The Good Soldiers. The way that Finkel does character development is amazing. He introduces and creates his characters in beautiful detail. It's immediately obvious that he spent a huge amount of time around these people - Finkel knows what the lieutenant hangs on his wall to the intimate details of an email from his wife, Within the first two pages, you already feel like you know Ralph Kauzlarich.

The novel is written in the third person, and Finkel is not present through out the book at all, which is unusual for war reporting. In the other three aforementioned novels, each author has an immediate presence.

His carefully crafted rhythms and repetitions in the long sentences create a heaviness, and a sense of foreboding. You really are waiting for something to go wrong, because his tone has basically guaranteed it. A huge amount of thought as gone into each line. Finkel's writing is detailed and reflective, so that the reader is not completely devoid of hope.

I would have loved to keep reading, and I am planning to purchase this book. I just felt, personally, that the other novels did not convey the same solemnity in their work. I'm certain that other styles work for other people, but I feel like it's slightly tacky.

For this reason alone I didn't like If I Die in a Combat Zone. The continuous dialogue and casual tone made it seem too lighthearted for me, like what they were doing wasn't real or serious. I'm sure that's not what the author way trying to convey, but it didn't work for me. But that's not to say at all that it's not fantastic work. In fact, a lot of people in my class really enjoyed that excerpt.

There are so many ways to portray war through literary journalism, and different ways appeal to different people. I feel like war should be taken seriously, and in this respect, I feel like Finkel hit the nail right on the head. 

Story Proposal

I had to submit a formal story proposal for my literary feature. We basically had to outline the story, discuss the stylistic strategies we planned to do and give a story sample.


I haven't yet gone to interview my Nana - I'll be doing that over the semester break. I spoke to her on the phone to find out a few things, but it meant I was quite limited in my synopsis and my example, so I worked mainly on the intro. 


I'll skip the synopsis - I've discussed what I'm doing in earlier posts, but I'll include the strategies I plan to use, and my story example here to give you a idea of where I'm going.


Stylistic Strategies

I will be putting myself in this article, and plan to write it as a sort of journey to learn about my grandfathers history, before he passes away. He has Alzheimer’s. However, I do not want to become self indulgent in my feature, and I want to make sure that I keep the focus on the story of his life, not the story of mine.

I want to write the piece emotionlessly. I believe that if I’m going to already be present in the article, writing it with too much emotion will make my presence overwhelming By being somewhat emotionless, and in the style of Rebecca Solnit, I think I can keep my presence separate from the importance of the story I’m telling.

I also need to be very descriptive, without coming across as ‘flowery’. Because much of my research is based on memories, photos and news articles, I need to be sure that the reader can relate to the story, and feel involved, rather than just feel like they are reading a re-hashing of old news pieces.

I will shape the purpose and drive of the piece to be that I am going to Brisbane to find out my family history before my grandfather passes away, but I want this to be a subtle driving force.

Sample

It was the year Wall Street Crashed, Hollywood played host to the first Academy Awards, in London the BBC lit up English television screens for the first time, Western Australia celebrated 100 years of white settlement, it was the year that marked the end of the ‘Roaring Twenties’. It ws 1929, the year my grandfather was born. He was nine years old when World War II started, and 36 when troops were sent to Vietnam. By then, he was living in Papua New Guinea with his wife and two sons.

Now, he is 80, and lives in a nursing home in Caloundra, a suburb of Brisbane. He's in the advanced stages of Alzheimer’s disease and no longer recognises his grandchildren, children or his wife. For anyone, it is a cruel disease, but for a man who moved his life to a third world country, dealt with local animosity towards the Japanese men he hired, and then created a pearl trading legacy for his sons, it seems especially unfair. 

I have left it too late, I can’t speak to my grandfather to hear this history from him. But, my nana has, over the many years, kept everything, as if to catalogue their lives. Every newspaper article has been laminated for longevity. Her memory is good. Even now, she can recall to the day they moved to Papua New Guinea, as newlyweds.

Obviously I have a lot more work to do, but I like the the tone I've set. Once I've done all my interviews I'll have far more to run with. I always struggle with introductions though, and I feel like - with a bit of tweaking - this one can really work. 

The Summer Garden

In one of our literary workshops, we were told to bring an example of fiction that we like. The class assignment was to identify the style, why we like it and then to write a piece on an incident in our own life that imitates the style of our novel.

I chose The Summer Garden by Paullina Simons. Simons is my absolute favourite author. I have all of her books, and I re-read them constantly. The Summer Garden is the last chapter in a trilogy on war and love in Russia. It spans across eighty years, two wars and several countries.

It's also known as the Tatiana and Alexander trilogy, and I could talk about it for hours. If you are looking for something to read, I highly highly recommend this. It starts off with The Bronze Horseman, then Tatiana and Alexander (also called Bridge to Holy Cross) and finishes with The Summer Garden. Simons has a huge range of books, which I also recommend.



Simons has a very distinctive style, which she used in all her books. Her writing is quite emotional, which draws the reader in, and I feel like you almost become emotionally invested in the book.
She uses the techniques of flashbacks and very in-depth memories of characters lives, before the books began. This means that you know have really almost been there for their whole lives, even if the book began in their 20's.

Simons also has a habit of mentioning something in her books that later become huge events. When Tatiana first meets Alexander, the reader gets a slight idea that this may be important. It turns out to be a focus point of the characters lives together, and throughout the trilogy their whole lives come back to that day at the bus stop.

The book is written in third person, and her character development is exquisite. I have never felt so attached to characters as I do in this trilogy. But it's not just their personalities that are so in-depth - it's what they reflect as people. Tatiana reflects 20th century Russia and the mentality of it's people. Alexander is the same, but for America. Tatiana is submissive, stoic and careful. Alexander is gung-ho, aggressive and dominant. Tatiana is a nurse, and her personality is the epitome of that. Alexander is a soldier from WWII, and he can't shake that.

These reflections are brought up time and time again; when they fight, Tatiana will say 'weapons down, soldier'. By these stark comparisons, you are really able to get a sense of who the character is, and readers can almost predict how they'll act in different situations.

Simons will also use a series of short sentences, and then long sentences. She tends to go back and forth, which influences the pace of the reader.

Her style is highly recognizable. It's a style that I would consider writing in for my literary feature, but I don't think I can do it justice.

Um, Gonzo Journalism?

I was explaining my literary journalism class to a friend the other day. Firstly, she didn't really get the difference between feature articles and literary pieces - "they're both telling a story right? And they're both true?"

So I gave her a few examples, such as travel writing, memoirs, biographies, personal essays, war literature and gonzo journalism.

Hunter S. Thompson

"Um, Gonzo journalism?"
"Yeah, you know. Like Hunter S Thompson. Or Truman Capote."
"Yeah, no. Hunter S who now?"
"Have you seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas? It's based on one of his books. It's also called New Journalism."
"Fear and what in the where? And new journalism? What is old journalism?"

And so on. After much explaining, exasperated sighing and wikipedia-ing, she got it. But I was really surprised she hadn't heard of Gonzo journalism. I always thought that out of the literary journalism sub-categories, Gonzo was the most well-known.

Gonzo journalism is highly subjective style of writing, where the writer almost always includes themselves in the story via first-person narrative.

The term 'gonzo' was first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter Thompson. The reason for the term 'gonzo' being used isn't really known. There are quite a few theories bouncing around, from coming from the name of a song, to it being taken from South Boston Irish slang.

It's also been considered as "a form of journalism in which actual facts are deemed less important than a perceived underlying truth."

I don't take that to mean that it's untruthful. I like Gonzo journalism, and I really like Hunter Thompson's writing. I think it's vibrant, engaging and funny. Reading a Thompson book is like reading a slightly-crazy, surprisingly insightful stream of conscience.

In some contexts, Gonzo has also come to mean 'extreme' or 'done with reckless abandon', which I feel sums it up really well. I would love to write in this style. However, for my major assignment (more on that to come), it would absolutely be the wrong style. I'd definitely be interested to give it a try, but from the in class assignments we've done so far, I feel like my tone is far more sombre and formal, so I'd have to really work on changing my style.

If you're interested in getting into some Gonzo journalism, which I highly recommend, I would suggest starting with either Generation of Swine or The Rum Diaries, both by Thompson.

What to do, what to do

What to do indeed. My major assignment for my literary journalism class is to write a 4000-5000 word literary feature.

This is daunting.

I haven't been able to come up with an idea. Things kept popping into my head, but I either find them boring - and if I can't get interested, how could my reader? - or are going to be too difficult to pull off.

My first solid idea was to write about ex-pat lifestyle. I grew up in Singapore, and moved to Australia when I was 15. It was a huge culture shock for me to move here, and the differences between an ex-patriot lifestyle in an Asian country, and living in a western country are immense.

We were bouncing ideas around in class, and but when I pitched it, my tutor said that it would be too difficult considering I don't live in Singapore anymore. To do the piece justice, I would need to return there to interview people.

I was left empty-handed, and although I could have taken another spin on the story, I wasn't interested. I went from idea to idea daily. One was to interview Sydney's white supremacists. I was really surprised that there was actual organised neo-nazi factions in Sydney, and I wanted to know what made them join, and what made them, well, racist. They didn't reply to my emails.

Another idea was to write about the Deaf Community. I came across an article about a 25-year-old woman receiving a cochlear implant who had been shunned by some of her deaf friends. I don't know if this is naive, but I would have thought it was something to celebrate. Apparently not, as some deaf people believe that it's better to sign, and be around people who are like you. It's called Deaf Culture. I found it fascinating, but it would have been hard to write about, and to interview for as I don't know how to sign.

In the end, we were going around the class pitching our rough ideas, and I was really stressing. I had recently decided to do my documentary journalism class on my grandfather. He moved to Papua New Guinea in his twenties as a general trader, and then began PNG's first pearl farm. He raised is two sons there, and began a pearl trading business that now successfully operates out of Hong Kong, run by my father.

He faced local animosity towards his hiring of Japanese, and he was the first trader into China after they opened their doors to merchants. I just thought it story was really interesting, and to my surprise, my tutor agreed. So I'll be heading to Brisbane in a couple of weeks to start interviewing. I'll post my synopsis and an example piece up soon. It's nice knowing now that I actually have an idea to start working on.

Feature Analysis

My first major assignment for this class was to write a feature analysis on a piece of literary journalism. Unfortunately, I did my assignment on a piece that wasn't included in the selections provided by our tutor. I did my analysis on Hiroshima by Jon Hersey. You can find a short excerpt here. 


We went over the piece in class, and I really enjoyed it. The way the author uses time and pacing to convey each experience made for engaging reading. I won't include my entire analysis here, but here's (what I think) are the better parts: 

In terms of literary journalism, Hersey’s Hiroshima is often credited as being one of the first examples of ‘new’ or ‘literary’ journalism. The story takes on a novel-style quality, while still keeping the reader alert to the fact that what they are reading is, in fact, non-fiction. As literary journalism progressed, authors became more likely to insert themselves into their stories, and write about the mundane, frivolous and serious. Hersey set a high standard for new journalism, and his detached style of writing is perfectly suited to the gravity of the event he was reporting on. In addition, as he was not present during the bombing, it would have come across as self-indulgent to include himself in the character stories, and would have certainly detracted from the stories themselves.

One of the strongest features of the chapter ‘A Noiseless Flash’ in the book Hiroshima is the definite sense of time, place and distance with every character in comparison to the bomb explosion. Due to this repetition of time and distance, it becomes almost easier to remember the character by what they were doing and where they were, rather than their name. The author notes for each character the exact distance they were from the bomb explosion. It is so memorable because rather than adding it at the beginning, or as an afterthought, it is consistently mentioned in brackets at the same time as the characters react to the flash of light from the exploding bomb. This gives depth and a relationship between characters who otherwise (aside from surviving the atomic bomb) had none. You can easily visualise the characters experiencing the blast and flash of light like dominoes. The author starts out by telling the story of the character furthest away – Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto – and finishes with Toshiko Sasaki, who was only 1600 yards from the centre. However, before going into the individual stories of each character, the author begins with an introduction that briefly describes the characters, going from the closest to the bomb to the furthest. This character development lets the reader know the order of the survivors in a quick-fire fashion – much like the bomb he is writing about. Then, the story telling begins starting from the outside and works it’s way back to the centre.  This style of writing, which follows the same pattern for each character strengthens the story in that there is a distinctive flow and rhythm to every individual story. Hersey’s method of cutting off the story immediately after the atomic bomb exploded feels abrupt and leaves the reader wanting to continue the story.

If each of these stories had been written as a news article, or even a feature article, they would not have had the same effect. By writing a detached, non-fiction novel, Hersey brought a terrible, albeit fascinating, story with excellent reporting into the open, and simultaneously introduced the world to literary journalism.

 I think Hiroshima is an example of fantastic writing, and I'm looking forward to reading the whole thing (buy it here). 

So what is literary journalism?

That's a good question. I initially signed up for this class because I liked the sound of it. Journalism and literature; it sounded classy, and it sounded like something I'd like to write.

But I didn't really know what it was, and I was surprised to find out that Truman Capote's In Cold Blood was an example of literary journalism, as well as the ramblings of Hunter S. Thompson. In my mind, literary journalism was something like the Pride and Prejudice of journalism. But it turns out, literary journalism can take on any style, from a well-structured, well-spoken tone, to Hunter Thompson. It's the techniques that writers use which make it a literary piece.

As I see it, literary journalism is a journalistic text that reads like a novel. However, it's content is accurate and truthful, and the author still approaches the topic in the way a journalist would. The main difference is how the piece is actually written, and techniques the author uses, such as linking events to memories, reflection, history and other people's stories.


At first, I thought it seemed like magazine writing, only about three times longer. However, literary journalism is much more like a personal essay, or a memoir, and typically involves far more research.
After some readings we've had in class, I find that I get far more involved in literary pieces, much more so than feature articles. We've read some great pieces in class that I'll go into in more depth about later on, but  already I get the sense that far more thought is put into these pieces.

This is going to be a learning experience for me in literary writing, leading up to my final assignment of a 4000 - 5000 word literary article. I hope you'll enjoy reading as I learn more throughout the semester.