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Our collective memories of World War II and Vietnam have been shaped as much by memoirs, novels, and films as they have been by history books. In Welcome to the Suck, Stacey Peebles examines the growing body of contemporary war stories in prose, poetry, and film that speak to the American soldier's experience in the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War.Stories about war always encompass ideas about initiation, masculinity, cross-cultural encounters, and trauma. Peebles shows us how these timeless themes find new expression among a generation of soldiers who have grown up in a time when it has been more acceptable than ever before to challenge cultural and societal norms, and who now have unprecedented and immediate access to the world away from the battlefield through new media and technology.Two Gulf War memoirs by Anthony Swofford (Jarhead) and Joel Turnipseed (Baghdad Express) provide a portrait of soldiers living and fighting on the cusp of the major political and technological changes that would begin in earnest just a few years later. The Iraq War, a much longer conflict, has given rise to more and various representations. Peebles covers a blog by Colby Buzzell ("My War"), memoirs by Nathaniel Fick (One Bullet Away) and Kayla Williams (Love My Rifle More Than You); a collection of stories by John Crawford (The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell); poetry by Brian Turner (Here, Bullet); the documentary Alive Day Memories; and the feature films In the Valley of Elah and the winner of the 2010 Oscar for Best Picture, The Hurt Locker, both written by the war correspondent Mark Boal.Books and other media emerging from the conflicts in the Gulf have yet to receive the kind of serious attention that Vietnam War texts received during the 1980s and 1990s. With its thoughtful and timely analysis, Welcome to the Suck will provoke much discussion among those who wish to understand today's war literature and films and their place in the tradition of war representation more generally.

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United States of America

Iraq

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Publié par	Cornell University Press
Date de parution	15 avril 2011
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9780801460944
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,7500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Welcome to the Suck

Narrating the American Soldier’s Experience in Iraq

Stacey Peebles

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2011 by Cornell University Press Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Peebles, Stacey L. (Stacey Lyn), 1976– Welcome to the suck : narrating the American soldier’s experience in Iraq / Stacey Peebles. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780801449468 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Persian Gulf War, 1991—Personal narratives, American. 2. Iraq War, 2003– —Personal narratives, American. 3. Persian Gulf War, 1991—Literature and the war. 4. Iraq War, 2003–—Literature and the war. 5. Iraq War, 2003–—Motion pictures and the war. I. Title. DS79.74.P44 2011 956.7044'24092273—dc22 2010044422

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood ﬁbers. For further information, visit our website at www. cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Contents

1. Lines of Sight: Watching War inJarheadandMy War: Killing Time in Iraq

2. Making a Military Man: Iraq, Gender, and the Failure of the Masculine Collective

3. Consuming the Other: Blinding Absence inThe Last True Story I’ll Ever TellandHere, Bullet

4. One of U.S.: Combat Trauma on Film inAlive Day MemoriesandIn the Valley of ElahConclusion

Notes Bibliography Index

vii

101

136 163

175 179 189

Acknowledgments

I owe a special thanks to David Mikics, who encouraged this project from its inception, read every chapter multiple times, and offered invalu able feedback. I am also grateful to Peter Potter for championing the idea for this book and providing kind and detailed guidance every step of the way. I would like to thank Wayne Lesser and Tom Palaima for all these years of friendship, ideas, collaboration, and support. My thanks to Sue Collins for her perpetual encouragement, and to Karen Fang, Elizabeth Klett, and Kat McClellan for sharing coffee, research goals, frustrations, and suc cesses. Iain Morrisson’s, Dan Price’s, and Ralph Rodriguez’s comments on chapter 1 in its earlier incarnation as an article were very helpful. Thanks to Tony Hilfer, who would have loved this adventure. And especially thanks to Barbara and Gene Peebles for all their love, and to Richard Power, my reader ﬁrst and last. An earlier version of Chapter 1 was published as an article in a special issue ofPMLA on “War” in October 2009. I am grateful to the Modern

v i i i A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s

Language Association of America for permission to reprint overlapping material. I also thank Alice James Books (www.alicejamesbooks.org) for permission to reprint excerpts from Brian Turner’s book,Here, Bullet(Copyright © 2005 by Brian Turner).

Introduction

Being a Soldier makes me proud, it’s the in between part that can be tough.

—from the military blog “American Soldier,” posted 29 January 2006

Near the end ofJarhead,2003 memoir of the Persian Gulf War, his Marine infantryman Anthony Swofford writes about celebrating with his company when they learn that the war is suddenly over. “The music plays throughout the day, Hendrix, the Stones, the Who, music from a differ ent war,” he complains. “Ours is barely over but we begin to tell stories already” (335). Like many other soldiers from the Gulf War and the Iraq War, Swofford ﬁnds himself drawn to 1960s rock and roll and other touch stones of the Vietnam era, yet he is eager to show how this war,hiswar, is unique. He is effectively “in between” the old war stories and the new one that he and his fellow soldiers will help to tell. The only thing to do, as he and his comrades demonstrate, is to start talking. Most people have become familiar with what life was like for a sol dier in Vietnam through the popular representations of that war. Films likePlatoonandFull Metal Jacketas well as books by Philip Caputo, Mi chael Herr, and Tim O’Brien follow the experiences of young men, usually drafted into service, encountering thick jungle, guerrilla warfare, and rock

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