New Short Story: The Wings The Lungs, The Engine The Heart

[Rune Lai]

I have a new short story published. "The Wings The Lungs, The Engine The Heart" is out in the July issue of Galaxy's Edge and will be available free online until the end of August, at which point it'll have to be purchased in the form of an ebook back issue.

This is my first (and probably not last) WWI story, and it seems fitting it comes out so close to the centennial of the start of the war. Naturally, there is a bit of a sci-fi/alternate history twist to it.

Until I wrote this story, I'd never written a historical figure before, and I tried very hard to capture both the Red Baron's growing disillusionment with the war and his unwavering dedication to keep fighting.

While doing my research I became convinced that he started suffering from PTSD by the end of the war. I don't think he's normally considered a heroic historical figure (especially since he was German), but there are two anecdotes I encountered while reading about him that make me think that he was.

One was a conversation with his mother, where he told her that the reason he kept fighting even though it was clearly draining him was because each sortie his combat wing flew meant less bombs dropping on the heads of German soldiers. The second was his refusal to be recalled from the battlefield (the army feared the morale drop if he died), because he reasoned that if the average soldier in the trenches did not have a choice about fighting then he could hardly sit at a desk job either.

The Red Baron eventually died in combat at age 25, two weeks short of his 26th birthday. By that time he had been at war for almost four years straight, and if he had lived another seven months he would have seen the war's end. The British buried him with full military honors (he fell behind enemy lines), which says how highly they regarded him.

[northlander]

I don't want to speculate too much about war mentality, since I've never really been in one, but during one, I doubt it's normal to refer to anyone in the opposing forces as "heroes". (Though he certainly must have been a war hero for the Germans.) However, recognizing one's efforts might be another thing; if the British chose to bury the man with honors, that sort of thing should definitely be accounted for.

I'm also curious whether the backlash against German war efforts might've been soured dramatically after the second world war, where the Germans took on a far more antagonistic role rather than just being on the opposing team.

[Rune Lai]

Yeah, I'm sure you don't normally refer to soldiers on the opposing side as heroes, even if you respect them, at least not in the heat of the moment. I generally like reading and writing WWI as opposed to WWII because it's not a war easily turned into a story of good vs. evil. It feels very human.

All Quiet on the Western Front was one of my favorite books in high school, and was influential on my early writing (even though it's not science fiction or fantasy!), so my view of WWI Germany tends to be highly sympathetic towards the idea that everyone suffered no matter which side of the war they were on.

I'm less certain about real life backlash, since WWII overshadows WWI dramatically in the US, but at least in fiction I know that the evil German stereotype has retroactively filtered into WWI media. There's a WWI zombie book I read earlier (I think I ranted about it in the book thread) where every German character is either a faceless mook or a moustache-twirling villain. The Red Baron is the main villain and a megalomaniac.

Even Valiant Hearts, which is a rare WWI game with a highly praised story, falls back on having an evil German for the main bad guy (and the Kotaku reviewer was facepalming about it too).

I've had the luck of meeting several Germans IRL; at college, at work, while traveling, etc. and collectively I've found them to be a warm and friendly people so I have trouble reconciling that with pop culture. Yes, Nazi Germany was terrible beyond words, but it's not the whole story.

[northlander]

Funny you should mention Valiant Hearts, because I'm playing that game right now. Yeah, the Evil German thing is kind of cringeworthy, but if you ignore that aspect of the story -- well, and some of the more tedious back-and-forth puzzles and game mechanics -- it's a really wonderful game. It's worth it just to see how the characters you play as progress through with their lives, and there's also a lot of optional information you can read; historical tidbits and the likes. (Including a really disconcerting picture of what shrapnel can do to your head.)

As far as WW II goes; was "The Wave" also mandatory watching when you when to school? The movie might come across as a bit dated now, but it's an interesting look into mob mentality and... well, a fairly good answer to the question "how could the Germans let things get so out of hand during WW II?"

We tend to get German tourists here in Norway, and the few I've been talking to have all been very polite and well-mannered. Given that the Germans also occupied Norway for a while during the war, you do get a few historical lessons and stories about that, either in school or outside. Some parts of that are... not Norway's proudest moments, like the whole thing with the, as we call it; "tyskertøser" -- basically Norwegian women who, at some point, fell in love with German soldiers and started a relationship with them (often resulting in children.) Whatever one might say about cavorting with members of the invading forces notwithstanding, our dealings with those women -- and their children -- could have been better. A LOT better.

I don't really think Norway was much involved in the first world war, but we certainly were in the second. That's probably also why that war -- even setting the many atrocities that went on during it aside -- rings more personal to us than the first one. (Which was more a central European thing.) I'm actually curious about how the US feels about it, since your country partook in both wars, but as far as I can tell, never on your own home soil.

[Rune Lai]

Oops... missed seeing this.

I'm looking forward to playing Valiant Hearts when I get out of crunch time at work. My friend saw the trailer thinks I'm a little nutty for wanting to play a game with a tearjerker game trailer, but I could go for a non-standard game.

I did see "The Wave" in school. I don't think it was mandatory, but I found it eye-opening since I was young enough when I saw it to not understand where the story was going until the big reveal at the end. If I saw it now that I'm older I think I'd be more cynical about it.

The US tends to be more interested in WWII more than WWI. I think it's because we were more involved in that one. Pearl Harbor got attacked, we dropped the atomic bombs, and then there's the feel good stuff about stomping out evil. You can tell a story about heroes easily.

And then, because I live on the west coast, the forced relocation of the ethnic Japanese during WWII gets talked about a lot. I don't know if that's talked about overseas, but during WWII the United States was very afraid that any citizens of Japanese descent could be spies, so all of them leaving on the west coast were rounded up and sent to camps in the country's interior where they were imprisoned for the duration of the war (unless they were young men willing to join the army to fight in Europe). It wasn't exactly a glamorous part of our history either...

It's a little hard to imagine now, but the United States used to be a more isolationist country. We barely got involved in WWI, and despite what people keep thinking about over on this side of the pond, the sinking of the Lusitania (a British ship) wasn't enough to push the US into the war. The US was actually upset about the naval blockade cutting off Germany and was pressuring Britain to stop (because being a neutral country for most of the war, the US wanted to trade with them, and in fact, when Germany managed to send a merchant submarine over during the war, we did!). If Germany hadn't tried coercing Mexico into attacking the US, we probably would have stayed neutral until the end.