I imagine the poem as being spoken unironically by someone like Napoleon in "War and Peace,", surveying the "fine deaths" on the field of Austerlitz. These were little souls, he thinks, fit to be cannon fodder. They longed for to fight their way out of their paltry lives, and war has enlarged them.
I was assigned The Red Badge of Courage in an English class. I guess middle school? Maybe high school? I remember having to write an essay about it at any rate. And I remember it being a hard book that had a lot of parts that didn't make much sense. Strangely I remember my fascination with an image Crane uses of the sun like a red wafer. Which at the time I didn't understand at all, but now seems likely a wafer of red sealing wax. And I can place the image, having seen the sun on smoky days. It does look very like a red ball.
Thanks for this poem with which I was unfamiliar. It's striking.
As for boys' reading -- I remember reading The Red Badge of Courage at some point and my reaction to it was "I'm so glad I'm a girl. I don't want to be a soldier! I would be so scared....." Kind of dated I know!
In regards to boys reading, I never read The Red Badge of Courage but I remember it from those lists. You could pretty much tell which ones were put on there for the boys (and for the girls, for that matter). I even read a few of the "boys books", just because they felt so segregated, although I couldn't say which ones they were now.
My own son discovered his "boys reading" in the antique Tarzan books he found on our bookshelf one afternoon. I always thought they were an odd thing for my husband's grandmother (I think?) to have collected until I listened to the discussions my son had with my husband about them.
Indeed. Reading it almost feels like it is a sarcastic reply to one of those people who say things like "it was for the best" in reply to some tragedy, focusing only on the final outcome after the horror has faded, conveniently forgetting about all of the ruin that occurred.
I listened to The Red Badge of Courage recently on audiobooks. It was the first time “reading” it. Seems to border on stream of consciousness. To me, it does not seem like a boy’s book. But maybe it comes across very differently if you read it like a book.
I think it's not so much a boys' book as something that for a generation or two was imagined a boys' book, and thus placed on summer reading lists in an effort to get boys to read it. That near stream-of-consciousness in naturalism you noticed may be clearest in Crane's "The Open Boat."
I recall Red Badge being the most popular choice for any book report assignment where there was a choice because it was so short.
I'm not sure if I've read the other two stories but The Open Boat has stayed with me since high school.
I imagine the poem as being spoken unironically by someone like Napoleon in "War and Peace,", surveying the "fine deaths" on the field of Austerlitz. These were little souls, he thinks, fit to be cannon fodder. They longed for to fight their way out of their paltry lives, and war has enlarged them.
I was assigned The Red Badge of Courage in an English class. I guess middle school? Maybe high school? I remember having to write an essay about it at any rate. And I remember it being a hard book that had a lot of parts that didn't make much sense. Strangely I remember my fascination with an image Crane uses of the sun like a red wafer. Which at the time I didn't understand at all, but now seems likely a wafer of red sealing wax. And I can place the image, having seen the sun on smoky days. It does look very like a red ball.
Thanks for this poem with which I was unfamiliar. It's striking.
As for boys' reading -- I remember reading The Red Badge of Courage at some point and my reaction to it was "I'm so glad I'm a girl. I don't want to be a soldier! I would be so scared....." Kind of dated I know!
In regards to boys reading, I never read The Red Badge of Courage but I remember it from those lists. You could pretty much tell which ones were put on there for the boys (and for the girls, for that matter). I even read a few of the "boys books", just because they felt so segregated, although I couldn't say which ones they were now.
My own son discovered his "boys reading" in the antique Tarzan books he found on our bookshelf one afternoon. I always thought they were an odd thing for my husband's grandmother (I think?) to have collected until I listened to the discussions my son had with my husband about them.
"an indigestible bit of verse"
Indeed. Reading it almost feels like it is a sarcastic reply to one of those people who say things like "it was for the best" in reply to some tragedy, focusing only on the final outcome after the horror has faded, conveniently forgetting about all of the ruin that occurred.
I listened to The Red Badge of Courage recently on audiobooks. It was the first time “reading” it. Seems to border on stream of consciousness. To me, it does not seem like a boy’s book. But maybe it comes across very differently if you read it like a book.
I think it's not so much a boys' book as something that for a generation or two was imagined a boys' book, and thus placed on summer reading lists in an effort to get boys to read it. That near stream-of-consciousness in naturalism you noticed may be clearest in Crane's "The Open Boat."