Comments on: Death tolls http://www.afburns.com/2008/06/26/death-tolls/ Alexander Burns's writing sketchbook Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:33:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Jens http://www.afburns.com/2008/06/26/death-tolls/comment-page-1/#comment-118 Jens Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:31:16 +0000 http://afburns.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/death-tolls/#comment-118 Really? I oughta check that out. I'm sure that the wisdom Camus hands out in "The Plague" would be a comfort to one trying to make it through the genocide. Really? I oughta check that out. I’m sure that the wisdom Camus hands out in “The Plague” would be a comfort to one trying to make it through the genocide.

]]> By: Alexander Burns http://www.afburns.com/2008/06/26/death-tolls/comment-page-1/#comment-117 Alexander Burns Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:23:48 +0000 http://afburns.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/death-tolls/#comment-117 Oh, sure. I wasn't trying to draw parallels between various mass losses of life. I think every instance of genocide is unique and remarkable in its own horrible way. Just, as you mention, pointing out that in a lot of big war stories tons of people can die with apparently little consequence. I wonder if part of it that I'm spoiled by modern warfare. If 1,000 troops suddenly died in Iraq tomorrow, it would be considered a massive disaster. In World War I that would have been a skirmish. I'm sure your treatment of the Black Death will be fine. It's one of Earth's greatest plot devices! :) Closely following it is the Industrial Revolution and the Atom Bomb. It's kind of funny you mention Camus's "The Plague." Rusesabagina actually quotes him at the beginning of the book. Oh, sure. I wasn’t trying to draw parallels between various mass losses of life. I think every instance of genocide is unique and remarkable in its own horrible way. Just, as you mention, pointing out that in a lot of big war stories tons of people can die with apparently little consequence.

I wonder if part of it that I’m spoiled by modern warfare. If 1,000 troops suddenly died in Iraq tomorrow, it would be considered a massive disaster. In World War I that would have been a skirmish.

I’m sure your treatment of the Black Death will be fine. It’s one of Earth’s greatest plot devices! :) Closely following it is the Industrial Revolution and the Atom Bomb.

It’s kind of funny you mention Camus’s “The Plague.” Rusesabagina actually quotes him at the beginning of the book.

]]> By: Jens http://www.afburns.com/2008/06/26/death-tolls/comment-page-1/#comment-116 Jens Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:02:47 +0000 http://afburns.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/death-tolls/#comment-116 Maybe overused but "underemployed"? Meaning they're used often but not to their full potential as literary devices or vehicles to explore human roles in the aftermath. I'm thinking over it, and many of the war novels I've read, written by bona fide veterans who were there and saw it, fail or neglect to deliver the impact of this sort of death toll. Some exceptions: "All Quiet on the Western Front," and the Battle of Borodino in "War and Peace". The Flashman series does an excellent job of portraying the carnage of warfare in relation to mass deaths, as well. A difference between the Rwandan genocide and that of the Nazis is that the Nazis sought to mechanize their genocide. Many of the men carrying it out had no institutional hatred for Jews, Gypsies, etc. However, once they could transfer the burden of guilt from themselves to a system, an institution and not an individual, the job became possible without going insane. (Though, of course, there were a huge number of atrocities committed that were clearly the product of hate.) Whereas it seems that the Rwandan genocide was an explosion of long-simmering sectarian and ethnic hatred, which would boil over into mass murders, albeit facilitated and encouraged by the government. Anyways, that's a different question. To digress, the Black Death was more or less a natural event. From 1347-1352, approximately 30% of Europeans died - 25 million people! Some historians estimate it was as high as 60%, or 50 million. Split the difference and you arrive at, say 40%, which means two of every five. Some areas, such as Sienna or most of Sicily, were depopulated by 90%! The dead would outnumber the living. It blows my mind. How could anyone render this sort of catastrophe in fiction convincingly? I don't know, but I intend to try, hopefully in a responsible, mature manner. Albert Camus's "The Plague." Though the plague described in that book falls well short of 40% mortality, he does an excellent job of describing the horror of this sort of loss of life. Maybe overused but “underemployed”? Meaning they’re used often but not to their full potential as literary devices or vehicles to explore human roles in the aftermath.
I’m thinking over it, and many of the war novels I’ve read, written by bona fide veterans who were there and saw it, fail or neglect to deliver the impact of this sort of death toll. Some exceptions: “All Quiet on the Western Front,” and the Battle of Borodino in “War and Peace”. The Flashman series does an excellent job of portraying the carnage of warfare in relation to mass deaths, as well.
A difference between the Rwandan genocide and that of the Nazis is that the Nazis sought to mechanize their genocide. Many of the men carrying it out had no institutional hatred for Jews, Gypsies, etc. However, once they could transfer the burden of guilt from themselves to a system, an institution and not an individual, the job became possible without going insane. (Though, of course, there were a huge number of atrocities committed that were clearly the product of hate.) Whereas it seems that the Rwandan genocide was an explosion of long-simmering sectarian and ethnic hatred, which would boil over into mass murders, albeit facilitated and encouraged by the government.

Anyways, that’s a different question. To digress, the Black Death was more or less a natural event. From 1347-1352, approximately 30% of Europeans died – 25 million people! Some historians estimate it was as high as 60%, or 50 million. Split the difference and you arrive at, say 40%, which means two of every five. Some areas, such as Sienna or most of Sicily, were depopulated by 90%! The dead would outnumber the living. It blows my mind. How could anyone render this sort of catastrophe in fiction convincingly? I don’t know, but I intend to try, hopefully in a responsible, mature manner.
Albert Camus’s “The Plague.” Though the plague described in that book falls well short of 40% mortality, he does an excellent job of describing the horror of this sort of loss of life.

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