johnlee
are not definitions of morality. War is to be avoided because of the various kinds of
damageand loss it inflicts on societies, not because inflicting such kinds of damage
and loss are abnormal; they are not. Fussell’s and others’ well-intentioned fictions of
a pacific mankind, and of the complete meaninglessness of wars, are to be rejected
not because they are fictions, but because they set themselves against, and seek to
replace, a body of far more interesting and culturally productive fictions, central to
which is Shakespeare. Those fictions may be more troubling to face, acknowledging,
as they do, the necessity and occasional glory of war, as well as nurturing the horror
that may be felt at war’s meaningless destructiveness. That doubleness is a great
part of what made Shakespeare a living resource to those who, in their various ways,
experienced and went on experiencing the Great War.