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        Not Pete Atkin >> Off-topic >> Matterhorn-Karl Marlantes
        
(Message started by: phil_smith on Today at 15:10)

Title: Matterhorn-Karl Marlantes
Post by phil_smith on Today at 15:10

Having read [and been gripped by] this new acclaimed tome, I was once again reminded of the great "All the dead were strangers". My memory may be at fault, but I seem to recall that the occasion on which I first heard it [via the radio] was given added gravitas by news of bombing in Cambodia. Can anyone help me out? Could it have been a Peel mid-week session?
Additionally, doing some background reading on Marlantes, I became aware of a seemingly acrid disagreement with one EF Wilson, who has had published a novel "A road in May", of which I know nothing. Anyone familiar?

Title: Re: Matterhorn-Karl Marlantes
Post by dr_john on 15.09.10 at 11:39

According to the BBC Radio 1 webpage, Pete recorded only one session for Peel (18.9.75), consisting of only one song (Errant Knight).
Surprising that, I would have expected more.

Title: Re: Matterhorn-Karl Marlantes
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.09.10 at 14:45

on 09/15/10 at 11:39:09, dr_john wrote :

According to the BBC Radio 1 webpage, Pete recorded only one session for Peel (18.9.75), consisting of only one song (Errant Knight).
Surprising that, I would have expected more.

If you are speaking about programmes were broadcast as a "session", then then the web page is probably right that there was one only, but wrong about the number songs.

If however by session you mean a studio session that used on broadcasts which Peel fronted, then you'll find quite a few more (http://www.peteatkin.com/sessbbc.htm).

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: Matterhorn-Karl Marlantes
Post by phil_smith on 15.09.10 at 16:00

Thanks, Kevin, that gives me enough to feel assured I did hear a version for the radio, rather than the LP cut. And more confirmation of the great musicians with whom Pete has worked. What a shame he has never amassed the wealth to support a constant grade A touring band. Would love to see him live with Alan Barnes, for instance.
Would still welcome comments on the literature. This EF Wilson is himself ex-special forces, and it would appear to be a case of vets falling out.

Title: Re: Marlantes-Karl Marlantes
Post by Kevin Cryan on 15.09.10 at 21:54

on 09/15/10 at 16:00:53, phil_smith wrote :

...

Would still welcome comments on the literature. This EF Wilson is himself ex-special forces, and it would appear to be a case of vets falling out.

I think there is a little more than "vets falling out".

We are talking about Edward Wilson’s Commonwealth Prize shortlisted novel A River in May (http://www.amazon.co.uk/River-May-Edward-Wilson/dp/1905147473) about the Vietnam war.

Wilson was born in Baltimore in the United States but it seems he gave up his US nationality in 1986 and now lives near the market town of Halesworth in north east Suffolk.

The years 1976 to 1997 he spent teaching at Lowestoft College. He then taught at Denes and Kirkley high schools as well as Roman Hill, Kirkley and Foxborough middles.

Wilson served in Vietnam as an officer in the 5th Special Forces. For his part in rescuing Vietnamese soldiers from a minefield he was decorated. His decorations include the Bronze Star and Army Commendation Medal for Valor.

You will get some idea of what is at issue between the two men by reading this (http://chazzw.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/matterhorn-karl-marlantes/):

Quote:

I think Marlantes’ book is puerile rubbish. I served in I Corps, not far from Marlantes’ AO, as a Special Forces officer in 69 and 70. His account just doesn’t ring true. In an interview with Brian Appleyard, Marlantes claims a personal body count of twenty. I can’t argue with this. I wasn’t with him in his dark spaces and he wasn’t with me in mine. And no one can nay say the other. But I can argue with the actual words on the page. Marlantes uses the cliched language of pulp war comics. Shells or bullets never simply impact; they ‘crump, scream, hammer, crack and rip’. The prose is embarrassing. Marlantes hasn’t written a serious novel. He has written war porn which, like sex porn, is intended for mostly male gratification. But more seriously than his childish prose is the fact that Marlantes ignores, at least in the novel, My Lai and the fact that 98% of the casualties were Vietnamse. Instead Marlantes eyes feel with tears when whining about his own post trauma syndrome. In the aftermath of a war that killed more than 2 million Vietnamese civilians, Marltantes casts himself as a victim. Poor little diddums!

This or something like it has been posted on many of the sites that have reviewed Marlantes book and invited readers comments.

I have not read either man's book, so I cannot make further comment.

Kevin Cryan

Other books by Edward Wilson

The Darkling Spy (ARCADIA BOOKS 2010)
The Envoy (ARCADIA BOOKS 2008)