WLA Blog

I regret that while I was away, a comment to an earlier post languished awaiting moderation. That comment pointed out a worthy addition to the Blogroll of Dispatches from the Front, in the form of Lt G’s, Kaboom: A Soldier’s Journal. You’ll note that the foregoing is not a link. That’s because Lt G received orders to cease and desist. (See Acute Politics’s 29 Jun 08 post for more on why.)

The question of just how much censorship of soldiers in the field is proper is a delicate one. There’s no doubt that some information constitutes a threat to operational security (OPSEC) and should be filtered, but information that’s simply unflattering is a more debatable call. The same can be said in a military/academic environment such as the nation’s service academies. Faculty at these institutions regularly chafe at strictures they feel constitute violations of their academic freedom, but which military Public Affairs offices consider necessary controls on the flow of information.

In a closely related issue, a move by those who maintain the USAF networks to significantly restrict reading access to blogs received a great deal of press in the blogosphere back in February. This article from Wired is a good example. Here though, the question becomes not what should military members be allowed to say, but what should they be allowed to read from their government computers. There is a good discussion in the article about the uneven nature of the Air Force’s filtering. This blog, for instance, is viewable from a government computer (last I checked); the links within it however, probably not.

I won’t spend time here re-hashing the ongoing debate on this issue. At the end of the article from Wired there is a long list of links to discussions on both sides of both issues above, at least with regard to blogs.

Lastly, if you’re interested to see what now exists in Kaboom’s place, City Girl, now CPT G’s fiancee, has resumed publication of sorts. It will be interesting to see how well that flies. We’ll give it a little time before adding it to the Blogroll.

Tags: Academics, Air Force, Blogs, Literature, Military, War // Add Comment »

To say this blog has “languished” for the past five and a half months would be my way of being too kind to myself. Then again, there have been a few things on the editor’s plate. That’s material for a different blog though, so I’ll not bore you with it here.

Bottom line: I hope the WLA Blog is about to wake up. I had originally envisioned my role in this electronic corner of the journal as more editor than author. Our hope had been that it would be a venue for lively exchange based on the more lengthy and carefully thought out articles from the print version of the journal. But shyness has won out. So, as my three-year-old niece is so fond of proclaiming: “I do it myself!” Perhaps if I post more frequently and in the more informal tone that a genuine blog should probably have, you, our loyal readers, will see that the bar is perhaps not so high as your silence leads me to believe you must think. Erudition is not required. If I had a nickel for every time over the last five months that I’ve thought, “I should post something about that on WLA,” I’d probably still not be able to buy a gallon of gas, but I think I could afford a pint, at least.

I will at least share in this space the reason I hope the blog will awaken. The blog’s editor is about to resume the life of the mind more fully, leaving his current administrative post at this journal’s home institution and accepting a position for the next academic year as a visiting professor in the English Department at The Citadel. I can’t help but believe that I’ll have more time to read, to write, and to think in that post, because when asked if there was much of it there, the chair of the department had never before heard the word “queep.” Every institution has its own particular variety of bureaucratic makework, but in today’s Air Force, few would dispute that queep is more plentiful than bullets, AFSO21’s promises to reduce it notwithstanding.

Seems I jinxed myself, though, by telling friends that next Friday would be “my last day in uniform.” “Not so fast,” said Fate. Still, aside from the fact that sandals, a beard, and ponytail will have to wait a while longer, it would be an understatement to say that I’m elated and honored to join the very distinguished faculty at The Military College of South Carolina, even for only the coming academic year. My beard comes in mostly gray these days anyway, and the money I save on wardrobe, I’m sure I can spend on gas, no matter how short the commute.

Tags: 1, Academics, Air Force, Blogs, Military // Add Comment »

If you were an early visitor to the blog and might have considered submitting a post of your own, but were a little discouraged by what may have seemed an archaic methodology for doing so, please visit the Become a Contributor link again.  We’re still getting to know Word Press, but we’ve added an easier method for those who may be bloggers already or are simply otherwise comfortable in a web publishing environment.  We’d love to hear from you.

Tags: Blogs // Add Comment »

The sidebar for most blogs contains a blogroll. This one is no different. I’ll attempt two things with regard to that list: 1) I’ll keep the links relevant to the journal’s title, and 2) I’ll link only to blogs I’ve either had a chance to review for a while or that have been reviewed and recommended by trusted agents. That said, if you have one to recommend, please do.

One category I’d like to highlight today is titled, “Dispatches from the Front.” As it sounds, these links will be to blogs posted by those currently in, recently returned from, or shortly headed to “the fight.”

The first in the list at the moment, Acute Politics, I’ve been following for a year. That soldier returned a few months ago, demobilized and is now headed back, out of uniform, to continue reporting from the thick of things. In doing so, he joins a tradition epitomized by Michael Yon, the only other link on that list at the moment. Yon was recently (21 Jan 08) the topic of an article in the New York Times. As an introduction to his blog, that article is a good place to start.

I should point out that publishing accounts of the war from those who have lived it is nothing new to WLA. (See, for instance, Roy Haley’s, “Afghanistan: A Photo Essay,” or Jason Armagost’s, “Things to Pack When You’re Bound for Baghdad,” both from the 2006 double issue of WLA.) What blogs do, as opposed to the journal, is change the tense. They permit the publication of accounts from those living the war. You can read about things within days, hours, and sometimes even minutes. What I hope you will find from the links we’ll post here is that these accounts are literature and are art. And they are something more: they are real.

Tags: Blogs, Literature, War // 2 Comments »

Welcome to the web log (blog) for the journal, War, Literature & the Arts. The blog doesn’t aspire to replace any aspect of the print or electronic versions of the journal itself, but to supplement them in ways that only the instantaneous and two-way communication of the internet make possible. From that single expression of intent, two advantages of the blog as a publication medium should be immediately obvious: timeliness and the potential for genuine discourse.

Timeliness

There are abundant opportunities to explore the intersection of war and art that depend for their relevance on timeliness of publication. An academic journal, especially one which is peer-reviewed, can be anywhere from 12 to 24 months in process. Themed issues in particular take extra time. The call goes out, essays or creative works are submitted, distributed for review, revised, typeset, etc. The results tend to be strong contributions to the field that will stand the test of time. But sometimes, the test of time is “how fast can I have it?” An exploration of the historical events behind a film like Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), and their contrasted presentation in various art forms through the centuries, or the manipulation and exploitation of their semantic content for various political or religious reasons may make for a great essay in an academic journal, but what if I’d really like to know whether to see the film in the theater or not? You may protest that a plethora of film critics are crying out to answer that question, but how many of them will answer it with particular attention to the film’s value as a representation of war and the intersection between war and art. Any number of our readers could do that, and this blog gives them that opportunity.

A film review is only one example of an instance where timeliness is synonymous with usefulness. Every day, events take place and make news, events that epitomize the intersection of war and art. This blog can serve as a place to publicize those events, and equally importantly, to comment on them.

Discourse

Which brings me to the second clear advantage of a living blog over a static issue of a journal–the ability to comment. Any student or professor alike will tell you that the academic classroom in which the professor lectures the entire hour and the students take notes is an experience to be avoided. Conversation is the hallmark of real learning. While the posts to this blog will be vetted by its editor, the comments won’t begin that way. Inappropriate or inflammatory comments will be removed if they ever occur, but the starting point will be an assumption that our readers are intelligent and reasonable people with important things to say. The comments feature of the blog gives them (you) that opportunity. Don’t be afraid to use it.

An Invitation

Lastly, I need to issue an invitation. Writing takes time. I have a blog of my own, and it pushes me to make a daily contribution to it. My role here, at the WLA Blog, is more like the moderator of a panel at an academic conference. I serve at the pleasure of the journal’s editor, Donald Anderson. I will write posts, but primarily, I hope I will provide a conduit for multiple contributors to bring this blog to life as an up-to-date and conversational complement to the journal itself. That said, I invite you to submit your own post and become a part of the journal and a part of The Great Conversation.

(This entry will appear as the first post at the WLA Blog, and it will always remain available as one of the pages accessible across the top menu. If you have suggestions for how to improve the blog, please don’t hesitate to write the blog editor. I look forward to hearing from you.)

Tags: Blogs // 2 Comments »