As I am reading The Golden Age by Gore Vidal it occurred to me that a lot of the novels on this list have to do with war. Even Watership Down was about rabbits at war. I've decided to add this to the trigger tracker.
I am beginning to think that the reason some novels are considered classics is not because they're particularly good - because as I've said, many aren't - but because they represent a pivotal moment in a generation. WWII was a major pivotal and huge moment for an entire generation, and for the generation (Boomers) who came after. Just as the Greatest Generation, as they are called, were impacted directly and indirectly by WWI. And my parents' and husband's generation was impacted heavily by Vietnam, even though none of my direct relatives fought. (Although my father and his two brothers all served, none of them actually fought in-country. My husband is Welsh and they were not drafted into that particular American war.)
I do wonder if my generation will write novels against the backdrop of Desert Storm. Although it is different for us, because we have a professional military that serves and comes home invisibly to the average, non-military family.
My ex-husband was in the USAF for six years. When he joined, we were 22 and 20, and had an infant. My second son was born on a military base in Alaska. We knew people who served directly in the wars that came after 9/11, and knew people who did not return. Thankfully, for us and for them, it was very few. My ex loaded the bombs on the F-16 (a load-toad, he was called). So we didn't see war close up. We just saw the instruments of it.
War is different now. The Boomers and their parents saw service as an honorable thing you did for your country, for freedom. But that's not our experience of war. For me, born in 1977, the wars I've seen in full color on the evening news were not honorable, and they were fought for oil, not democracy. Perhaps this is the divide? I don't know. Certainly that's not all of it.
Anyway, I am adding wars to the trigger trackers, not because I think it will trigger a lot of people but in order to have a count at the end of how many were focused on or against the backdrop of war. (Because I'll have forgotten half of them by the time I've reached the end.)
Also, just an announcement. You'll notice that Shakespeare isn't on the LLL. That's because I don't read Early Modern English with any fluency. I've decided that I will read his complete woks after I finish the LLL. We have a fully annotated collection and I Think with that and my husband and possibly a dictionary I should be able to get through them. Although that doesn't really add any incentive for me to finish the LLL - more of a punishment if we're honest lol
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