Dispatches
Dispatches is a non-fiction book in the style of New Journalism by the American writer Michael Herr , who reports on his experiences as a war correspondent for the American men's magazine Esquire and the music magazine Rolling Stone during the Vietnam War . Published in 1977 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and Vintage Books, the work was the first of its kind in American literature to focus and document the war experiences of infantrymen in the Vietnam War. In 1979, the Rogner & Bernhard publishing house published a German version with the book title An die Hölle betrayed, translated by Benjamin Schwarz . The original English title Dispatches [ dɪˈspætʃes ] means war reports .
Emergence
Michael Herr (1940-2016) was an American writer and screenwriter . From 1967 to 1969 he covered the Second Indochina War as a correspondent for 18 months . As a fan of novel-like reports in the style of New Journalism, Herr saw himself as a subjective component of his stories. As such, he avoided the daily press conferences of the US government and instead preferred to stay with the fighting infantry units in the field to document their fears, exhaustion and substance abuse. Herr teamed up with British photojournalist Tim Page and photographer Sean Flynn and toured the various bases and areas of operations in the United States Army and Navy transport helicopters. In the winter of 1968, during the siege and battle for Khe Sanh , the reporters were stranded in the combat base there.
For the Esquire , Mr. wrote the five articles "Hell Sucks" (1968), "Khesanh" and "Conclusion at Khesanh" (both in 1969), "The War Correspondent: A Reappraisal" (1970) and "High on War" (1977 ).
After returning from Vietnam , the author wrote down his memories over five years in the form of a memorandum , which several publishers in Germany initially refused to publish. War correspondent friends Dana Stone and Dale Dye are also mentioned in the book.
Language and style
According to the Tagesspiegel Michael Lord heard "closely, he called the interspersed with strength and Fäkalausdrücken soldiers language as if they were song lines." The publicist Michael Naumann describes Herr's writing style as "terse, trivial, murderous, cynical, but never ironic" :
“But what a story he told me, pointed and pathetic like any war story I'd ever heard, it took me a year to get it: 'Patrol went up a hill. One came back. He died before he could tell us what happened. ' - I waited for the rest, but apparently it wasn't such a story. "
In the opinion of Adam Bernstein in the Washington Post , the book is "part autobiography, part journalism but largely fiction" (German: "partly autobiographical, partly journalistic, but mostly fictional").
The book is divided into the six chapters "Breathing In", "Hell Sucks", "Khe San", "Illumination Rounds", "Colleagues" and "Breathing Out".
Reviews
Journalist CDB Bryan named Dispatches the best book written about the Vietnam War in the New York Times Book Review in 1977 . The English writer John le Carré also called it “ the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time ” (German: “the best book that I have ever read about men and war in our time”), and the Indo-British author Salman Rushdie seconded: “ He wrote the greatest book about Vietnam ”.
“Michael Herr's An die Hölle Betrayed should be included in the small series of authentic, powerless, true war books . However, Herr's reports differ from the famous war books by a defect. They lack the moral notion that the unspoken 'You shall not kill', which underlined the literary horror of the lust for murder of the first two world wars, the pious belief that the world was not made for bombs and grenades, for Krupps and Schneider. "
"We have all spent 10 years trying to explain what happened to our heads and our lives in the decade we finally survived - but Michael Herr's Dispatches puts all the rest of us in the shade."
"We spent every 10 years explaining what happened to our heads and lives during the decade that we ultimately survived - but Michael Herrs Dispatches puts us all in the shade."
Dispatches is beyond politics, beyond rhetoric, beyond 'pacification' and body counts and the 'psychotic vaudeville' of Saigon press briefings. Its materials are fear and death, hallucination and the burning of souls. It is as if Dante had gone to hell with a cassette recording of Jimi Hendrix and a pocketful of pills: our first rock-and-roll war, stoned murder.
“ Dispatches is beyond politics, beyond phrases, beyond 'appeasement' and the number of victims and the 'psychotic variety' of the press conferences in Saigon . It's as if Dante had gone to hell with tape recordings of Jimi Hendrix and a handful of pills: Our first rock 'n' roll war, intoxicated murder. "
Dispatches was included in the Everyman's Library book series in 2009 and reissued as a "contemporary classic". The literary critic Robert McCrum of the British daily The Guardian named Dispatches in the “List of the 100 best non-fiction books” in 2016 .
review
After the book's success, Michael Herr worked for the Hollywood film industry. He wrote the voice-over monologue for Captain Willard for the war film Apocalypse Now (1979) by director Francis Ford Coppola and, together with director Stanley Kubrick and screenwriter Gustav Hasford, played a key role in the script of Full Metal Jacket (1987). Several of the soldiers described in Dispatches became the basis for characters in the two American films .
literature
- Michael Herr : Dispatches . Vintage International, 1977, ISBN 0-679-73525-9 , pp. 274 (American English, google.de ).
Web links
- Paul Ciotti: Michael Herr: A Man of Dew Words . In: Los Angeles Times . April 15, 1990. (American English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Kai Müller: General McChrystal rocks off. In: Der Tagesspiegel . June 25, 2010. Retrieved February 21, 2017 .
- ↑ Michael Herr : betrayed to hell . Rogner & Bernhard, Munich 1979, ISBN 0-394-41788-7 , p. 283 .
- ↑ a b c Sian Cain: Michael Herr, author of Dispatches, dies aged 76. In: The Guardian . June 24, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2017 (UK English).
- ^ Hillel Italie: Michael Herr dies at 76; chronilced Vietnam War in 'Dispatches' and 'Full Metal Jacket'. In: Los Angeles Times . June 25, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2017 (American English).
- ↑ Alex Belth: Editor's note: The Best of Michael Herr. (No longer available online.) In: Esquire . June 25, 2016, archived from the original on January 2, 2017 ; Retrieved February 22, 2017 (American English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d Michael Naumann : Report on the slaughter cattle. In: The time . October 5, 1979. Retrieved February 20, 2017 .
- ↑ Adam Bernstein: Vietnam War reporter Michael Herr, who helped write 'Apocalypse Now' and 'Full Metal Jacket', dies at 76. In: The Washington Post . June 24, 2016. Retrieved February 22, 2017 (American English).
- ↑ George Johnson: New & Noteworthy. In: The New York Times . August 18, 1991. Retrieved February 20, 2017 (American English).
- ↑ Feliks Garcia: Michael Herr: 'Dispatches' and 'Apocalypse Now' writer dies aged 76. In: The Independent . June 25, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2017 (UK English).
- ^ John Leonard: Books of The Times. In: The New York Times . October 28, 1977. Retrieved February 20, 2017 (American English).
- ^ Robert McCrum: The 100 best nonfiction books: No 9 - Dispatches by Michael Herr (1977). In: The Guardian . March 28, 2016, Retrieved February 21, 2017 (UK English).
- ^ The 100 greatest non-fiction books. In: The Guardian . June 14, 2011. Retrieved February 20, 2017 (UK English).
