Damn for all eternity (novel)
For all eternity , original title From here to Eternity , is the first novel by James Jones , published in 1951 . It describes the life of American professional soldiers in Hawaii in the months before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The book became an award-winning bestseller and was successfully made into a film in 1953.
action
The twelve-year professional soldier Robert Prewitt, with the rank of private , is transferred to the G Company . It is a unit that is fixated on sports, which brings Prewitt into trouble because despite his talent he refuses to compete for the boxing department because in his last fight the opponent lost his eyesight due to a sports accident. The company's sports faction bullies Prewitt, which is at least tolerated by the ambitious company commander Holmes. Prewitt receives fair treatment from Sergeant Warden (who begins an affair with Holmes' wife), and he finds a close friend in the Italian-American Maggio from New York. In his little spare time he visits the entertainment district of Honolulu and falls in love with the whore Lorene. The soldiers maintain an ambivalent relationship with the homosexuals living in Honolulu : they are sometimes friendly, sometimes the gays are blackmailed and exempted. As a result of these activities, Prewitt and Maggio are sent to military prison . Maggio provokes a long solitary confinement there, which hardly anyone survives mentally unscathed, in the hope of being released from the army as "crazy" afterwards. His plan works, but it remains to be seen whether he actually went crazy. After his release, Prewitt takes revenge on a cruel overseer by stabbing him to death. He is deserting the army. When Pearl Harbor is attacked by the Japanese, he wants to return to his unit, hoping to fight instead of being punished. On the way, however, he is caught by the military police and shot while trying to escape. Warden finds a poem on the dead man that he wrote and set to music with his comrades, the "Song of the Thirty-Enders" (soldiers who committed themselves to 30 years). It is Prewitt's only legacy.
background
The theme of the novel is life in a professional army in peace. All soldiers joined the army for social reasons : the lower ranks to escape unemployment and poverty, the upper ranks, like Prewitt's company commander , because of advancement opportunities . Over long stretches, the novel describes the soldiers' everyday life, which consists of monotonous drills, intrigues and power struggles within the company, as well as the small escapes into sport, making music together and the trains through the entertainment district. A possible use in war is neither considered nor talked about unless a potential war is considered as an opportunity for faster promotion. All storylines are cut off by the completely surprising attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor .
The book conveys positive interest in the Army. The numerous critical points are tied to individuals, especially incompetent and unjust officers and sub-officers. The opportunist company commander Holmes is promoted. This point was changed during the filming at the request of the US Army: In the film, Holmes is urged to say goodbye .
Jones processed personal experiences as a soldier in Hawaii . However, Jones also fought during the Pacific War . These later experiences went into the novels The Thin Red Line ( Island of the Damned ) and Whistle (1978).
According to his daughter, Jones himself cut the book to include gay sex scenes before it was published .
The original title of the novel and film, From Here to Eternity , comes from a poem by Rudyard Kipling , which was set to music several times as a soldier's song. It is about "gentleman rankers", men who, as a result of personal blows of fate, serve in lower military ranks that do not correspond to their origins, education and qualifications.
- Gentlemen-rankers out on a spree,
- Damned from here to Eternity,
- God ha 'mercy on such as we,
- Baa! Yah! Bah!
The German title translates (imprecisely) the entire Kipling line, while Jones could assume that in the Anglo-Saxon-speaking world the first word, Damned , would be added by the audience.
reception
The book won the National Book Award in 1952 and was included in the list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century .
The mirror announced in 1951:
“What was most surprising was the criticism in the Military Book Bulletin published by the US Department of Defense. Although Jones criticizes the American Army with anger that was barely reached before, the military book critic writes: "This is a book that will be discussed a lot. It will be condemned here and there, but it is certainly of the greatest interest."
filming
The novel was filmed in 1953 by Fred Zinnemann under the same title. The three main male roles of the lower-ranking soldiers Prewitt, Maggio and Warden played Montgomery Clift , Frank Sinatra and Burt Lancaster . The film won Oscars and other awards.
watch TV
The material was also re-staged in 1979 and 1980 for US television.
literature
Hischak, Thomas S., American Literature on Stage and Screen : 525 Works and Their Adaptations. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2012. ISBN 978-0-7864-6842-3 .
Steven R. Carter, James Jones, An American Literary Orientalist Master , University of Illinois Press, 1998.
Individual evidence
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^ "Censored gay sex scenes in From Here to Eternity revealed". Alison Flood. November 13, 2009. The Guardian . Retrieved November 13, 2009
Subtitle: "Daughter of author James Jones description details of cuts insisted upon by the novel's original publisher". - ↑ The complete list on the Internet
- ↑ Der Spiegel, 41/1951