"The Human Preoccupation with War" by JC Andrijeski"
War has fascinated me for as long as I can remember, and in a way I can't fully explain, although I'll attempt to explain a part of it below. I find myself fascinated by both modern and more ancient forms of warfare, in terms of theory and its practical applications.
Like many, World War II has fascinated probably the longest and most consistently of all the wars. Due to its archetypal nature, I suppose it hits a number of my buttons, both as a fiction writer and as a human being.
Perhaps strangely...or not so strangely...studying warfare has made me anti-war, or "war reluctant," I suppose would be more accurate...and yet, I strongly believe that the very idea of war stirs something fairly primal in us. Unlike most of the explanations I have heard and read for this stirring, I don't believe this stems only, or even primarily, from the potential for aggression in us as a species. I find it a little bit puzzling, actually, that so many seem to want to reduce our species-wide proclivity to war and conflict to something that does so little to fully explain the depth of this drive. I actually think there is something far nobler there, and not merely in terms of the grandiose romanticizations of war so commonly portrayed in the media, especially, it seems in the United States.
Perhaps idealistically, I firmly believe there is some kind of drive, hard-wired into a deeper area of our subconscious, that wants to fight for what we believe to be a good cause. Probably the most misunderstood, as well as the most commonly and easily manipulated of our species' aspirations, I also believe that this drive is one that we cannot, collectively, afford to ignore. It seems to me that in many ways, the very nature of our existence is entwined with that drive for some sort of purpose, that fabled search for "meaning.
Of course, this drive in no way is required to manifest through actual violence, which is where I think different degrees of manipulation often occur. I think the inability to find that meaning is what drives so many to want to believe in the justifications for this or that war, however, whether there is any evidence to support such a thing or not. I think it also causes an even greater susceptibility to disillusionment in those who want so badly to find something real to fight for, and seem instead to find evidence only of cynical or purely materialistic end-motives in those who claim otherwise.
There is a reason, however, that leaders tug at these heart strings to motivate a populace to war. That reason is, quite simply, that it works.
People want to believe that there is something worth fighting for...something for which to even give their lives. I don't personally think it's only the extraordinary human being that desires this; I think we all do, deep down. We all like to imagine there are wars worth fighting, causes and people worth dying for, enemies that truly deserve slaying. We all like to believe that there are leaders woth following to the bitter end, and that we would be willing, if the right cause or leader came along, to do the difficult and necessary thing. We all like to imagine that we'd be able to make the hard choices, that we'd sacrifice some aspect of ourselves, if the truth demanded it...whether that aspect was career suicide, social ostracization, personal loss, or actually laying down our lives for people or even an idea we felt deserved such.
Why do I continue to believe this, when it goes so completely against what we are told about the base depravity of human nature?
This is where fiction comes in.
The mere fact that so much of fiction is wrapped up in the idea of good triumphing over evil (in whatever form that takes) seems to me to really add weight to this idea of this being a sort of underlying drive or desire within human nature. This struggle manifests in some form in just about every piece of fiction out there...even if it is buried in antiheros or people we love to hate, or if it plays out in as mundane of ways as people we "like" triumphing over the people we don't." Those triumphs can manifest in the blowing up of the Death Star, in the death of Voldemort, in two people walking an ash-filled wasteland only to arrive at the coast...or even just in our hero getting the last word in a board meeting, or a promotion over the office jerk.
Of course, there are works of a more literary bent that buck this convention, but just about every popular book out there has it in some form...and let's face it, popular books, by their very nature, sell astronomically better than the vast majority of literary fiction.
Personally, I highly suspect this is at least part of the reason. It tells me that there is something in this struggle that human beings find inherently cathartic.
This is one of the main reasons why I love writing fantasy so much. While high fantasy has never appealed to me, personally (as a writer, I mean...it sometimes does as a reader, depending on the writer and the book), contemporary and urban fantasy are to me the ideal place to really toy with these ideas of light and dark. I love looking for places where I can play with those lines, challenge them, and determine the bigger and smaller evils and goods within them, and within the people who populate my books. To me, this discernment between good and evil is one of the defining mysteries, and one that I find I return to in my writing again and again.
I think, based on the books I've read over the years, I am not the only one who is fascinated by this struggle. Most of us seem to like to chew over it again and again and again, across different characters and people, in our own lives and in fiction and in the history and news of the world, both in the past and the present. Like I said, I really believe this is a species-wide phenomenon, traceable back to the times when our ancestors sat around the fire and traded stories of spear-wielding heros battling dark, evil-hearted beasts, of gods and monsters and the shadows being defeated by the light.
There's a reason why even the best of our villains, both in real life and in fiction, tend to define themselves as heros. Even they would like to believe they are battling for the greater good, helping to make the world over in a higher image.
If you think about it, this is a really extraordinary aspect of human nature. It doesn't really fit with the reductionist idea of war as purely a means of either grabbing power, money or sex or as a means of defending oneself for pure, base survival.
It doesn't even fit entirely with Carl von Clausewitz' famous description of war as being "...the continuation of policy by other means."
It also doesn't fit with the idea of all human beings as being innately selfish, or caring only for food, shelter and physical comfort. Clearly, a great many of us desire something more than that, which I find extremely interesting...and yes, more than a little hopeful. There are those who try to twist this impulse into yet another expression of selfishness, a desire for life immortal, perhaps...of recognition, fame, glory, whathaveyou. Personally, I don't really believe that fully explains this impulse, although I agree those desires might muddy the waters.
Yet it doesn't fully explain why people crave to see the good triumph over and over and over again, whether in the books they read or in the news.
Some part of us is hardwired to see the good prevail over what we perceive as evil, corrupt, base or selfish. Some part of us wants to be a part of that struggle, to see the light prevail. Some part of us wants to know we have contributed some part of our lives to that struggle, and yes, even that we have sacrificed something to it of ourselves.
I cannot help but see that, unequivocally, as a good thing.
Rook: Allie's War, Book One
By JC Andrijeski
Published By White Sun Press
28-year-old San Francisco native, Allie Taylor, at least thought she was human. But when she meets her first real seer, a race of human-like beings discovered in the 1900s, he tells her that not only is she a seer, like him, but that all the other seers believe she's going to end the world. Unfortunately, no matter what she does, everything that happens after that only seems to prove him right.
About the Author
JC Andrijeski is a bestselling author who has published novels, novellas, serials, graphic novels and short stories, as well as nonfiction essays and articles. Her short fiction runs from humorous to apocalyptic, and her nonfiction articles cover subjects from graffiti art, meditation, psychology, journalism, politics and history. Her short works have been published in numerous anthologies, online literary, art and fiction magazines as well as print venues such as NY Press newspaper and holistic health magazines. JC currently lives and writes full time in Sidhpur, India, at the foot of the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh, a location she drew on a fair bit in writing the Allie's War books.
Please visit JC Andrijeski's website at: jcandrijeski.com or her blog at jcandrijeski.blogspot.com
