I was quite pleased with the War Quadrants theory. It turns out that I can do "war is glorious (and not too brutal)" as jolly hockey-sticks escapist fiction, and "war is hell" as serious fiction, but I really struggle with "war is brutal AND glorious."
There is theoretically a fourth quadrant where war is neither brutal nor glorious. Possibly that mainly shows up in comedic war stories?
If this was the only Mary Renault book I'd read, I might believe that Alexander's life story forced Mary's hand on the Oedipus complex. But having read all these other books that had Oedipal elements NOT forced on the author by history, I think that aspect was in fact part of what drew her to the Alexander's story in the first place.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2021-12-10 01:44 am (UTC)There is theoretically a fourth quadrant where war is neither brutal nor glorious. Possibly that mainly shows up in comedic war stories?
If this was the only Mary Renault book I'd read, I might believe that Alexander's life story forced Mary's hand on the Oedipus complex. But having read all these other books that had Oedipal elements NOT forced on the author by history, I think that aspect was in fact part of what drew her to the Alexander's story in the first place.