Several weeks ago, when my class was still reading Homer’s Iliad, I tried to goad my students into making comparisons between the Trojan War and our current war in Iraq. That didn’t go over so well, and at the time I wasn’t sure why. I suspected that it was still early in the semester and perhaps the students were a bit tentative about showing their moral and political cards… but I also secretly worried that my students sensed my own critical position in the way that I framed my questions. So, I let it slide.
We’re reading The History of the Peloponnesian War now and, apparently sometime between Homer and Thucydides, all of my students’ bodies were snatched and replaced with a group of young folks who can’t seem to talk about anything but Iraq. When it rains, it pours.
Once again, the kids have not failed to impress. And, in retrospect, I think they were right to resist the comparisons earlier in the semester. Thucydides’ text lends itself so much better to an analysis of war in general and, in particular, “our” war in Iraq: the questions concerning what constitutes patriotism, the ambiguous relationships between “allies”, the difficult duties of a beleaguered citizenry to its warring state, the fine line between democracy and empire. I haven’t tried to temper their enthusiasm for talking about Iraq in the slightest, even at the expence of making sure that they actually “know” much about the Peloponnesian War. The truth is, it’s as much to my benefit as it is to theirs. These kids’ friends will be our next generation of war casualties and war veterans. I want to know how they’re processing all of that. In deference to Chet and his excellent insight about the garbage-in/garbage-out dilemma of young people, I’m happy that my students are processing the crisis of their generation through a great piece of literature. (On that score, I want to also recognize Booga Face, who processes the Iraq War through the televesion series Deadwood on his blog.)
I should also note that my students have, on occasion, reached back into the Iliad to make their point from time to time, which is some comfort to my pedagogical pride. War is war, after all.