Saturday, March 31, 2007

Meaning of Parade in No More Parades


*"Bloody and Gross though the war is, it has it's own version of chastity which goes by the familiar name of "parade" As Ford uses it the word "parade" does not mean quite what it would to an American writer, for in addition to denoting a ceremonial public march with banners and band music, in the English army "parade" denotes a muster of troops for inspection and so, by extension, any moment of official duty. (Do you mind my asking," Tiejten's asks at one point, "Are we still on parade? Is this strafe from General Campion as to the way I command my unit?(Ford,328)) "...the word comes to express much more: it implies not merely discipline but good manners, even amenities, ceremony, perhaps at rare moments-ritual" (Gordon, 101)
*"At the beginning of the war," Tietjens said, "I had to look in on the War Office, and in a room I found a fellow...What do you think he was doing...What the hell do you think he was doing? He was devising the ceremonial for the disbanding of a Kitchener battalion. You can't say we were prepared in the least... Well, the end of the show was to be: the adjutant would stand the battalion at ease: the band would play Land of Hope and Glory, and then the adjutant saying There will be no more parades....For there won't. There won't, there damn well won't" (Ford, 306)
"Parade helped make the War possible, and yet the War is destroying parade, as wars always do. This time, however, the destruction threatens to be permanent" (Gordon, 101).
*"It is a world of movement orders and counterorders: we see troops being sent forward to the front, then called back, then late at night being marched into lines of tents by the light of the moon. But this depot is also a place where parade is perpetually being threatened, where morale is perpetually being broken down, for nothing works here quite as it should. "A Base is a place where you meditate, perhaps where in peace where the Tommies should write their last letters home..."(Ford, 297). A replacement depot in a war is different from a combat unit, and the moral of its men is especially subject to erosion by three things 1) red tape and regulations 2) enemy bombing and 3) memories of women and home. Of the soldiers that we see in the hut, Captain Tietjens, Captain McKechine, and Private Morgan all have wives who appear to have betrayed them. Each has suffered and is suffering. Two of these women are mercifully far away; not , however, Tietjens' Sylvia, who soon enters the scene to set the entire camp at odds and put all parade in jeopardy" (Gordon, 101-02)
*An illustration of how enemy bombing erodes Captain Mackenzie: "An enormous crashing sound said things of an intolerable intimacy to each of those men... The young officer stood violently up on his feet and caught at the complications of his belt hung from a nail. The elder, across the table, lounging sideways, stretched out one hand with a downwards movement. He was aware that the younger man, who was his senior officer, was just upon out of his mind" (Ford, 293)
*Memories of Sylvia erode Tietjen's mind. For example when Tietjens sees a vision of his wife (Ford, 299) and how he keeps replaying in his head the last time he saw her (Ford, 316)
*"Parade may be thought of as the principle that produces form; it is the principle also of good form, of coolness, poise and style. It is a function of parade to harmonize and order and so control the madness- the old chaos- that threatens most men at one time or another in this world....It is parade that Tietjens invokes in dealing with the disturbed Captain McKechnie- and not McKechnie alone"(Gordon, 102-3). For example:"There are madmen whose momentarily subconscious selves will respond to a military command as if it were magic. Tietjens remembered having barked 'about turn.' to a poor little lunatic fellow in some camp at home and the fellow who had been galloping hotfoot past his tent, waving a naked bayonet with pursuers fifty yards behind, had stopped dead and faced about with a military stamp like a guardsman" (Ford, 298).
*Tietjens can be seen to emulate the parade form of coolness and poise in part two of No More Parades when Tietjens goes to meet Sylvia at the hotel. Sylvia says: "Damn his chivalry!..Oh, Damn his chivalry! She knew what was going on in his mind. He had seen her, with Perowne, so he had neither come towards her nor directed the servant to where she sat. For fear of embarrassing her! He would leave it for her to come to him if she wished" (381).
*"The really telling part against parade- as against ritual, magic spells, manners and decorum, and perhaps form of all sorts- is its ridiculous, almost impertinent inadequacy when it is opposed to the lawless chaos of forces(the undisciplined squads of emotion") with which by its nature it has to contend. Parade at last cannot control these, since it remains in part at least a function of the forces it seeks to control- like a "church militant" in a fallen world. Drills, which are pretty in peacetime, in war are implicated in the whole senseless mess" (Gordon, 105).
*The idea of Parade can be seen to tie in with Freudism in the sense that one has to suppress the inner id (one's emotions and inner thoughts) and follow orders; form. As stated earlier it harmonizes and orders and so in turn controls the madness of one's inner thoughts about the war or in Tietjen's case Sylvia.

source: Gordon, Ambrose.The Invisible Tent.USA:University of Texas Press,1964.

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

valium for anxiety valium happy pills - can inject valium pills

Anonymous said...

xanax 1mg funny xanax quotes - pink xanax pills mg

Anonymous said...

buy diazepam online valium from the usa - cheap valium online india

Anonymous said...

buy ambien online without prescription ambien for anxiety - need buy ambien

Anonymous said...

diazepam 10 mg buy diazepam from usa - diazepam drug names

Anonymous said...

zolpidem high zolpidem normal dosage - is zolpidem tartrate a controlled substance

Anonymous said...

buy diazepam buy cheap diazepam online usa - buy valium online in australia

Anonymous said...

valium diazepam diazepam withdrawal vertigo - can you buy diazepam usa

Anonymous said...

zolpidem online side of effects of zolpidem - what zolpidem tartrate is for

Anonymous said...

is it illegal to buy xanax online buy xanax bars - xanax vs ativan

Anonymous said...

xanax order no prescription xanax effects eyes - pictures generic xanax pills

Anonymous said...

ativan price generic ativan good brand name - buy ativan online canada

Anonymous said...

xanax buy xanax side effects how long - xanax withdrawal nausea

Anonymous said...

buy soma pictures of generic soma - carisoprodol high dose

Anonymous said...

Aw, this was an incredibly good post. Taking a few minutes
and actual effort to make a top notch article… but what can I say… I hesitate a lot and
don't seem to get anything done.
My blog post : ampmcomputersinc.com

Anonymous said...

cheap carisoprodol carisoprodol maximum daily dosage - somanabolic muscle maximizer download

Anonymous said...

buy generic valium diazepam valium children - valium dosage children

Anonymous said...

buy soma carisoprodol therapeutic range - soma intimates coupons printable

Anonymous said...

ambien sale ambien side effects night sweats - ambien rxlist

Anonymous said...

cheapest soma carisoprodol high dosage - do they test soma drug test

Anonymous said...

valium online no prescription type medication valium - buy valium online overnight delivery

Anonymous said...

ambien zolpidem cost ambien costco - ambien withdrawal and depression

Anonymous said...

discount soma buy soma online uk - carisoprodol joint pain

Anonymous said...

carisoprodol without prescription soma devlet hastanesi online randevu alma - carisoprodol urine test

Anonymous said...

buy valium online can buy valium online - valium 5mg dose

Anonymous said...

It's truly very difficult in this active life to listen news on Television, so I just use the web for that purpose, and get the hottest news.
Feel free to surf my web blog piano lessons

Anonymous said...

Hello there! This post couldn't be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this write-up to him. Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
Feel free to surf my web page - free iphone

Anonymous said...

Pretty section of content. I just stumbled upon your web site and in accession capital to
assert that I get in fact enjoyed account your blog posts.

Any way I will be subscribing to your augment and even I achievement
you access consistently rapidly.
My site - my computer is slow

Anonymous said...

Hey there! I understand this is kind of off-topic but I needed to ask.
Does operating a well-established blog such as yours take a large amount of work?
I'm completely new to running a blog but I do write in my journal on a daily basis. I'd like to
start a blog so I can easily share my experience and views online.
Please let me know if you have any kind of suggestions or tips
for brand new aspiring bloggers. Thankyou!
Also see my web page: Leiligheter til salgs i Alanya

Anonymous said...

electronic cigarettes, e cigarette, best e cigarette, smokeless cigarettes, ecigs, smokeless cigarettes