Throughout "A History of Bombing" by Sven Lindqvist, there is a lot of religious language used to describe some of the scenes of war. Chapter 2 of this book is called, "In The Beginning Was The Bomb." This line struct me hard, and quickly reminded me of John 1:1 in the Bible. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." By saying that, I began to think that Sven Lindqvist's was trying to make a point. Even in the early years, when countries weren't technologically developed, they still found natural ways of making bombs. For example, the Chinese would use bamboo, pipes, and gunpowder in the nineteenth century (2). Even from the beginning of time, people looked for ways to pillage and destroy. The title of Chapter 2 also struck me because it gives a sense of a lack of God and the lack of a higher power to save the people during war.
Later in the text, the religious language begins to show up again. When man made a way to create airplanes and fly, Lindqvist wrote that it was a "gospel of flight" and that flying was received with a "religious ecstasy" (66). There was a sense of hope in flight and it was something that was tangible. People dreamed about flying and having control. This is what they put their hope in. Lindqvist goes on to write that during the war, the radio and its "dark brown finish" has a "sacred form" (169). He seems to be describing these very earthly and menial things as a Savior to people during war. These were things that people could have hope in, and hold on to when things were crumbling around them.
I was also struck by the title of the second chapter because of its close reference to the Bible, and I wondered what the author is saying about humanity.
ReplyDeleteAnd later, when the author wrote about flight and they saw flight as "human perfection" and equated it with "divine power and immortality" (65). In this case, they did have a lot of hope in flight and visions of a better future. They saw flight as "democracy, equality, freedom" and where there are no barriers between gender and class; however, this vision would have been only for the countries that achieved the art of flight (66). The other countries would still be lacking and seen as below them.