Circle of Ash by Sterling Magleby

Author:Sterling Magleby [Magleby, Sterling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

"War is Hell" has been a popular saying for a long, long time, but it's really quite a misleading one. "Hell" has a kind of glamor to it, a sort of defiant swagger. It's got style. Think of all the other catchphrases and expressions it is attached to: "I'll see you in Hell," "Come Hell or high water," "It'll be a cold day in Hell," "Give 'em Hell!" and so on. None of this comes close to describing the grey, mindless grind of war. It's got too much shine; it hasn't enough vicious pointlessness.

No, war is shit. Generations have thrilled to long lurid descriptions of Hell, but shit has none of this otherworldly cachet. It's just shit. It's filthy, it's common, and it stinks. Wading through Hell has a certain glory to it; wading through shit has only stench and disgust. To dine in Hell shows audacity; to dine in shit, only horror and blight. I am not, be very sure, saying that war is never necessary; I am no pacifist. I am saying only that we should see war for what it is, and that there is never any excuse to revel in excrement.

- Deiviid Castnr, On the Boundaries of Peace, 43 SE

Presilyo Monastery, Inoue Island, The Caustlands, 350-354 SE

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