I love the Vietnam War Memorial because it doesn’t look like a DC monument. It is a stone depression that doesn’t soar, it is black marble that radiates thoughtfulness rather than airy ambition, and, rather than a blithe salute to an unknown soldier, it lists all 58,000 of the Americans who died in Vietnam, the name of every one lasered into stone. The dead at the Vietnam War Memorial are men like David Francis Abbott, Charles George Haas and Lamond Joseph Jackson, to name just three. The Vietnam War Memorial is about absence, about death, about the struggle to find meaning out of these losses. Which is as it should be.
Thanks for this, Will. I especially like your closing thought that literature can be the best monument to war. Like that of Wilfred Owen, killed in the closing days of WW1, whose poetry has always struck a profound chord in me: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est
Until I read that the WW2 monument could have been designed by Hitler’s favorite architect, I couldn’t figure out why it leaves me so cold. We’ll put , Will.
Good thoughtful essay. The sea of names at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is very evocative and moving. It's also a very photogenic memorial. You can see some of my photos of it here: https://www.monumental-dc.com/vietnam-veterans-memorial
Thanks for this, Will. I especially like your closing thought that literature can be the best monument to war. Like that of Wilfred Owen, killed in the closing days of WW1, whose poetry has always struck a profound chord in me: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est
You would probably like Paul Fussell's The Great War and Modern Memory, which includes a chapter on Owen, IIRC.
Thanks for compare/contrast of my favorite/least favorite monuments.
Until I read that the WW2 monument could have been designed by Hitler’s favorite architect, I couldn’t figure out why it leaves me so cold. We’ll put , Will.
Well done Will.
Good thoughtful essay. The sea of names at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is very evocative and moving. It's also a very photogenic memorial. You can see some of my photos of it here: https://www.monumental-dc.com/vietnam-veterans-memorial
Thanks Patrick. Your photographs are beautiful.