Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-06-30

Leslie A. Fledler'S, TO whose
excellent, penetrating fore
word to the present edition I
owe many Of the ideas in this
review. Literature has had
many characters who have
made war ridiculous, some
Willingly, others unconscious
ly. FalStaff, with his bottles
Of sack in his pistol holsters,
his Staying Of corpses, his
pockets jingling with money
paid by an impressed citi-
zenry that has bought its
exemption, his catechism of
honor derisively Haunting the
air, is unquestionably the
greatest of anti-war heroes.
Sancho Panza, clearly seeing
his masters insanity, but at
the same time confidently
awaiting his promised COVER
norship, and withal honoring
and respecting the crazy
knight, is another. But be-
fore the First World War it
was the traditional Christian
belief, or at least the tradi-
tional Christian literary by
pothesis, that worthwhile
ends might occasionally be
won by some wars. The Fall
stats and Sancho Panzas
were low characters, foils Of
the normal and right-think-
ing Harrys and Quixotes. The
mark Of the radical was his
departure from the true as
sumptions-Vergil's, that 1t Is
sweet and decorous to die
for ones country" the
church's God is on our side"
the states God save the
Emperor" and everybody's.
that the crucible Of war was
somehow ennobling.
The anti-war novels OF
Hasek, e.e. cummings, Re-
marque, Faulkner, Heming-
way and others did not, Mr..
Fielder says, lend war, but it
memorializes the end Of
something almost as deeply
rooted in the culture Of the
West: The concept Of Hon
our. It comes into existence
at the moment when in the
West men, still nominally
Christian, come to believe
that the iDorSt thing OF all
Is to die-more exactly, per-
haps, the moment when for
the first time In q thousand
years it is possible to admit
that no cause is worth dying
for. There are various miti-
gated forms Of this new
article of faith: That no
cause Is worth the death Of
humanity, or of a whole
nation, or simply Of millions
of lives; but inevitably it
approaches the formulation:
No cause is worth the death
Of a man, no cause is worth
the death Of me-" Thus in
peacetime war is now thought
to be far from glorious, but
rather, as it is killing with
out either personal hatred or
ultimate advantage, to be
absurd and stupid.
When Ferdinand is killed
at Sarajevo, Josef Schweik
is a middle-aged resident of
Prague, a former soldier dis
charged as having a weak
mind, who earns his living
forging pedigrees for and
marketing stolen dogs. He
rapidly acquires rheumatism,
crutches and a cripple's
chair, and becomes a simu-
liant, a malingerer. In this
role he is not conspicuous
within 10 weeks Of his activ-
tiles, DR.. Bautze (the re-
cruiting DOCTOR weeded out
10,999 malingerers from H.
900 civilians and he would
have collared the 1l.000th
man, If at the very moment
when he yelled at him
'Kehrt euch' the unfortunate
fellow had not had a stroke.
Take this malingerer away
said DR.. Bautze, when he had
aScertained that the man
was dead"
Schweik, however, is diff
ferent from all the other
civilian malingerers and uni
formed dissidents throughout
the novel In that, unless
veracity will be TO the dis
advantage Of a friend, he al
ways tells the truth. This
truth-saying. this inevitable
candor In the mouth OF one
who is not noble, patriotic.
brave, or in any way heroic, is
the sardonic bite OF the situa-
ton. is what makes "The Good
Soldier: Schweik" a great
novel. ITO Belgradel To Bel
graded" and God save the
Emperor" are slogans that
can be chanted by crowds. but
which, when said directly and
sincerely by Schweik TO an
officer, cause his nearer 10
wonder momentarily and UNI
easily lust where candor lies,
and what is truth. The reader
experiences the same sensa-
ton. An officer Of O chaotic.
bureaucratic and normally
corrupt army asks IFS II true,
Schweik. that you're an
IDIOT" BEG 10 report. SIR
answers Schweik, yes"
Neither officer nor reader Is
quite so sure.
so Schweik gets through
the war by telling the truth,
returning evil for evil. being
pleasant on all occasions but
never servile, always appear
ing simple II not an idiot, and
ever being on the lookout 70
stay alive. He never deserts