rachelmanija (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rachelmanija) wrote2015-02-03 04:33 pm
rachelmanija) wrote2015-02-03 04:33 pm
Biggles Learns to Fly, by Captain W. E. Johns
Johns was one of those British men of a certain era with a biography that sounds that it can’t possibly be true, featuring more heroics, odd incidents, narrow escapes, and prolific writing than one would expect from any twelve reasonably adventurous people. He was a fighter pilot in WWI, where he had a number of exciting incidents, including accidentally shooting off his own propeller, culminating in being shot down and taken prisoner. He then became an RAF recruiting officer, and rejected T. E. Lawrence for giving a false name. Mostly after this, he wrote 160 books, including 100 about ace pilot Biggles. (I cribbed this from his Wiki article, which is well worth reading.)
These books were hugely popular in the UK for while, and are probably still easier to find there. They were also reasonably popular in India when I was there. I virtually never see them in the US, and had I known this I would have obtained some before leaving India. They weren’t huge favorites of mine, but I did enjoy them and they are excellent for researching early aviation and fighting tactics, such as they were; Johns notes that WWI pilots were not formally taught to fight, but had to learn on the job. Casualty rates were high.
Biggles Learns to Fly is a solid, if episodic, adventure story; the interest is in the very realistic details. It takes new pilots time to learn to spot enemy aircraft while flying, even when a more experienced gunner is screaming that they’re on top of him, because they’re not used to scanning in three dimensions. It fascinated me to read the details of such early, primitive aircraft and aerial warfare. Pilots communicated with hand-signals, and Biggles was sent on his first combat mission after something like ten hours of solo flying.
Here’s an excerpt from the very last page, after yet another heroic action. Major Mullen shot a glance at Biggles, noting his white face and trembling hands. He had seen the signs. He had seen them too often not to recognize them. The pitcher can go too often to the well, and, as he knew from grim experience, the best of nerves cannot indefinitely stand the strain of air combat. The Major sends him off for a week’s rest.
This is what we would now call combat stress (acute stress in civilians), which may or may not be a precursor to PTSD. (It becomes PTSD if it doesn't go away.) I found it interesting because of how matter-of-fact and sympathetic Johns is, depicting it as something that happens to everyone and doesn’t reflect badly on Biggles. Some other writing from WWI sees it as a sign of cowardice or mental/moral deficiency. Possibly he would not have been so sympathetic if Biggles wasn’t back in reasonably good shape after his rest. Or possibly the RAF had a different attitude. Then again, the book was written in 1935. Benefit of hindsight?
That's also a good example of the tone in general; emotions are noted but not dwelled upon. We only get enough of anyone's interior life to make their actions make sense.
These books were hugely popular in the UK for while, and are probably still easier to find there. They were also reasonably popular in India when I was there. I virtually never see them in the US, and had I known this I would have obtained some before leaving India. They weren’t huge favorites of mine, but I did enjoy them and they are excellent for researching early aviation and fighting tactics, such as they were; Johns notes that WWI pilots were not formally taught to fight, but had to learn on the job. Casualty rates were high.
Biggles Learns to Fly is a solid, if episodic, adventure story; the interest is in the very realistic details. It takes new pilots time to learn to spot enemy aircraft while flying, even when a more experienced gunner is screaming that they’re on top of him, because they’re not used to scanning in three dimensions. It fascinated me to read the details of such early, primitive aircraft and aerial warfare. Pilots communicated with hand-signals, and Biggles was sent on his first combat mission after something like ten hours of solo flying.
Here’s an excerpt from the very last page, after yet another heroic action. Major Mullen shot a glance at Biggles, noting his white face and trembling hands. He had seen the signs. He had seen them too often not to recognize them. The pitcher can go too often to the well, and, as he knew from grim experience, the best of nerves cannot indefinitely stand the strain of air combat. The Major sends him off for a week’s rest.
This is what we would now call combat stress (acute stress in civilians), which may or may not be a precursor to PTSD. (It becomes PTSD if it doesn't go away.) I found it interesting because of how matter-of-fact and sympathetic Johns is, depicting it as something that happens to everyone and doesn’t reflect badly on Biggles. Some other writing from WWI sees it as a sign of cowardice or mental/moral deficiency. Possibly he would not have been so sympathetic if Biggles wasn’t back in reasonably good shape after his rest. Or possibly the RAF had a different attitude. Then again, the book was written in 1935. Benefit of hindsight?
That's also a good example of the tone in general; emotions are noted but not dwelled upon. We only get enough of anyone's interior life to make their actions make sense.
no subject
There's always been sympathetic views of shellshock/whatever it was called. Even during WWI, there was Rivers at Craiglockhart. I was just wondering how typical Johns was.
no subject
Welcome! There is also a 1938 remake, which is probably the more famous of the two on account of starring Errol Flynn, David Niven, and Basil Rathbone. The original has Richard Barthelmess, whom I love almost without reservation (I have reservations about him playing a Chinese man in Broken Blossoms (1919), I don't care how famous and interracially sympathetic it is), but the remake has Rathbone in a rare non-villainous part as Major Brand, the commanding officer on the verge of a crack-up. He turns out to have a beautiful, almost shy smile, as if he is afraid someone is going to take it away. Fair enough.
Even during WWI, there was Rivers at Craiglockhart.
I really owe Pat Barker for that particular illumination of history.
I was just wondering how typical Johns was.
That's why I was trying to think within the tradition of WWI flying adventures; I just don't know any from the '20's off the top of my head that aren't Wings (1927), which I don't recall addressing the subject of combat stress at all.
no subject
Anywy, this comment is to say that yes, you should watch The Dawn Patrol (1930 version, I haven't seen the remake) -- BUT, more importantly, you should also see The Last Flight (1931), and not just because I'm trying to badger people into seeing it so
Shortest possible summary: American ex-flyers in post-WWI Paris. At least four out of the five central characters are dealing with post-traumatic issues, manifested in interesting and non-movie-stereotypical ways. And the fifth character can also be read as having PTSD of some kind, which is interesting not least because she's female and civilian; the movie doesn't offer reasons/explanations (only behaviour and fragments and gaps), but the men seem to recognize her as being, at least, as weird and damaged as they are.
http://sovay.dreamwidth.org/718634.html