Drop It

[Aaron Yeater]

> What about all those human beings that got turned into "useless" ash? Or 
> were they not "interesting"?
> 
> The attack on Hiroshima was not something that happened in a book. Real 
> people really died; others suffered real pain more intense than anything 
> you, jporter, despite your subtle and refined literary sensibility, are 
> likely ever to experience.

whoa.  that was a little harsh, maybe.  i think that what leads us 
(and i sympathize with jporter in the matter) to such a conclusion is 
that the bomb was so instantaneous, so complete, such the power of a 
deity or something else, something m-more...that from a certain 
perspective it doesn't have a human reality of the sort you describe. 
then you read John Hersey's "Hiroshima" piece and you understand of 
course, it did.  

but i don't think that jporter was denying that, just pointing out 
that the bomb is not as melodramatic as your post suggests--there is 
irony there too.

and if that's literary snobbery, well, paint me red and sell me a 
baguette.

aaron