The Great War: Legacy, Remembrance, & Associated Fiction
Lately I find myself thinking about World War I, mostly because 100 years ago today it was progressing in its grim, dark, and brutal way. Catch-all threads are rarely effective but it seemed fitting given that no one is bursting at the seams to talk about Gallipoli, the Battle of Jutland, the story of the Harlem Hellfighters, the Lost Battalion, etc. I'll open the thread in the vein of Associated Fiction with a bit of Remembrance via the latest modern take on The Great War: the video game title Battlefield 1.
Is it a glorification of a terrible war and an attempt to monetize the vague societal recollection of said war? Perhaps and definitely. This is the history book of the next generation though, and better to have something interesting representing that highly-consequential period of history than expecting them to go read an old dry memoir on their own time. Maybe they'll understand, deep down, the lessons learned from that war and apply them to preventing another one of such scale from happening. Or maybe not. One thing is for sure: it beats the hell out of the Call of Duty franchise and their "just another step into the vague future" business model. EA is going to make boatloads of money on this one.