"Oh no.I can't. I can't stand it. Scream. Move. Shake something. Make a noise any noise. I can't stand it. Oh no no no.Please I can't. Please no. Somebody come. Help me. I can't lie here forever like this until maybe years from now I die. 1 can't. Nobody can. It isn't possible.I can't breathe but I'm breathing. I'm so scared I can't think but I'm thinking. Oh please please no. No no. It isn't me. Help me. It can't be me. Not me. No no no.Oh please oh oh please. No no no please no. Please. Not me." - - "Johnny Got His Gun", by Dalton Trumbo.
The anti-war polemic "Johnny Got His Gun", as written by the famous screenwriter Dalton Trumbo. An American soldier badly wounded and mangled during World War One [WW1], missing all limbs and most of his face, unable to communicate with the outside world.
"Johnny Got His Gun is an anti-war novel written in 1938 . . . by American novelist and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo"
"Joe Bonham, a young soldier serving in World War I, awakens in a hospital bed after being caught in the blast of an exploding artillery shell. He gradually realizes that he has lost his arms, legs, and all of his face (including his eyes, ears, teeth, and tongue), but that his mind functions perfectly, leaving him a prisoner in his own body."
"Johnny" is able to communicate with the outside world using Morse code, tapping out messages - - striking his head against the metal bed frame. His first communication to the outside world is "kill me!!"
A problem with all this. During that era of WW1, the probability of such a wounded man surviving a successful removal from the battlefield and hospitalization was extremely low. Medical science of the period DID NOT have the techniques or the skill to keep such a person so badly wounded and maimed alive. The triage system also would have mitigated against the man even having received any care, if indeed he was found alive! Lightly wounded troops treated first, Persons such as "Johnny" placed in a moribund ward, sedated, treatment felt to be more or less impossible and impractical!
Dalton Trumbo was a "thing" of legend?
A most successful Hollywood screenwriter, blacklisted for his communist affiliations, spending eleven months in prison for contempt of Congress.
Later self-exiled with other fellow-travelers to Mexico.
Said to have been prevented from practicing his trade. This is nonsense. Dalton continued to write for Hollywood under pseudonyms and aliases, making around $40,000 a year during a period when that amount was a princely sum AND winning several Oscars. NOT a man persecuted in the traditional sense of the word "persecuted".
Please, the facts don't lie! And thanks to Ken for the idea behind this blog entry.
coolbert.
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