Three Beautiful Things 08-11-2024: War's Casualties, Beauty Is Not Extinguished, Pantry Diving

1. I spent much of today reading All the Light We Cannot See. As I read incident after incident of human depravity, the depravity of war, of the violent fascist efforts of the Nazis to impose order, purity, and submission upon Europe and Russia, I flashed back repeatedly to the movie Breaker Morant, especially J. F. Thomas' closing argument in defense of Morant and his fellow Bushveldt Carbineers as their court martial trial came to an end. Here is the section of Thomas' argument that occupies me as I read this book;

The fact of the matter is that war changes men's natures. The barbarities of war are seldom committed by abnormal men. The tragedy of war is that these horrors are committed by normal men in abnormal situations, situations in which the ebb and flow of everyday life have departed and have been replaced by a constant round of fear and anger, blood and death.

All the Light We Cannot See is, to me at least, a war novel that never takes us into the field of battle. Rather, we experience the violence of WWII in the cruelty of the German occupation of France, the elite and depraved boys' school where one of the main characters, Werner, is accepted and where he witnesses and takes part in terrible acts of brutality, and, among other things, the impact of the bombs and mortar shells upon those not killed, like the other main character, Marie-Laure, but who survive in intensely claustrophobic and isolating conditions. 

2. In this story, war does not extinguish beauty. Alongside the savagery in this story are moments, some of them sustained, of natural beauty and the beauty of music and other art forms.

The prose of the novel itself is also a source of sublime beauty -- as are the novel's philosophical ruminations. 

I am about a hundred or so pages from this book's conclusion and I have no idea how it will conclude. 

I'll know, however, some time on Monday. 

3. I'm on a low key mission to make good use of food I already have on hand in preparing meals for myself over the next couple of weeks. 

When I made my first pleasure shopping trip to Trader Joe's a couple weeks ago, I bought a jar of lemon pesto. On a separate trip to Trader Joe's, Debbie had bought a tin of quinoa wild tuna salad. For dinner, I rustled up a three quarters empty bag of penne, cooked what was left in the bag, topped it with lemon pesto and black pepper and enjoyed the salad. 

It was fun rummaging through our pantry and figuring out how to make good use of what is already here. I see a fun week ahead of continuing to do this, especially having cancelled HelloFresh deliveries for this week and next.