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Perhaps I should have included Beckett’s imperious words: “No symbolism where none intended!”<div><br></div><div>Scott Filderman<br><br><br><br><p class="yahoo-quoted-begin" style="font-size: 15px; color: #715FFA; padding-top: 15px; margin-top: 0">On Friday, December 22, 2017, 4:00 AM, John Finch via Afamilyatwar-list <afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu> wrote:</p><blockquote class="iosymail"><div dir="ltr">On 2017-12-22 03:04, Veit, Richard via Afamilyatwar-list wrote:<br clear="none">> Hi, Scott and Others.<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> Just my opinion, but to me it seemed as if the naval commander and his<br clear="none">> lover had resolved to enter into a suicide pact, knowing full well that<br clear="none">> the minefield would almost certainly kill them both at the same time. <br clear="none">> This<br clear="none">> was an extramarital affair because the naval commander's wife later<br clear="none">> attended his funeral. Likewise, the woman was said to be the wife of <br clear="none">> the<br clear="none">> local squire. Perhaps they both saw theirs as a hopeless love and <br clear="none">> decided<br clear="none">> to end it all in an instant. Personally, I saw their deaths as <br clear="none">> 'realistic'<br clear="none">> rather than 'metaphorical' but only writer John Finch can tell us for <br clear="none">> sure.<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> Richard Veit<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> <br clear="none">> On 12/21/17, 5:11 PM, "Scott Filderman via Afamilyatwar-list"<br clear="none">> <<a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:Afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu" href="mailto:Afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu">Afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu</a>> wrote:<br clear="none">> <br clear="none">>> In Episode 38, in which the military man and civilian woman stroll <br clear="none">>> down<br clear="none">>> the (signed) minefield and, in spite of Tony¹s agonized shouting to <br clear="none">>> come<br clear="none">>> back, get themselves blown up, I wondered if this was a ³metaphorical²<br clear="none">>> death (relative to the many relationships in the series that blow up) <br clear="none">>> or<br clear="none">>> a ³realistic² one (strange that a military man should ignore such a <br clear="none">>> plain<br clear="none">>> warning and head toward a Wagnerian Liebestod)? Yes, people die all <br clear="none">>> sorts<br clear="none">>> of unexpected ways in war, but this isn¹t a documentary, it¹s a <br clear="none">>> planned<br clear="none">>> series, and so.... (And again, to say what a wonderful series Mr. <br clear="none">>> Finch<br clear="none">>> created!)<br clear="none">>> <br clear="none">>> Scott Filderman<br clear="none">>> <br clear="none">>> Sent from my iPhone<br clear="none">>> _______________________________________________<br clear="none">>> Afamilyatwar-list mailing list<br clear="none">>> <a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:Afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu" href="mailto:Afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu">Afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu</a><br clear="none">>> <a shape="rect" href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmailman.b" target="_blank">https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmailman.b</a><br clear="none">>> aylor.edu%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Fafamilyatwar-list&data=01%7C01%7CRichard_<br clear="none">>> Veit%40baylor.edu%7C1175204a829d4cd5679208d548c82221%7C22d2fb35256a459bbcf<br clear="none">>> 4dc23d42dc0a4%7C1&sdata=OmVmcruTvBcKWmFvg3%2F3XbH3fDlC1npEPinQKb1VF68%3D&r<br clear="none">>> eserved=0<br clear="none">A good question, as is so frequently said. At the back of my mind was <br clear="none">the need at some point in the series to express an awareness of the <br clear="none">wartime attitude to death. "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we <br clear="none">die."<br clear="none">It is obviously realistic, but arises out of an expression, as so many <br clear="none">did in wartime, of a way of coping with the reality. You could see it <br clear="none">happening in the brief relationships people adopted on railway journeys, <br clear="none">or as a release/ excuse from the sexual embargoes of peacetime. For <br clear="none">some, like the two in the episode, the reality is something they have <br clear="none">difficulty living with. A t a (later) point when Frank is killed on his <br clear="none">last op, someone (Grace's brother) takes over without what would <br clear="none">normally be called 'a decent interval'.Actually it was based on a real <br clear="none">incident someone described to me. JOHN<div class="yqt4783302678" id="yqtfd83565"><br clear="none">_______________________________________________<br clear="none">Afamilyatwar-list mailing list<br clear="none"><a shape="rect" ymailto="mailto:Afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu" href="mailto:Afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu">Afamilyatwar-list@baylor.edu</a><br clear="none"><a shape="rect" href="https://mailman.baylor.edu/mailman/listinfo/afamilyatwar-list" target="_blank">https://mailman.baylor.edu/mailman/listinfo/afamilyatwar-list</a><br clear="none"></div></div><blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></div>
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