Snow cometh. We pick our favorite cut of fry. PLUS, the first installment of our Winter Reading series. Chapters 1-6 of ‘A Farewell to Arms.’

It’s snowing!
What’s your favorite cut of fry?
Brandon haiku

Seeking adventure
Art mirror reality
Joy and pain collide

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A VERY ROUGH TRANSCRIPT OF THE EPISODE

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SUMMARY KEYWORDS

snow day, school cancellation, temperature factor, emergency meal planning, onion soup, weather forecast, winter storm, war themes, Hemingway style, reading experience, war disillusionment, artillery fire, new road, awkward interactions, personal growth, Italian gun, metal helmets, theater of war, role-playing game, emotional detachment, normalcy mimicry, British involvement, shelling mountains, Mussolini ban, book adaptation, writing style, subtext, Frederick's change, book chapters, next session

SPEAKERS

Collin

Collin 00:04

Music. Welcome to Oh brother, a podcast where we try to figure it all out with your host, Brandon and Collin on this week's show. Cut off. Cry. Ahoy. Ahoy. How's it going? Pretty good. How are you? I'm, well, how's the snow? It is definitely snowing. I saw a lot. I have seen pictures, and I there was much snow. I just came in from outside a minute ago, and so I was like, scoping it out. You know it's it's coming right down so already, no school tomorrow. Oh, man, we had so upset about this. Oh, this is what I hear. I am here locally. Last night, everything was perfectly fine. School was on for the day today, an hour before school was supposed to start, they said, Just kidding. Never mind. And the town that's kind of intense, like the town has been in quite an uproar ever since, because they were like, what changed? Literally, we didn't get any more precipitation. We got nothing else. It's the temperature was forecasted. And so people are very angry about this. Yeah, that's weird. Like, yeah, usually there has to be some sort of change in a situation for them to do that, right? The only thing would be that I can imagine. Well, I don't know why they'd wait too long either. That's annoying, like, because by an hour before school still supposed to start, the busses should be running already. Yeah, right. Like, that's strange. But the and last unless, like, there was supposed to be a lot of snow, like today, that would make it so there would not be school tomorrow, it might just be, like, you know what? Just forget it. We're not even going to worry about this. Yeah, because we did that, we've done that's happened before, where it's been, like, it's kind of iffy, right? But then there's, like, a whole bunch of snow forecasts for like, that night, so they're just like, Nah No. Why bother? Like, we're not even gonna come school for one day. Nah so. But I don't know why you would wait until so close to start time that doesn't seem nope, like a good idea at all. Nope. I'd be quite cross. I'd be mad as a teacher, because, like, by an hour before school starts to start, I'm like, leaving my house. Yeah? You kind of, you know, I've already left my house, actually, by Yeah? So that would make me really mad. Yeah, this was all over the Facebook groups and people, of course, then people started to pull like, what are the schools policies on when to cancel? And so then they're like, Yeah, you should have canceled this last night. Actually, we weren't even mad then, but now that we know we looked and here's the thing, and accountability. So I didn't have it today, and it's, it's, so it's tricky, the main road through town, main highways, perfectly fine, easily, dry, yeah, but, but, like, my road still has, like, it's just a sheet of it's not, I'm gonna say it's a sheet of ice, but it's just all compacted snow. There's, no, I'm not driving on asphalt. Whenever I get out on my road, or even the next road, or the next road after that, it's just, it's just snow. It's just compacted snow at this point. And that's here in town. I'm like, I Good luck, like that's so it makes sense to me. But also, it was really cold. Kids don't need to be waiting out in the negative, you know, wind chills. So, yeah, that's, that's another important consideration, right? You have to know the the temperature factor does we've that's been a factor in our cancelation in the past as well, yeah, right. If bus stop temperatures early morning, temperatures are going to be like, well below freezing. They'll be like, no, because also you have to consider, like, if it's kind of touchy, right, and the temperatures are really low, what happens if the bus slides off the road? Oh, yeah, right. So like, I can hear people. We gotta be thinking. And even though bus heaters work a lot better than they do than they did 30 years ago, rather, you know, that was when it was like, only kind of warm on the bus, right? It, because I remember riding the school bus home, and it was definitely cold on the bus, like there was a heater. But, you know, in name, in kind of work, it was very cold. It voted present, is what it did not functional. Very key difference here people, yeah, yeah, so good, yeah, so that's exciting. Yes, you get a snow day tomorrow, and hopefully everybody stays safe. Yeah, we did have to do some emergency like, wait, because our plan was yes. Our plan was like, if we were going to have school, right, it's we're supposed to go to Susan's mom's house to eat dinner, right? Yeah, the week of that, right? We do alternating weeks and eating with them and stuff. And so we were just going to go Friday we go Fridays. We just stay after school for a little while and work on stuff, and then go over to their house. And so we were probably not going to do that tomorrow, because, you know, don't do that. And so we were like, we're on the way home. And I was like, Do we have something to eat tomorrow then? And she was like, oh, oh no. Very menu. And run into the store grab a couple things. Since we we got groceries, right? But we had, we had planned out all the food for, like, every other day. Like, we had no plan for that, for tomorrow. So like, Uh oh, no. It makes sense. It makes sense. So like, oh this Well, that was included in the meal planning was to not have to do, to not have a meal plan on that day. Look at that. And we had to be like, pivot, Emergency, emergency. Well, that's like when we were down at dads. We knew we were coming back home into, you know, a foot of snow. So it was like, oh yeah, we were trying. We were having to buy ahead for the next week as much as possible, because it was like, there's, it's going to be bad. And I don't really want to get out and do much of anything. And, well, exactly right? Like, yeah, you have to Yes, because you'd like, Okay, well, you guys left early from dance too, so you're probably not planning on having food for that day again, also. So, right? Oh no, yep, we have food for other days, but not but we did not one, right, exactly. Oh, yeah. So emergency soup, uh, preparations were made. Everything's fine. Everything's good, so we should stop and get a couple ingredients. So boom, soup time tomorrow. That'll be good, very good snow day right? Onion soup, right? That sounds like a good snow day meal, right? Is the perfect snow day meal, right? I mean, excuse me, hey, French listeners, how about soup gratin? A Yeah, yes and well met, go write my pronunciation. I know it's bad, okay, it's fine, but nobody's Yeah, but so we were like moving on. What do we make with some of the ingredients we already have. Wait this. Yes, just give me one minute. We just needed some onions. So, boom, done. Yeah, that was pretty much today, kind of watching the weather all day, kind of like, because all the forecasts were, like, fairly confident that there was going to be quite a lot of snow, right? Yeah, but you never know it is Missouri. Sometimes big winter storms hit Missouri and they just die. You're like, dang it. Why that's happened before, where they've been like, oh, it's gonna be like, blah blah. And then that storm will come through, like, Oklahoma, and it hits Missouri, and just goes, and then there's nothing else so, kind of, like, fairly confident, but also trepidatious, of like, I don't want to get too overconfident, because I don't want to, like, have nothing planned for tomorrow, right? Like, I don't want to, like, 100% expect that we're not gonna be here and then, like, the next day be like, ah Drang. I don't foils again. Oh no. I don't have and planned, right? I mean, I have a plan, like, it's all laid out, but like, make sure I have everything, all this stuff, ready, you know what I mean, like, all that. So I was like, okay, kind of keeping an eye on this, but also, being like, fingers crossed, very lightly, penciling everything in, going in, yeah? Being like, oh. Keep an eye see how it goes, right? That was the dance of all day today, of kids being like, are we gonna have school dinner? Well, just gonna have to wait and see. But we are talking about weather science, so look at this forecast model. Let me show you. Oh, this just so happens to be for our area, in order to dance that so happens to be for southern Missouri. Wow. Fine. Don't worry. Everything is okay. I actually, the superintendent had actually shared an email earlier the link to some of the stuff that the National Weather Service sends out to schools. And so I just like, let's just look at this. It's mine. Look at this. Let's talk about weather maps. Oh, look yesterday and look and weather map. How exciting. That's great. Stop being resourceful, yeah, I thought it was good, so we did that, and that was pretty much today, just kind of, yeah, it was kind of awkward, right? It's weird, like, being like, Oh, we have to be here tomorrow. Maybe, like, like, right? All of this is with a small caveat of, I might not see you for a couple days. Yeah, it did work out. Just happenstantially, right? Like, it just sort of like, worked out today that we were, we were finishing up, like a thing, so, like, at least we didn't, you know, start because some of my assignments that I have for the afternoon class, like a two day thing, so I finishing up one today. So that's nice that we can come back. When we come back, we can start the new thing. So just sort of like accidentally that happened. So that was at least nice, right? Because this week was short anyway, because it was our first week back. So we did it? Have school Monday, right? It was like, teacher in service day, which was great, right? Just a marvelously product. Oh, wait, no, it wasn't. It was none of those things, your love of in service so, yeah, well, something different, like, we didn't do anything. It's like, it's one thing, if I, like, I have given a mission or a task, or I have to do a thing, but like, once again, I had to go sit in a meeting about early literacy training. I was like, guys. Come on, surely, right, surely. You know, by now, this is not helpful. And it's like, it's not that, because I do have to teach like a reading intervention class, you know. But like all of the sixth grade children are past early literacy, yes, right? There's other things, other things they have to work on, right? There's other skills that they're missing, right? But it's not like vowel blends. You know, we've, we've progressed past that pretty much, right? They always are like, Oh, they can't spell. Like, yeah, no, sixth grader can spell. Have you met a 12 year old in the last five years? Like, none of that sounds not what, that's not what they do, right? Yeah, they don't spell. I don't spell. So, like, I don't right, like, whatever. So, so that was a thing that happened, right? So I had that was kind of, it was nice that I had time to, like, come back after Christmas break and be like, Ah, yes. Many things must be done. I gotta. What am I doing? I have, you know, I got, like, everything laid out, but like, after a while, I was done with that, so I was like, do, do, do, do, I'll just, just keep pretending to be busy over here. I guess I don't know, look at me. Yeah, moving this get my official survey questionnaire sent out to the staff, right? So that's good. We're doing, like a graphing right? It's like reading, interpreting graph stuff. So they have to make their own graph, so that I'm having them, they have to make a survey question, oh, okay, and then they have to graph the results, nice. So as a example, I try to come up with something to ask the staff, right, and get then I graph that on the board real big, like show the bar graph, label everything you know, and so that they have something to look at. It to be like, Ah, yes, bar graph. I remember Yes. Got it so question this time, what is your favorite? French fry style? Um, yes. And I gave them choices, because all good surveys have to have choices. But like, you know what is, uh, what's your favorite? So I want to know Collin, what is your favorite French fry style? Right? Lots to choose from. Right? Standard cut, shoestring, uh, crinkle, uh, steak. Fried. Waffle potato wedges. Waffle fries. Yeah, curly fries, you're going waffle fries. Oh, man. So this is this, I almost put tater tot, but that's not really a fry. That's just also a potato. So I know, like, so, like, today we went to a chamber of commerce breakfast, and they had quote, unquote hash browns, but they were, like, the compressed version, you know, like, you can get from, oh, yeah, and Noah was, like, golden arches, right? Yes, no. Like, what are those? Like, they're hash browns. It's just, like, it's like a compressed, like, they graded the potatoes, then they pushed them back together and fried them. Like, that's anyway, tater tot really to flatter. But, you know, it's but one of one of my kids last year called hash browns. Accident or no, they called tater tots mini hash browns one time, and I it was the funniest thing ever. So now, every time I order them, I think about that and I'm like, Oh, yes, I'll take some mini hash browns. Oh, question Would you, would you include like, this is just like cut. So, like, sweet potato fries wouldn't be included on this, right? Different, those are just a standard potato, right? Yeah, that's like, a standard cut. I will say, I can tell you right off the bat, my least favorite, oh, no, hold on, my least favorite is a toss up between steak and, like, the wedges. I don't like these, or they don't like the wedges, I I feel like they're, they're too soggy, you know? Yeah, they're often too soggy. They're too big to fry. They don't maybe that's cooked, right? Maybe I've never had good steak, but they those two just fall in line because they're always too thick and they're never crispy, they're always just a little mushy. And I don't, I don't like these. Yeah, I do like steak fries every once in a while, but I don't think I would have them as low down on the list as you Yeah, right. I this also depends on if I have a good something to dip the fries in, because if I have, like, I don't know, like a ranch or a good ketchup, waffle fries are the way to go, because they maximize transference of condiments. They do have the largest surface area they do, like, this is they really, they hold on and they grip but I have to say, just for novelty and they're fun, I love a good curly fry. Like, I really like a good curly fry, and it's they make me happy. So I'm gonna say my favorite curly fries. And maybe that's because I don't have them very often, but when we do, I'm like, Oh, these are, these are good. I like these. That's true. They're pretty good, right? I do like curly fries, but again, I find that curly fries are they also have the soggy problem real, because they're like, wrapped around, right? Some of them, or they're like, overly hard, right? Or they have, like, people, people use curly fries as a vehicle for, like, weird seasonings a lot of times. But like, I do, like, curly fries, but like, sometimes I'm, like, I don't want, like, a whole bunch of seasoning on my friends. Just want a french fry, yeah? I mean, because, like, Yeah, I'm just thinking about, like, Arby's, you know, and like, some places like that where they're like, Oh yeah, our curly fries have a lot of stuff on it. You're like, Okay, that's cool. But like, like, it's good, and it goes good with their food, right? But like, I don't always want that in my life, so I do like curly fries, I think they're pretty good, right? But I think definitely the bottom, my bottom would be steak or No, yeah, no, wedge. Yeah, you don't like wedges. I don't like the wedges. I got confused slightly. I also don't really care about waffle fries that much. I feel them. They're like a novelty fry to me, like I am a per See, I'm the opposite, right? I don't like I don't put sauce on my french fries. Just want french fry. So as a vehicle for sauce, I would agree that they're quite good. But as a person who generally doesn't want any sauce on their French fries, I can take or leave while that's fair, that's fair. So I feel like waffle and they kind of go with curly fry, like they're a good novelty fry, but they're not like a go to, I want this all the time french fry. Sure, you know what I mean? Yeah, I definitely don't like, you know, steak and shake fries are just on the verge of, like, shoe. String. I would count those. You would count those. Okay, yeah, I don't like those at all. I They're too I have to manage them too much. And they're the only fries that I ever eat where I'm like, I need a fork. And that kind of defeats the purpose of having french fries in my in my opinion, I'm like, No, I need to be, just be using my hands for this. So I I'm not a fan of shoestring. Oh, I do like them. They are definitely in my top of my list, right? As a person who so the way that I like so I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but one of my and Susan's like fundamental differences is the method by which we eat french fries, right? She is a one at a time french fry eater, and I am, like, a handful of French fry eater, right? Like, I want to, like, grab a bunch. So because of that, I really like two string fries, okay? Because I wanted to be like, because I don't want sauce. I don't want to think, I just want to be like, um, french fry, pure french fry. Like, that's what I like, and I I like them a lot. Yeah, that makes sense, especially if you're like, just maximizing grabbing. Like, yeah, that's, those are maximizing that fry. That's, yeah, yeah, yeah. But to me, I go, Oh, man, like, yeah, I want something more substantial, but I don't want waste or steak, but no, I mean, I like steak, but they're like, they're, again, they're, they're like, not in the top three. I would say they're probably number four, right, just outside, because I do like them, but they do, you are right, that they're often quite soggy, right? And so it's kind of like, like, the middle is always just kind of not, it's kind of disappointing, right? So I think, I think if I was going to do top three, I would probably do somewhere in the top three order to be determined, because I like crinkle fries a lot, right? Crinkle fries are pretty good. Oh, you know what? I just did, a quick search, Belgian where do you fall off on Belgian fries? Hold on, refresh my memory. What does a these are the ones where they are irregularly cut, but they still have sometimes little bits of the skin still, oh, yeah, okay, those are good, but they look like a french fry, but they're more like, they're not so like, just rectangular. They're they're pointy, like they these are good. I We have these at the Fair has a few good places that carry that have these, and I always really like them there. Oh yeah, those are good. I would agree with that. Those are quite good. I just feel like it's not, yeah, those are pretty good, but they're kind of like a standard french fry size. Yes, they are. They're more size wise, if you're just going by size, like, they're, they're just a slight variation on the standard, on the standard, yeah, but it does, it is they are really crispier. I think part of the skin on is a nice touch. So, yeah, yeah, those are pretty good. Like, those two, yeah, I think, yeah, i can't i? I vacillate back and forth between my favorite, like, sometimes I think standard fries are just my favorite. I just like the standard fries. But sometimes I do really like shoes, drink fries also. But I feel like, yeah, I don't know. So that's where I'm my list. I think I wrote just standard french fries for my entry, because they're just so good, right? And you could include Belgian style, standard cut french fries in that. Yeah, I think we could add a little one a there, you know, because those are pretty good. Yes, they have a more like handmade vibe, you know, that way, a little more rustic, little more appealing, right? They do have a little bit of a different texture, but it's not it's really good though, yes, and I think that's generally why I like them at the fair because also they tend to also like this is where some more of the seasonings and stuff come in too. I have found like this. I find when they do the Belgian cut, it's like, there's something funky on this, and I'm either going to really like it or I'm going to very much not, yeah, but it doesn't feel as intrusive as, like, the curly fry. That's interesting. Yes, it's like, it feels less heavy, almost. I don't really know if that's the right word for that, but it does feel like less intrusive. It's not just like, wham, it's the flavor you're tasting. It's like, yes, these are really good French fries that also have some other stuff on surprise, right? Yeah, so that feels a little bit different. So I I'm more accepting of that. I think it doesn't bother me as much. It's not as like, obnoxious, I guess. I don't know. So, yeah, Boom, look at that. Glad we got that out. Good. That makes sense. Work through the French fry dilemma here like, Well, yeah, I'm well, and it does. It's one of those things. It does make me where we're fancy, but, yeah, I agree. So that's good. I'm interested to see. So did they get to come up with their own questions for this? Yeah, they have to come up with their own question. And they have to have at least, I think I said, at least five choices, right? So, so that way, the graph is more interesting, right? More exciting graphing that way. So that's their thing. Now have some of them? Have I seen some of them walking around asking people with only three questions on their paper? Yes, yes, yes. I have. So gonna remind them. Next time I see them, make sure you're asking people at least five, that doesn't say at most, that says at least, at least if you have six, oh no, but you need to have not two, two. That's our real boring graph. Okay, who wants to look at that? Blah, get out. Uber boring. Yeah, it's not exciting at all. How can we read and interpret? Practice Reading interpreting graphs when it's just like two lines, boring, more interesting when? So, you know, the the kids for the Christmas thing, they had to go and ask the survey questions. Oh, yes, right. So we, we went. We were like, well, what are we gonna do? Like, Well, thankfully, on our block there's a bunch of retired people, so I was like, well, they're probably gonna be home. But before, beforehand, I was like, but also, we are very early morning family, so it was like, 730 in the morning, and I was like, I'm gonna, just gonna, I didn't tell them this. I just went and quickly texted the number, and it was like, hey, heads up. Here's what we're doing. This. It's okay if you say no, but this is what I you know, if you, if you'd be okay, we'd like to stop by and do this survey. And it's like, I was like, Absolutely, come on by. And I didn't tell him, like, exactly what the questions were. I just said, like, Hey, we're doing this survey thing for Christmas as part of a project. And want to know if you could stop by and sat down to, like, invited us in. And when that first question was like, would you rather have, like, socks or underwear? He was like, like, but they were great sports. Like, they were like, they really thought about every single question. And we're like, I don't know. And they're like, going back and forth on it, like they put it on a great show. And I was like, thank you very much. This is this was great. I appreciate this. Thank you for indulging our very random request. And they were like, No, anytime we loved it, they're like, thanks. We gotta go by so but the kids, the kids each, they went in turn, each asking their questions and then recording it down. And yeah, we did go back and talk about it, but yeah, I was just funny. Like, the kind of they were like, Oh, those are the questions. Okay, they're not serious at all. This is not anything important heads up, but doing a lot of reading this week. Well, have you? I have well, have you, did you? Did you read? Did you do any reading? Yes, I did. Okay, good, yeah, so, there you go. Blam, where did my book go? With me? Oh, yeah, got it, found it. Book behind me. We're still on the side. Oh, sure. So, yes, I did read my opening bits. Here of Farewell to Arms, right. Here we go, right. So we read six chapters. Is that what you decided? Right? I did, yep. Okay, you did read six chapters. Okay, I forgot to respond to that part of the text, so I was like, Yeah, sure. It's totally fine, yeah. And I don't know again listeners, because it is Hemingway six chapters is, like, not really that many pages, so it's fine. So that sounds like a lot. No, this is not, it wasn't really. This is not like Tolkien level of writing here, or whoever, like, well, not length, yeah, but otherwise, it's okay. But yes, yes. But no, this was, I did my best to just take, I don't know, like I I wanted to have a reading experience of basically not knowing a whole lot about the context. Of the book, like we did that with kenoki Yankee. Of like, Oh yeah, I'm not looking at a summary at all. I'm just gonna be here for this. And so I'm, I am sticking with that, which makes us a very unique, for me, a very different experience of of like, well, I don't understand that sentence right now, but I guess if I'm meant to know more, I will learn more later in this true right? It's like, immersive, right? He's just assuming you know what's happening. Well, the first line in the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village. It's like, yeah, okay, okay, very good. But he's also like, it's kind of like the time doesn't necessarily matter, no, right? Because already in that sentence, we're getting a sense of, like it's been happening for a while now, right? And that's kind of what we get into a little bit later. Like the first kind of chapters are just, oh, the first three or four are kind of just like setting the scene of like, Yeah, nothing is changing at all. We're just stuck here doing this. So the fact that he doesn't even give a year is just kind of like, it doesn't matter, like he's just like, yep, that year we were here, the year before, we were somewhere else. Next year we may be somewhere else, whatever, like, yeah, yeah, go ahead. Sorry, no, I was just saying, and it took me just a little bit to get again into that writing style of just the of having to remember, like, oh, right, like, what I know about him, and we're just reading this, like a reporter's notes of time in the field, and this is what we're doing, and it's just going to be chunka chunka chunka chunka chunka. Like reading it briskly actually helped a lot. I'm used to like staring at a sentence and like really pouring into it, going slowly. But if you do that with this, you almost you get I don't. I kind of forgot where I was and everything, because it moves so quick, because three sentences down, you've moved on to something completely different. And if you're trying to really marinate on every sentence and every word and, like, really think about it. That's not the point here. Like, we're trying to get places and, like, look at themes and other stuff. Like, yeah, yeah. It's more about getting the theme and idea across, rather than, like, dwelling on, like, hyper specific details, right? Which is interesting, because at the same time, there are hyper specific details, yeah, like, when he's talking about, like, the trees and the dust and the leaves and this stuff, like, it's, there's a lot of painting going on here, but we're not, that's not really, like, that's, we're just, we're setting something here of and we're, we're going to be moving through this to get to the people like it just, I don't know, like it was, it was, it was interesting how it was very interesting, because it's just sort of like dropping you in the middle of a scene that's already happening. Yeah, that's what it feels like. It feels like you're just like, Yep, here you are. And like, to the narrator, this is just how it is, and this is normal. And so you're just like, kind of getting a glimpse of a larger world, right? With no context. It's like if you just showed up there one day and everybody else was just going about their life, and you were just there watching them. That's kind of what's happening, right? That's what it feels like to the reader, right. Now, our character is just like, whatever. He's there, he knows, like, the it's, it's kind of like, you know, the way that he talks, it's just like he's talking to people, like, Do you know who he's talking to? Not really, does it really matter? No, you just know that they know each other. And this is a joke that they've been saying forever, and they're moving on, and it's fine, like, Yeah, but it's also, it also kind of like hammers immediately, just like the monotony of this situation that they're right? I you get that of, of just, it's kind of, it's, it's, it's present, but it's not new, right? Like, these are just observations. Like, when he was describing the trees, he said the trunks of the trees were too dusty, and the leaves fell early that year. It's going, Oh, that Okay, so we're comparing this to something there's either that's a later on. I was like, oh, that must mean. It meant there was a lot of traffic on the road that year because they were very busy. And that was one way of noting that of the heavy dust on the trees showed a lot of road traffic through there as the troops were moving and the front was changing lines and things like that. Like how he didn't say troop movement was really a lot, and there's been a lot of changes on this. It was, well, there was a lot of dust on the trees. Oh, okay, I Oh, I understand that. What's going on? Like this? Is, this is how we're reporting on these facts, just like a little bit obscure here of again, that that iceberg method of, I'm not going to, I'm not going to come out and just point at the thing like we're going to talk about impacts of the thing. And you'll may have to infer what the thing was that made the the the effect. Yeah, right. And it's, it's just very interesting because, like, the whole first chapter is like that, when I say the whole first chapter, I mean, like, a page and a half, right? It's like, that's what it is. It's just like, boom, you just get the scene, you know? Here it is. This is, this is a thing that's been going on for a while. It's a thing that we expect to keep happening. There's a weird routine to all the weirdness that's happening, right? Like, even in this very bizarre situation, in this, like, very, you know, life or death situation because he is in the front right of the war. But like, there's still this strange routine that everyone is familiar with, and everyone just is kind of following, or at least, you know, like, at least, at least our narrator is, yeah, that's important to note. Of like, well, it feels like the rest of the people that he's interacting with are also doing kind of the same thing though. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, there is this monotony. There's also this detachment from this and what's going on. Like, it's, it's not that, it's not novel or interesting or exciting anymore. It's just, it's just very much okay, this is, this is how life is, and there's not a whole lot of interesting things to report here. Like, again, think of that from a news writer who's been embedded and has been reporting on the same thing for 20 years. They're not going to be writing with the same vigor or earnestness or things like that. Like they're going to tell you about how the more obscure things that are going on there, like in the field kind of thing. Yeah, exactly. And so, like, yeah, they're just like, do, to do, well, even, like, the last, the last two sentences of this, which, again, whatever. But like, at the start of the winter came the permanent rain, and with the rain came the cholera, but it was checked, and then the end, only 7000 died of it in the army. Yeah, that like, oh, okay, but just like a thing that happens, like, Yep, the rains come people get sick. Cholera is here, yeah, even though cholera is like a horrible disease, he's just like, yep. But it wasn't that bad, really, like, it was checked, right? We kept, kept it in check. And I think what's interesting is how that part is, is reported with as much blandness and straightforwardness, right? Like that sentence, but it was checked, and in the end, only 7000 died of it in the army. The literal next sentence of the second chapter is the next year. There were many victories. Yeah, right. Like, just the same, just passionate, just, I'm just here, this is what's going on kind of thing. It's like, oh, oh, my. Like, it's very interesting. Like this, to parse each one of these, again, like I'm reading it briskly, to keep up with it. But there is that second, third, fourth layer behind of this, of what's going on, yeah. And it's, it's like, it does I I'm just saying, before I keep going too much, I think reading it briskly is important, right? Yeah, just because, like, the cadence with which he writes is so interesting, because, like, we've been making it seem like it's all, like, real short chop sentences. It's not, right? He does that really. He does this thing really well where it's like, short sentence, short sentence, slightly longer. Sentence, bam, big one, big, important, detailed grade. Sentence, a couple short sentences next. You know, ones here, longer one again, like the flow, I think is really important. So if you are kind of reading at pace, you really, it almost like pulls you forward to, like, keep reading it. Yes, right? That's how I feel when I read Hemingway. It's like, it's almost like he's just pulling you along. Like, nope, nope, come on, go, oh. And then you land at one of those big sentence and it's like, Whoa, oh my gosh. And then he, like, gives you a little break, you know, you get a couple short sentences, some dialog, and then he draws you, you know, that just helps you move forward, kind of recovering you can, you kind of have time to process while you're reading. And then he hits you with something else. And it's like, oh, like, it's just, that's how I feel when I read it. It just feels like, drawn forward to like, keep going. You know, you're saying that I have to again. I plan on trying to read portions of this to describe what's going on here, just because we can't do that, but to highlight this. Um, in the second chapter, he's talking about town and the river that ran through that, and how they bombard it to destroy it, but only a little in a military way. This is his this is this next one. I believe this is all one sentence, and I have to read this. Okay. Oh yeah. People lived on it, and there were hospitals and cafes and artillery upside streets and two bawdy houses, one for troops and one for officers. And with the end of the summer, the cool nights, the fighting in the mountains beyond the town, the shell marked iron of the railway bridge, the smashed tunnel by the river where the fighting had been, the trees around the square and the long avenue of trees that led to the square, these with there being girls in the town the king passing in his motor car, sometimes now seeing his face and little, long necked body and gray beer like a goat's chin tuft, all these with sudden interior of houses that had lost a wall through shelling, with plaster and rubble in their gardens and sometimes in the street, and the whole thing going well in the car. So made the fall very different from the last fall when we had been in the country. What and the next sentence is, the war was changed too. Boom, like, right? Like, it's exactly, he hits you with this big brush stroke of like, telling you everything that's going on, and then smack right? Like, yeah, I think this is what I find so intriguing about some of his writing, is the flow and the pace that he does. It is just so interesting, right? I It's like I said, sort of draws you forward to keep going and be like, What in the world? Yeah, and there's it does it keeps you going? Well, I can't, it's not, it's not like a it's not a tactic of I know, because some people will write in way. There are ways of writing that kind of play with you in that sense of kind of making it, oh well, I can't stop there. That's not a good, you know, the cliffhanger. Oh, yeah, whatever like those are obviously tools, not like that. This is not that. This is just good storytelling. Of you want the person to be so engaged and engrossed with this. And I think the the modality of writing, in this way of using sentence length and sentence complexity to guide you and bring you through the story, really is a very fresh way of reading. And it's interesting to say that this book is, you know how many? Yeah, so old, but, like, I don't this is very, very different way of using that technique to keep the reader engaged. Yeah, I think it's cool. So yes, yes, I'm glad you like that part anyway. So yeah, so we get this big thing. We're still kind of painting in chapter two. But we now get a we get some the dialog hits, right? He goes to the they're in the house or whatever, and he's they're eating together, and it's just like, blam, blam, blam. And you get this. You get you get this sense of like, these people have known each other for quite a while, right? This is not the first time they've had this conversation. They're saying the same jokes again, right? You're razzing the priest about stuff and like, but it's also this weird idea of, like, the, you know, it's getting winter time again, and like, oh, the fighting is going to take a break. So, you know, we're just gonna, you know, whatever you can he's leaving to go on like vacation, pretty much like he's just, like, taking a break and going off and doing whatever, because there's not gonna be any fighting in the winter, because they are in the northern Italian Alps, on the Italian, Austria, Austrian Italian front here, like, in the mountains. So, you know, at a certain point they're like, Yeah, can't fight anymore. Oh well. And so they just kind of stay there and just kind of like, hang out and like they're on the front but there's no real fighting. So he just goes off and, like, this whole section is about him, like, are you gonna go? And they're arguing about the best parts of Italy to go see. And they're like, You should go there. Like, Nah, you should go over there. That place is lame. You should go over here. Like, they're all trying to convince him all the places that they should go. And these are all the places they're from. So they're like, arguing about which part of Italy is the best which I imagine is actually how Italians are Italians? Uh, let me know if this is true. We gotta keep it civil. I just feel like this is a very true thing that would happen be like, Nah, you don't wanna go over there, if it's lame. You gotta come to bully right now, not a bruise, you know, there it is. Come down to the south, right? Like it's exactly I got that same sense of like, this is just them rousing each other about where they're born and raised, like, this is, this is how this would be. Yeah. So that's pretty interesting. I think, right, this is just, that's kind of the rest of this chapter, just deciding where he's gonna go on his little winter break. Time from fighting, yep, and we go from, we go from this discussion about where they're going to go Good night, and then chapter three is why came back, right? Yeah, which is pretty interesting, right? Because, yeah, that that means so, and it's quite a lot of time has passed. But I like, just when I came back to the front, we were still in that town right there were many more guns in the country around in the spring and come so he's been gone all winter, and we're not gonna talk about that, just kidding. Well, and I talk about the front and again, framing purpose themes. This isn't about our protagonists adventures in Europe during this time. This is about right, dealing with frontline warfare and what that does to somebody, right? This is it. It's It's, no, the setting is here, right here, and what goes on and how we're going to be dealing with that. Yeah, like, the war is the important part of this. Yes, yes, yes, yep. Not the break that we just took, not the whatever we just did, and whatever talent we were in, which we will get a little, you know, glimpse of, but like, what you know, here, here's where we need to be. And I thought that was so, like, just unrelenting focus. But nope, back over here, this is what we need to be talking about, yeah, because he goes all over the place. He goes quite far, right? He says he's talking to his roommate, and he's like, Where'd you go? And he's like, Milano friends in Roman Napoli. And he's like, Yeah, which one was the best? Like, is, yeah, those are those places are not necessarily close to each other, right? So this is very and they're very far away from the front, right? That's he went quite far south, if he went all the way to Napoli. So I also lay and so go ahead. No, that's, I was just saying he went a long way. And we're just like, yeah. Anyway, back to here. Yeah, we don't get to know any about that. And this is, again, during this whole like, when he before he gets to that, he's, we're getting more descriptions about the house, right? And I love again, about how it's, oh, I'm going to tell you about the marble now, or I'm going to tell you about the entryway now, because that's where I'm at in part of the story. And we're just, we're just going through, and these details are going to come out as we build more and more out of what's going on. Yeah, we do meet his, um, his roommate, what? Uh, ronaldi here. Yeah, yeah. And so it's just like, Oh, yeah. Here we are. We're back. We're always like, Hey, you should come with me. The thing, he's like, I don't want to. He's, come on. Okay, fine. This is, this is how this works, right? And it's like, and he's, he's also kind of walking around like, oh, well, I guess nothing has changed since I've left. Like, he, it's kind of like, he kind of expected it, but he's also disappointed that nothing has changed since he left, like he's been gone a long time, and he comes back and he finds it, everything's exactly the same. It's like, well, that's annoying. He's like, Well, I guess, I guess all this stuff worked just fine without me. Oh, well, like, whatever, right? Well, he was, he was rather hoping that maybe his job was kind of important, but kind of important, not really just like, Do you have any trouble? Yeah. So the only bit of we get here is the priest is mad at him, not mad at him. But like, you know, he didn't make it to where he said he was gonna go, where the priest was from, to a brutzie. Oh, and, like, he wanted to go there, and he's like, I couldn't make it there. I, you know, he ended up going south bruts, I think is in the northern part, if I remember correctly. So like, he didn't go over there. He went further south. He's like, I just didn't make it there. I didn't have a plan, sorry. And they kind of like, okay, well, you know, this is I did want to read this section, because this is where things started to finally click in my slow head for what was of how things were being written. I loved this, this, this back and forth, and, and our protagonists here, this description of kind of, this struggle of what he did or didn't do, or, or maybe, and, and you because in this, in this, you start to see some of this like thought about like meaning and purpose and like self fulfillment kind of stuff, because he says, we too were talking while the others argue, I wanted to go to Abruzzi. I had gone to no place where the roads were frozen and hard as iron, where it is clear, cold and dry, and the snow was dry and powdery, and hair tracks in the snow, and the peasants took off their hats and called. Lord, and there was good hunting I had gone to no such place but to the smoke of cafes. And nights when the room whirled and you needed to look at the wall to make it stop, nights in bed drunk when you knew that there was all there was, and the strange excitement of waking and not knowing and the world all in real and dark so exciting that you must resume again, unknowing and not caring in the night, sure that all was all and all and all and not caring. And then he says suddenly to care very much and to sleep, to wake with it, sometimes morning and with all that have been gone, and something sharp and hard and clear, sometimes a dispute about the cost. Like, he's really starting to struggle with, like, was that worth it? Did I do the right thing? Yeah. What am I working through this stuff correctly? And I just that's when, like, this part, I read three times and was like, right here is how this is actually forming and what we're actually going because he's talking about a lot here in a very concise manner, and not in a short, like, descriptionless way, like, if this is full of meaning and context, but it's just the way it's written, you kind of have to go look at it. I like that second pass to go, oh, right, there we are. There we are. Yeah, anyway, yeah. It's, I like that, yeah, that part's pretty cool. And he, you know, they kind of make up a little bit. They're like, Okay, well, you know, he, you know, he says, like, he, he understood that I really did want to go. And so we were friends. Still, like, Yes, right? It's like, no, he's good, yeah. And then they go back to razzing the priest about No, that he wants the Austrians to win. And like, no, he's Oh, uh, yes. And so yeah, and so now we're now the next chapter. We are. Where are we? Oh, yeah. Again, again, we have all this, like, big, you know, they're at dinner, they're joking around, they're having all this fun. And then again, we get a very, like, hard transition. The battery in the next garden woke me up in the morning and I saw the sun coming through the window and got out of bed. Like, yep, still the same. That's just what artillery fire, just like, I think again, it's just one or more of those things like, yep, still here, still in this war, still happening. Nothing's changing, just going through the motions, right? Like it's very Yeah, exactly, yeah. It's again, this, this, how, again, how, whether this is a way of coping with this, or just a how the terrors of war are reduced to something simple as this, to the soldier who's just trying to get through the day right and now how there's not a lot of time to process right now, because I'm just trying to get out of bed and the batteries aren't going right. Like, yeah, I like, I liked, also, it was a nuisance to have them there, but it was a comfort that they were no bigger, right. Like, that's really funny. Like, I don't I, yeah. What kind of rash. Like, What a weird way to rationalize that away and be like, Oh, I'd rather not to be battery going off right next to my bed. But bigger, you know, bigger, not bigger guns. That's good, I guess. Oh my gosh. So he goes around, he's goes and talks to the mechanic guy. And then this is where he's also again, like, Oh, you didn't have any trouble. I was going, okay, darn. Like, part of him was hoping like, you know, maybe he was a bit important, you know, part of him was hoping like, maybe they missed me. Nope, nope, not really just ground on without you, like, just Oh. And then he's even, like, any, any trouble getting parts even? And he's like, no, no, no. He's like, where's the gasoline Park? He's like, it's in the same place. He's like, Oh, okay, good, good. Like, any just goes, gets more coffee. Like, well, whatever. So it's so weird. But again, it's really hammering home the idea of like, yep. Because, I mean, if you know anything about World War one at all, even just like, contextually, you know that it was very long. I mean, it's four years of like we were going to win the war by Christmas, and then four years later, they're still fighting in the same trenches, you know, like not having moved really in some places like that was the experience for a lot of people. This, this. Terrible collision of old ideas and modern technology of like, oh, oh, oh, no, this, this isn't working out right. Like, so this, like people trying to navigate a new environment with only old ideas is not particularly productive, and, you know, they're all just at a stalemate all the time. Nothing is happening because it can't happen because they don't know how to use the technology that they have, or they don't know how to combat the technology that the other side is using. They're just like, I have no plan for this. Yep, I guess I'll just stay here. Like that is terrible. So, you know, this is just like ultimate drudgery and like ultimate like confusion and distress with situations, right? It's kind of, it's very distilled here in these four chapters, like, we're just getting hammered with it already. Like, not directly, you know, which I think is what makes it much more interesting. It's like all the very indirect things, kind of like all this roundabout way you're just getting the feeling that you're kind of getting it right, understanding a little bit about how awful this must be, you know, because this just, just in these four chapters, this has been at least two years of just, like, yep, still here, okay, like, still, just still. And I think that that, that really encapsulates a lot of this, of, at some point they're just trying to do anything to be different, because they can't change the machine the grind on in war right there in each individual is not going to be able to do that, but there's this, I need to do something with myself. I need to do something with my energy, with my mind, before I go insane through what's going on right now. And you do see that also in this, in this chapter of the introduction, well, not the introduction, but the getting to meet, what Miss Barkley becomes interest right in this part with, like, here's newness, right? Here's here's something new and novel, like a relationship. And we're going to see what happens there, yeah, and I think that's really a good way to put it right? Because, well, we'll get to that a minute. But she kind of is feeling that same way too. More on that later. But like so they go him, and Rinaldi, again, convinces him to go see some their nurses, right? We go over here see them, right? And I should mention here, Rinaldi has already, at this point, talked about wanting to marry Berkeley and like how he should, oh, but obviously, I'll wait till after the war, right? Yes, right, clear, sure. So there's a so he goes over there. He's been practicing his uh English, right? Because he's very Italian, and so, like, he, uh, they go over there and they meet him. It kind of is very, like, awkward, right? Totally, huh? Yeah. I'll say, yeah. It's pretty awkward, because she starts talking about, like, this guy that she knew that got killed last year, that she was in love with. Like, Oh, neat. Like, and then the the eternal question of, Why are you in the Italian Army? Yeah, you know, I was just here, like, again, again, again, a wonderful detail that we had no idea until somebody outside of the current story had to bring it up, right? Like, yeah. Like, we didn't really get that sense of what's this Englishman doing here in the Italian Army, like, until someone goes, Hey, wait, what are you doing here? And you're like, oh, oh, I guess that is a thing. Okay. Well, that's, yeah, like, Why? Why is there an American in the Italian Army? Oh, well, you know, like later he was somebody else asked him same question. He's like, Yeah, well, I was already here, so, like, I'd love that. I was like, Well, finally, and I speak it, I can speak Italian, so why not? Like, oh, well, and that was just enough. They're like, yeah, that makes sense, right? But yeah. So they kind of have this weird, very awkward first interaction where, very awkward because also, well, because you come here knowing that, like Rinaldi has the intentions of trying to court Berkeley and be with Berkeley. And meanwhile, you come into a woman who is exceptionally broken and actually like devastated by what has happened here, because she was supposed to marry this other guy who's now dead because of war. And is it, what does she say here? This again, this. This really puts it into context here, where she was, like, I was even hoping, is that where she says, I was hoping that I would find him. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh no, is that here? Is that later? Oh no, yeah. Since the end of 15 I started what he did, I remember having a silly idea he might come up to the hospital, where, where I was. Yes, with a saber cut, I suppose, in a bandage around his head or shot through the shoulder, something picturesque, like, oh, like just a just a little bit of wounding, very, very picturesque. And And again, what a wonderful way to hit on this theme of the over romanticization rover, romantizing war, of this picturesque these value things, because then in the what the next thing? She's like, No, they blew him to bits. It's like, yeah, right, yeah. And that's, that's kind of this big juxtaposition that we get in a lot of World War One, right? Because before, yes, up until, up until, like 1914 right? So like, all the way through the 1800s right? All the way through that war is noble. War is, you know, honorable, right? War is, you know, a just thing, you know, and, and it's all, well, you know, like Napoleonic War is, like you're standing, like, a few feet away from somebody, like, shooting at them, you know, like even, even even Napoleon's doing this, like, or he's got stuff, right, yeah, or, yeah, yeah. Like, there's a lot of accounts of, like, you know, early, early this stuff, like, from the 19th century, of like, you know, officers sword fighting on the things, like, at the it you Oh, dang it. What is it? Oh, no, my, my brain just turned off anyway. Oh, the Crimea, like the Crimean War, right? We get all these accounts of, like, English officers, like sword fighting, against in hand to hand comment against the Russian officers, right? But in, like, the, you know, the wars against Napoleon, right? All these, like, very heroic acts, you know, this is what war is for a long time. Is this idea of, like, very honorable, very heroic, right? And then you get to World War One, and you're getting shot with a howitzer from like, miles away. Yeah, right, you're getting up to charge the front line and the other side has a machine gun. Yeah, you know you're gonna do the valiant charge into the enemy and just mow down immediately. You know, like, this is the reality that hit people immediately. You know, there was some inklings of this in the 19th century, right? Good. Little, just a little taste, like with hindsight, you can see this was coming, right? You can look at the American Civil War. You can look at the Crimean War, right, these late 19th century conflicts, and be like, oh, oh, yep, you could definitely see what's happening here, yeah. But when you're trying to do a cavalry charge into a machine gun nest, one of these things is not going to work out, right? Like, no, no, no, no, no. So this, like, immediate thing, right? This, what they talk about France. France was particularly the worst part. I was the main frontal part, and that's where her man was killed in the Psalm, you know. And so, you know, they saw, they're talking about, people can't imagine what France is like, right? Because they are in the Italian front and the Alps, and it's kind of like long range, up high in the mountains, right? Can only fight part of the year. Uh, France is like all day, every day, or Belgium, right? Just all day, every day, in the mud, all the time. And it's like you get, like the kid kids, where I get sold on the idea that this is a valiant, beautiful thing and honorable to defend your country dropped in a mud hole in the Netherlands. Nothing honorable or valiant about that, right, right? Like, the reality hits immediately, and people became very disillusioned very quickly with this right as well. We can't blame them, you know. So, yeah, we're getting, we're getting, like, it's weird to get that glimpse, just kind of like, from a strange outside perspective here, just in a few lines, right? Like the enormity of the situation collateral down on you in like five sentences, is kind of intense, like all of a sudden, right? Yeah. Will you go from this again? And the conversation already didn't what didn't start off? Well, it started off weird again, with her saying, like, oh yeah, here's the write up, the short writing prop from this boy that I was going to marry, and I knew him for eight years, and he died, and it evolves into, they blew him to bits. It just really all of a sudden, like to have that in the context of everything leading up to this of the description of, you know, car parts and finding those, and going all across, you know, your, you know, Europe, to find these places, you're sorry, in Italy, and find these places, and, oh, and the trees and the like, oh, right, that's what's actually going on in all of this. Is millions, you know, being blown to bits in this within this trench warfare. Yeah, yeah. And they were immediately rocketed back to the current situation with Rinaldi fumblingly In English, trying to talk to miss Ferguson and asking her, Oh, like, and being confused about her not being like, she's from Britain, but she's not, she's the other lady's like, Scottish, right? And so they're like, Oh, you don't like the English. It's like, no, it's like, so you don't like her. That's not what it meant. But whatever. Like, yes, this really, like, awkward conversations happening between them too, is like, the weird makes the whole situation even more awkward. Like, yes, it's just a really terribly weird, awkward meeting, and it's so bizarre. It's one, it's yeah, it's okay, well, we'll just keep moving on from this. And we do, right? I was like, anyway, oh, next afternoon I went to Colin, Miss Barclay. Yes, yep. Well, because, yeah, this is where Rinaldi, yeah, this is where at the end he says, Miss Rinaldi. Says, Miss Barkley prefers you to me. That is very clear, but the little scotch one is very nice. And he says very I had not noticed her, which was very patronizing here. Yeah, I had not noticed her. He said, Do you like her? No. Said, Rinaldi, yeah, I went to go see Miss Barkley again. Yeah, this is where he meets that other nurse who's like, why are you in the Italian Army? Oh, why don't you join up with us? Yeah, yeah. He's like, Can I join now? She's like, afraid not. It's too late. Tell me, yeah, I love that. Afraid not. So yeah. She's like, all right, you can come talk to her, but she's working now, so go away. Like, oh, right, yes, yeah. So, so he comes back, right, he goes off, and he's just, you know, wandering around and talks about the, what was left of the railway station and all this stuff. Oh, and he's admiring, is this where he's admiring the the new road that's going up to that right now? Or is that later? Yeah, the new wide road is being finished that would go up to the mountains and zigzag down the bridge. When this road was finished, the offensive would start right the road they're building to get artillery and troops and stuff up to the line right so, yeah, they're just building a new big road there, so all that stuff, right? And there's the some police there, and they were, he was driving up to see a thing, and they had to wait because the road was being shelled, you know. So, like, he went back to work, and he was, like, driving up and doing stuff, and they had to stop and wait because the road was getting bombed. And then, like, they're like, Okay, you can go now. And he just kept driving, yeah, cool. And he drove around the shells, right? Drove around the craters just like around them do, right? Oh my gosh, yeah. I avoided the small, broken places and smelled the high explosive and the smell of blasted clay and stone and freshly shattered Flint. Okay, yeah. And there I drove back and went on to call Miss Barkley, like, what this this? It's like, the nonchalantness of like, being shelled. He's even like, yeah, they were 70 sevens, and they came with the whistling rush of air, then a hard, bright burst in a flash, and then gray smoke that blew across the road I drove around them. Like, yeah, yeah, I'm probably gonna say this word a ton. But like, disassociated, dispassionate, like, hardcore, just some way of not mentally falling apart right there. Yeah, for sure. You see how this, how this has to happen in the stark Oh, and then I'm going to do this. Yep, that's just over there. No, oh, those, those shells, those just happen all the time. Don't worry about that. That's fine. Like, I just drive around them. Like, it's but over here, this is what I'm going to do now, like, Oh, like that, that, like that also is what helps, or what contributes to the feeling of this quick pacedness is because, you it's so jarring in the reporting of what's happening. Of like, well, this happened, oh, and I'm gonna go over here now, it's just, it's not in a I'm don't want to, I don't want to be bothered to write this. It's in a, well, this is how I'm processing what's going on. Yeah, or not, process. Or not, as it would later, Yep, yeah, they go. He goes to see her, and it's, uh, again, kind of awkward. There's kind of like sitting out in the thing, right? And, uh, they're wanting to talk about stuff, but he's like, oh, I want to, don't want to talk about the war. And they start talking about something else, and he, like, just randomly tries to kiss her, and she, like, smacks him in the face. Yeah, yeah. Which kind of funny, also, right. Kind of funny. Yeah. So, so, yeah, they're just kind of like, okay. And then she gets to back, right? It's his whole, like, kind of the budding beginning of this, but it starts, like, really weirdly, right? And it's, you know, it's really weird. And he just kind of goes, okay. And then he goes back every he passes the officer's house, where everybody else is. They're like, some kind of party or whatever, and he just decides to go home. He's like, Yeah, I'm just gonna go home. But then right, boom, Ben is Ronald is there to make fun of him, right? Calls him little puppy dog. And which is funny. I like, I like, this chapter ends. Was I knocked her. He's Rinaldi is like, in bed reading, right? And he's like, I knocked over his candle with the pillow and got into bed in the dark. Rinaldi picked up the candle, lit it, and went on reading, yep, that's just like, again, they've done this 1000 times. Really rankled one another over this. Yeah and yeah, it was the whole interaction towards the end with with Berkeley too, of like, trying to understand where she's coming from on all this and like, what really is going to be this relationship between these two? Because obviously, she's carrying in all of this green, a lot of baggage herself, yeah, from her loss and what she's struggling with and regrets, and what she's coming to the skin, you know, she's already asking, like, you're not, like, what she says, like, you won't leave me and, like, all this, like, okay, like, I don't know if this is, this is healthy and, and he obviously, these are assessing, ladies and gentlemen, these are red flags. That's what we like to call red flags, right? But, and he himself, you know, he's already saying, like, No, I'm not a good guy. Like, I that's, that's what I've been told, and I don't do these things well. And, yeah, and he's not even in this for the, you know, quote, unquote, right reasons, and we'll find that later on in the next chapter too. That's just kind of like a distraction, right? Like, just like a distraction, right? Because he said, Yeah. He says, like, she's like, Oh, you're sweet. He's like, No, I'm not. No, I'm really not. Yeah, yeah. So, like, you know, it's very interesting, yeah? Because she says, Oh, darling, you will be good to me, won't you? And he's like, what the hell I thought? Yeah, like, okay, cool. I'm just gonna pat your head. Yep, okay. Like, that's all he's thinking. Like, what am I? What is this? But at the same time, he doesn't care, because it's new, right? It's like, okay, well, it is new, right? That's kind of the big thing. It's new and different, right? We've seen that everything is the same all the time for at least two years, question mark, possibly more. And this is a new thing. So he's like, Yeah, whatever, right, yeah. And that's, that's kind of that goes right into the next chapter, right? He was away for a couple days at post, you know, up at the front, whatever, um, comes back, you know, talks about some stuff here, has this really random thing about carrying the Italian gun that doesn't that kind of sucks at being a gun, and it's like you're required to carry it. But Ronald, he just carried a roll of tolster stuff with toilet paper because the gun was so bad he'd rather just not have it. Yes, again, it's very funny to me. Like, it's, like, just very rude aside of, like, yeah, yeah, whatever. He's, like, I tried for a while, and I gave up and just yeah, he's, he's, he's not, yeah. They also are required to wear the metal helmets. But he said, What do you say here? He said, um, oh, but they were uncomfortable and too bloody theatrical in a town where the civilian inhabitants had not been evacuated. Like, yeah, he's he's going, like, what is this? Again? This kind of theater of war, of there's people coming around here in cafes, having coffees and teas, and you're like, wanting me to march around in a metal helmet, fully armed. Like, not gonna do that. That's ridiculous. Get these people out of here. And so he's also still struggling with this, also kind of this, this imagery of, like, putting on the war, like, how close is he gonna keep the war to him, right? Like, versus keeping it a little bit at arm's length? Of, no, that's something I go and do, not something that's with me. Also. Time, yeah, so he brings us up because he's sitting in a chair waiting for her, right, and they go out to the courtyard right? And then we get more of this, like theater right with her, where she's like, Oh, she's like, playing this like, weird game for we don't know her motivations, because our narrator is, you know, this other guy, but there's Henry here, and so, like, we get this, like, weird game of, like, she wants him to say these things, and she wants him to do these certain things, right? And that's how she's going to be happy. And then they, like, kiss and stuff and all this. And then, like, then, after all that's done, she's like, All right, yeah, we're done. You don't have to do that anymore. You don't have to talk to me like that. That was just a little game you're playing, right? You don't have to do that now, not for a little while anyway. And like, what? Like, yeah, after she gets to say, I love you. And he's like, I lied, yes, I love you. And so he's kind of playing into this. And she wants to call her to call him. She wants, she wants him to call her, but Catherine and speaking this way, and you just know that, like, Oh, she's trying to do something here that she didn't have, right? She's trying to make this thing like, this is but like, both are going to get out of this what they want, unfortunately. And you just, you just see it all coming here, like, oh, oh yeah. She even says, she even says, Uh, this is a rotten game we play, isn't it? What game? Don't be dull. I'm not on purpose. You're a nice boy, she said, and you play it as well as you know how, but it's a rotten game, right? Like, Oh, right. Because here red flag, red flag alert, right before that, she's doing this, this role playing, where he, she, she says, say, I've come back to Catherine in the night. And he says, I've come back to Catherine in the night. And she goes, Oh, darling, you have come back, haven't you? Yeah, she's not. She's not talking to our buddy boy Here is she? Nope, I don't know. Definitely not. That's not, uh, it's not that conversation that's happening, right? Yeah, you can tell, because even he's like, I thought she was probably a little crazy. It was all right. It's all right. If she was, I did not care what I was getting into. This was better than going every evening to the house for officers, where the girls climbed all over you and put your cap on backwards. Like, and, like, yeah, yeah. He's saying, He's saying, Well, this is better than that. What I had when I went on my trip around Italy. Like, okay, well, like this, we'll, we'll try this, because I think this is also, again, his, his attempt at what, like, whatever the in the world is going on here. Like, I need to find some way to kind of mimic normalcy for a life that's just not here. And if this is what I have to do to get that, this is way more normal than those places with the officers and the houses and the girls. Like, wait, that's not, that's not the normal. So I'll turn this will be my normal. Like, I'll just do that here to again as a way of making something normal, like in real, out of what else is going on, out of this kind of absurd situation, right? Yes, exactly like you know this. I knew that I did not love Katherine Barkley, nor had any idea of loving her. This was a game like bridge, in which you said things. Instead of playing cards like bridge, you had to pretend you were playing for money or playing for some stakes. Nobody had mentioned what the stakes were. It was all right with me. I love that because, again, like, no idea what's going on, no idea what the end point of this is. But I'm okay with that right now, because it gets me what I need right now. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. And then, like, yeah. Then she goes through this thing, and she's like, All right, see you later. I'm tired, yeah, yeah, bye. Oh yeah. He talks about going home. It was hot. There was a good deal going up on in the mountains. I watched the flashes on San Gabriel, right? So there's shelling happening up on top of the mountain, but he's just walking down the street, being like, yep, there is. And then he goes home, and ronaldi is there to read him some more. Have you been calling on the British? Thank God I did not become involved with the British. I Oh, man, yeah, this, uh, anyway, and then we get into it, and that's it. That's chapter seven. That's it. It's like blab, blab, blab. Blab done, blab i. Yeah, this has been, this is an interesting one. This is going to be very interesting to me to work through, because, yeah, it's a very different writing style. But also, man, it's, it keeps it keeps rolling here, yeah, so and it's just so much subtext, right? There's a lot of things going on, but I don't really talk about them. Some of them we just gloss over. It's like, anyway, sounds great. It's gonna be interesting to see how Frederick here changes, or really not, does it change? And how some of the outcomes of how he is, of being emotionally detached and kind of pragmatic about things and distant, like, where, where that ultimately leads? And, yeah, right, like, and yes, so yeah, well, we'll see here, especially, yeah. Anyway, yeah, yeah. Interesting. This is good. This is good. I did read, I think this is the one, where was this the one that we said that had been banned by the in Italy because it didn't like the depictions of the Italian Army. Oh, has it? No? Yeah, I think, I think I read that. I think, hold on, that is, that's not the right thing to Google, Brandon, that's not what am I doing? Clicked on the wrong thing. That is hilarious. I wouldn't, I wouldn't surprise me, necessarily. But yeah, it was banned. It was okay. It it's been republished again. So it was but in 1929 our friend, our good friend of their, Benito Mussolini, banned it because of the portrayal of the Italian retreat at the Caporetto. He didn't like how it portrayed them. So it was, it was banned, but it's been in print since, like, 19, late 40s, I think early 50s. So, totally fine, totally fine. But I thought that was funny. I'm reading this, and I did read that about it, like, oh yeah, Mussolini didn't like this book. Okay? I mean, that must be, if Mussolini doesn't like it, it's probably pretty good, right? Like, you know what this is, I agree. Like, that's a good, like, a good basis to start with, right? Maybe you should like more things. At least you should go on a t shirt. I think that's, you know, your 2025 is, is the year that I liked more things that loosely needed. Yeah, that's the thing. It's important, right? That's a good, okay, all right, if I can't find where I left my aha, there we go. Okay, found it. So I do have a haiku to end a song. Okay? I remembered this time I kind of freaked out because this week I wrote it quite early. Oh yeah, very dangerous. Got it all right, seeking adventure, art, mirroring reality, joy and pain Collin, like that a lot. Here we go. Good stuff here. Okay, well, have to tide me over till next week. Well, I'm all right. Figure out what I'm gonna write about. So I'll just start to Yeah, it happens. Perfect. So, um, was that a good pace for six? Six? Okay, you want to try, yeah, these six were good. Okay, we'll see, however, uh, I'll look at book two later and see how many chapters there. We figure out how we want to chop it up, yeah, because I don't want to, I think, I think making sure that we stop at the end of, like, the books would be a good idea, yeah, because they're very like, I think if I'm really, like, quite important, like, breaks so I don't want to, like, read, I don't want to have be, like, stuck with like, one chapter. Sure that makes we'll do, we'll do the next six here, and then we'll count up and see how many in the next one, see how much we need to divide it, because I think Book Two is a bit longer. So okay, yeah, that'll, that'll work. So we'll do that and keep this, keep this going. Definitely liking this a lot. So we'll, we'll see how this goes. So yeah, well, until next time. All right, love you. Love you too. Bye, bye.