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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/28TdPui:
galadhir:
dauntlesssubconscious:
oldadastra:
Here’s an article from the New York Times talking about moral injury, a relatively new term for a very old idea about the toll war takes on soldiers. A moral injury is sustained when a person violates their deeply held morality, their humanity. Taking part in war can cause wounds to a person’s soul that are difficult to heal.
Months ago I wrote a meta about the possibility that the new Star Wars saga is telling us a story about war and moral injury. @ms-qualia wrote a truly amazing essay on moral injury and Kylo Ren, drawing connections between Star Wars and ancient Greek tragedy.
I was thinking about veterans in my own community when I read this New York Times article, but I was also thinking about Star Wars, and I thought it was worth sharing with this corner of the fandom.
Star Wars is a fairy tale for children of course. It is modern myth, swashbuckling adventure, space opera, and romance, but I think it may also be growing into something deeper in the new saga. I see a lot of indications that Kylo Ren’s story may unfold as an allegory of a soldier at war, soul injury, and - I hope - eventual homecoming.
“…they [the veterans] did something terribly wrong and don’t know if they can be forgiven.”
And there we have Kylo, eyes welling up in tears and saying to his father that it’s too late.
This was one of the things I was thinking about when writing Confessional. What if that moral injury was so early in your life that you didn’t remember a time before it? You’d have to either let it destroy you or remake yourself around it/recontextualize it until it could become a source of pride.
galadhir:
dauntlesssubconscious:
oldadastra:
Here’s an article from the New York Times talking about moral injury, a relatively new term for a very old idea about the toll war takes on soldiers. A moral injury is sustained when a person violates their deeply held morality, their humanity. Taking part in war can cause wounds to a person’s soul that are difficult to heal.
Months ago I wrote a meta about the possibility that the new Star Wars saga is telling us a story about war and moral injury. @ms-qualia wrote a truly amazing essay on moral injury and Kylo Ren, drawing connections between Star Wars and ancient Greek tragedy.
I was thinking about veterans in my own community when I read this New York Times article, but I was also thinking about Star Wars, and I thought it was worth sharing with this corner of the fandom.
Star Wars is a fairy tale for children of course. It is modern myth, swashbuckling adventure, space opera, and romance, but I think it may also be growing into something deeper in the new saga. I see a lot of indications that Kylo Ren’s story may unfold as an allegory of a soldier at war, soul injury, and - I hope - eventual homecoming.
“…they [the veterans] did something terribly wrong and don’t know if they can be forgiven.”
And there we have Kylo, eyes welling up in tears and saying to his father that it’s too late.
This was one of the things I was thinking about when writing Confessional. What if that moral injury was so early in your life that you didn’t remember a time before it? You’d have to either let it destroy you or remake yourself around it/recontextualize it until it could become a source of pride.
