ARCHIVES OF February, 2011
By Steven Pressfield | Published: February 14, 2011
[Last week we introduced this new series, The Warrior Ethos, posting the introduction and Chapters One and Two. Today's post is Chapters Three, Four, Five and Six. The Warrior Ethos will continue in this space every Monday. To see prior posts, click on the "Series" bar above. Let's resume!]
CHAPTER 3 EAST OF EDEN
Where did the Warrior Ethos come from? Why would anyone choose this hard, dangerous life? What could be the philosophy behind such a choice?
An answer may come from the Garden of Eden (which is an archetypal myth common to many cultures other than our own Judeo-Christian).
God sets up Adam and Eve in paradise, where all their needs are met without effort. But He warns them, “Don’t go near that tree in the center of the garden.” Of course, they do. The mother and father of the human race choose to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
In other words, they choose to become human. They acquire a quality of consciousness that, before then, had been the possession of God alone.
God kicks them out—into the land of Nod, east of Eden. And here is the curse He lays upon Adam and Eve (and by extension upon the human race forever):
Henceforth shalt thou eat thy bread in the sweat of thy face.
In other words, from now on you humans have to work for a living.
(more…)
By Shawn Coyne | Published: February 11, 2011
If you are a publisher or an editor today in traditional trade book publishing, you have to decide which of the two cultures you want to align yourself with.
The “literary” culture is represented by these publishers: Knopf, FSG, Scribner, Random House, Riverhead, Penguin Press and a number of other houses both independent and corporate owned. These houses are known for the high end literary stuff—Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison, Jonathan Franzen, Richard Powers, Zadie Smith, Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, etc. (more…)
By Steven Pressfield | Published: February 9, 2011
Today we launch a new series on the site. It’s called The Warrior Ethos. Here’s a short intro, in case you missed it. The series is intended for our young men and women in uniform, but I hope that other warriors in other walks of life will give it a chance too. Posts will appear every Monday. After this week, Writing Wednesdays will resume.
Let’s plunge right in. Here’s the introduction to The Warrior Ethos and the first two chapters. (The photo above is from Khalidiyah, Iraq, 2008—the men of Company F, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines. Thanks to Lance Corporal Albert F. Hunt.)
THE WARRIOR ETHOS
Part One: Academies of War
“The Spartans do not ask how many are the enemy, but where are they.”
Plutarch, Sayings of the Spartans
INTRODUCTION
Writing About War
I am a writer. I write about war—external wars and internal wars, wars ancient and modern, real wars out of history and imagined wars that exist only in speculation. Why? I don’t even know myself. (more…)
