http://nytimes.com/2004/08/04/books/04BOOK.html?8hpibJACKSONVILLE, N.C., July 30 — In her tiny voice, Bobbie Ann Mason was comparing herself to the protagonist of her 1985 novel, "In Country": a young girl growing up in Kentucky during the Vietnam War. She was speaking to a couple of dozen people here at Camp Lejeune, a handful of marines and family members of marines. This was a writer's workshop, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, and Ms. Mason was reminded of Sam, her character, because they both share a hunger for information about strife in a faraway land.
"I think we all want to know what it's like," Ms. Mason said, as the marines bent forward in their classroom seats to hear her. War, she meant. Iraq, she meant.
"Let's start with the sand," Ms. Mason said. "I've been thinking about the sand. I'm wondering, how do you describe that sand?" Off to the side in the front row, Staff Sgt. Steven Sparks, about to embark on his second tour of duty in Iraq, raised his hand and described a sensation of time travel, the strangeness of crossing a biblical plain in a 21st-century military vehicle.
"It was so ancient, so old," he said.Oddly enough, it's Boeing that is ponying up the cash for this program. At any rate, I think for the soldiers that are into it, this is just great. If I could support Boeing by buying an airplane, I'd do it :-)
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