Part 38 (2/2)
page 80 ”hear[ing] about Don occasionally”: ”hear[ing] about Don occasionally”: Helen Moore Barthelme, Helen Moore Barthelme, Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2001), 22. (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2001), 22.
page 81 ”[Hubert] Roussel went to all of the interesting shows”: ”[Hubert] Roussel went to all of the interesting shows”: Marilyn Gillet, in a conversation with the author, November 17, 2004. Marilyn Gillet, in a conversation with the author, November 17, 2004.
page 81 ”Disney's h.o.r.n.i.e.s.t animated feature”: ”Disney's h.o.r.n.i.e.s.t animated feature”: See Jeremy Heilman at See Jeremy Heilman at .
page 82 his ”nastiness”: his ”nastiness”: Jerome Klinkowitz, Asa B. Pieratt, Jr., and Robert Murray Davis, Jerome Klinkowitz, Asa B. Pieratt, Jr., and Robert Murray Davis, Donald Barthelme: A Comprehensive Bibliography Donald Barthelme: A Comprehensive Bibliography (Hamden, Connecticut: Shoestring Press/Archon Books, 1977), 88.
page 82 ”I am persuaded that Surrealism first existed in the cinema”: ”I am persuaded that Surrealism first existed in the cinema”: Langlois quoted in Colin MacCabe, Langlois quoted in Colin MacCabe, G.o.dard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy G.o.dard: A Portrait of the Artist at Seventy (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), 48. For background information on (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), 48. For background information on Cahiers du Cinema Cahiers du Cinema, I have drawn upon MacCabe's book.
page 84 ”packed with color, spectacle, and glamour”; ”cracks the fraternity-sorority question wide open”: ”packed with color, spectacle, and glamour”; ”cracks the fraternity-sorority question wide open”: Robert Murray Davis, ”Donald Barthelme in Houston,” Robert Murray Davis, ”Donald Barthelme in Houston,” The Houston Review: History and Culture of the Gulf Coast The Houston Review: History and Culture of the Gulf Coast 2 (1980): 99. 2 (1980): 99.
page 84 ”a deeply disturbing novel of the South”: ”a deeply disturbing novel of the South”: This and subsequent quotes from This and subsequent quotes from Amanda Feverish Amanda Feverish are from Davis, ”Donald Barthelme in Houston,” 98. are from Davis, ”Donald Barthelme in Houston,” 98.
page 85 ”Less than three months after”: ”Less than three months after”: Davis, ”Donald Barthelme in Houston,” 98. Davis, ”Donald Barthelme in Houston,” 98.
10. Basic Training page 89 Don was a.s.signed to Company M: Don was a.s.signed to Company M: Helen Moore Barthelme, Helen Moore Barthelme, Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2001), 22. (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2001), 22.
page 89 Camp Polk: Camp Polk: For information on Camp Polk, see ”Louisiana Maneuver Camps and Bases” at For information on Camp Polk, see ”Louisiana Maneuver Camps and Bases” at mand to ”harm” a civilian with his M16. As punishment, he is ordered to stuff onions into olives for a martiniguzzling general. Anguished, he cries, ”Father!” A shout for help? A curse? A prayer? A year later, when the story resurfaced in magazine, the recycled recruit refuses a command to ”harm” a civilian with his M16. As punishment, he is ordered to stuff onions into olives for a martiniguzzling general. Anguished, he cries, ”Father!” A shout for help? A curse? A prayer? A year later, when the story resurfaced in Amateurs Amateurs, Don had changed the sergeant's cry to ”Andromache!” The reference is to Euripides' play and to the aftermath of the Trojan War. The play ends with an explicit statement of Don's theme: ”Many a thing...[comes] to pa.s.s contrary to our expectations,” the chorus intones. ”[That] which we thought would be is not accomplished.”
The epitome of a faithful wife, Andromache appears briefly in the Iliad Iliad, holding her baby, crying for her husband, Hector, as he stomps off to battle. Eventually, Achilles slays Hector and the baby is killed. Andromache, carted to Sparta, becomes a concubine of Achilles' son. She endures indignities and threats, and is the only self-controlled person in a society rent by jealousies, suspicions, and a hunger for war.
Like Euripides' play, Don's story, written in the 1970s, as U.S. involvement in Vietnam staggered to its sloppy end, depicts a corrupt, confused, and bloated authoritarian system. As the Greek chorus chants, ”Better it is not to win a discreditable victory, than to make justice miscarry by an invidious exercise of power....” Many Americans saw Vietnam as a repeat of the Korean mistake (”Look, I've already done this”). In the mid-seventies, readers of ”The Sergeant,” forced to contemplate harming a civilian, would naturally be reminded of the My Lai ma.s.sacre. The sergeant's plea to Andromache serves as a bond with her suffering as well as a confession that he has fallen short of her dignity.
What has he done to call such trouble on himself (”Of course it's what I deserve,” he says)? The story doesn't spell things out, but if Andromache is a model of fidelity, we can a.s.sume the opposite of the sergeant (just as he reverses her image in losing his dignity). ”O marriage, marriage, woe to thee! thou bane of my home, thou destroyer of my city!” the warrior Peleus shouts in the middle of Euripides' play, lamenting the intimate duplicities, reflected in public power, that have ruined his culture. By the time Don wrote the story, he was thrice divorced. His second wife-from whom his split had been especially painful-was named Helen. On one level, the cry of ”Andromache!” is an in joke, for in the play, Andromache blames Helen of Troy for the war that wrecked her family. In her final years, she marries a man named Helenus, and finds happiness. (Helen Moore Barthelme recalls that ”Don's friends gave us as a wedding gift a painted golden apple along with a poem alluding to the mythological tale of the winning of Helen of Troy by Paris of Greece.”) Don's separation from Marilyn Marrs during his Korean sojourn certainly hastened the end of his first marriage, a marriage his bond with Helen was supposed to erase. In any case, ”Andromache!” makes clear his conviction that, in private as well as in public, ”discreditable” behavior leads to a ”stain on a house.”
But Don wasn't yet done with ”The Sergeant.” In its third appearance, in Sixty Stories Sixty Stories in 1981, he changed the story's final plea to ”Penelope!” Penelope is another model wife. She is better known to most readers than Andromache-a possible reason for the change. She is also a less woeful figure, celebrated for her strength, cunning, and guile, qualities that make her example a greater rebuke to the sergeant (who is a wanderer like Odysseus, like Leopold Bloom) and a more poignant target for his longing. The loss of Andromache softens the story's social critique-less a sign of mellowing on Don's part than recognition that, as Vietnam fell further into the past, the story's power lay more in its portrait of individual psychology. in 1981, he changed the story's final plea to ”Penelope!” Penelope is another model wife. She is better known to most readers than Andromache-a possible reason for the change. She is also a less woeful figure, celebrated for her strength, cunning, and guile, qualities that make her example a greater rebuke to the sergeant (who is a wanderer like Odysseus, like Leopold Bloom) and a more poignant target for his longing. The loss of Andromache softens the story's social critique-less a sign of mellowing on Don's part than recognition that, as Vietnam fell further into the past, the story's power lay more in its portrait of individual psychology.
For the various versions of the ending of ”The Sergeant,” see Fiction Fiction 3, nos. 23 (1975): 25; Donald Barthelme, 3, nos. 23 (1975): 25; Donald Barthelme, Amateurs Amateurs (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976), 77; and Donald Barthelme, (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976), 77; and Donald Barthelme, Sixty Stories Sixty Stories (New York: Putnam, 1981), 308. All quotes from (New York: Putnam, 1981), 308. All quotes from Andromache Andromache are taken from Euripides, are taken from Euripides, Andromache Andromache, trans. E. P. Coleridge, posted at
page 92 Fort Lewis: Fort Lewis: For information on Fort Lewis, see ”I Corps and Fort Lewis” at For information on Fort Lewis, see ”I Corps and Fort Lewis” at
page 93 ”You could write for a week”: ”You could write for a week”: Ernest Hemingway, ”Voyage to Victory,” in Ernest Hemingway, ”Voyage to Victory,” in Hemingway on War Hemingway on War, ed. Sean Hemingway (New York: Scribner's, 2003), 326.
11. The Thirty-eighth Parallel page 94 ”I've crossed...the Pacific twice”: ”I've crossed...the Pacific twice”: Donald Barthelme, Donald Barthelme, Paradise Paradise (New York: Putnam, 1986), 151. (New York: Putnam, 1986), 151.
page 94 ”[I sailed] over the pearly Pacific”: ”[I sailed] over the pearly Pacific”: Donald Barthelme, Donald Barthelme, Sixty Stories Sixty Stories (New York: Putnam, 1981), 102. (New York: Putnam, 1981), 102.
page 94 ”grimy hills of Korea”: ”grimy hills of Korea”: Helen Moore Barthelme, Helen Moore Barthelme, Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound Donald Barthelme: The Genesis of a Cool Sound (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2001), 23. (College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2001), 23.
page 95 ”Walking down the road wearing green clothes”: ”Walking down the road wearing green clothes”: Barthelme, Barthelme, Sixty Stories Sixty Stories, 101.
page 95 it's a ”sour” feeling: it's a ”sour” feeling: James Brady, James Brady, The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea The Coldest War: A Memoir of Korea (New York: Orion Books, 1990), 1. (New York: Orion Books, 1990), 1.
page 95 ”waving Korean, American, and United Nations flags”: ”waving Korean, American, and United Nations flags”: W. H. Lawrence quoted in Lloyd C. Gardner, ed., W. H. Lawrence quoted in Lloyd C. Gardner, ed., The Korean War The Korean War (New York: Quadrangle Books, 1972), 100101. (New York: Quadrangle Books, 1972), 100101.
page 95 ”At 10:00 p.m. on 27 July [1953]”: ”At 10:00 p.m. on 27 July [1953]”: Callum A. Macdonald, Callum A. Macdonald, Korea: The War Before Vietnam Korea: The War Before Vietnam (New York: The Free Press, 1986), 249. (New York: The Free Press, 1986), 249.
page 96 making reveille in ”an offhand way”: making reveille in ”an offhand way”: Helen Moore Barthelme Helen Moore Barthelme Donald Barthelme Donald Barthelme, 23.
page 96 ”not, of course, deliriously happy”: ”not, of course, deliriously happy”: This and subsequent quotes from Don's letters home to Joe Maranto and to his family are from Helen Moore Barthelme, This and subsequent quotes from Don's letters home to Joe Maranto and to his family are from Helen Moore Barthelme, Donald Barthelme Donald Barthelme, 2234.
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