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The Makaland Field Force
Dec. 17th, 2006 03:20 pm
It has been noted with sufficient frequency to become a commonplace, that writers must needs also be readers. It has been noted less frequently, perhaps, that with this obligation comes the advantage, or hazard, that one's writing may take on the tone and style of that which one reads.
As an example of this effect, the author might point out a slim volume entitled _The Story of the Malakand Field Force_, authored by Sir Winston Spencer Churchill in the waning days of the 19th Century.
The achievements of this great man are too well known and too voluminous to recount here. It may, however, be unknown to some readers that it was in the world of literature, not the world of politics, that he first made his mark upon an appreciative world. Those who are aware of this fact might point to his adventures in the Second Boer War of the late 1890s. In this conflict, having resigned his commission, Sir Winston served as a journalist; but having been a British officer in earlier days, he went armed and took part in various military actions. Only the fortunate accident of having lost his Mauser automatic pistol before his capture by the Boers prevented his execution by them as a spy, thus preserving his life for the great services he performed later in his career.
Even fewer will know that he served in the area of India's border with Afghanistan, in both the capacity of a military officer and as a correspondant to the newspapers in his home country. The area of India where these events transpired is now Pakistan. Sir Winston's words on the Mad Mullahs with whom the British contended in those days, and upon the savagery, bloodthirstiness, superstition, and treachery of the folowers of Muhammad of that region, may resonate with the modern reader who, however, as the child of an age of greater tolerance, may yet feel the words unjustified or, at least, too harsh and judgmental for public utterance. Nevertheless, the sentiments and experiences Sir Winston relates are still illuminating for those who might wish to know more of the causes and centuries of history of the morass into which certern Western democracies have recently and heedlessly flung themselves.
The styles of writing have changed over the century and more since Sir Winston, then a young man making his first forray into both the military and literary worlds, penned these words. The book therefore exhibits both the flaws of a young writer trying, too consciously perhaps, to speak to an educated audience and to demonstrate his own education, and the meandering and elaborate style of the late Victorian period. The modern reader might therefore wish that Sir Winston would spend less verbiage in talking directly to his readers and more in recounting the actual events of that interesting period in history. Further, one might depreciate his choice of overly ornate language and convoluted sentence structure. If that reader should also be so unfortunate as to be a writer, that writer would certainly hope that the effects of reading too much of Sir Winston's prose would fall away from him, leaving him with his own, more direct writing style; all the more so because continuing in such fashion might lead his own readers, and especially Tephra, to belabor him about the head and shoulders with any of an assortment of readily available large sticks, bats, and cooking utensils.
As an example of this effect, the author might point out a slim volume entitled _The Story of the Malakand Field Force_, authored by Sir Winston Spencer Churchill in the waning days of the 19th Century.
The achievements of this great man are too well known and too voluminous to recount here. It may, however, be unknown to some readers that it was in the world of literature, not the world of politics, that he first made his mark upon an appreciative world. Those who are aware of this fact might point to his adventures in the Second Boer War of the late 1890s. In this conflict, having resigned his commission, Sir Winston served as a journalist; but having been a British officer in earlier days, he went armed and took part in various military actions. Only the fortunate accident of having lost his Mauser automatic pistol before his capture by the Boers prevented his execution by them as a spy, thus preserving his life for the great services he performed later in his career.
Even fewer will know that he served in the area of India's border with Afghanistan, in both the capacity of a military officer and as a correspondant to the newspapers in his home country. The area of India where these events transpired is now Pakistan. Sir Winston's words on the Mad Mullahs with whom the British contended in those days, and upon the savagery, bloodthirstiness, superstition, and treachery of the folowers of Muhammad of that region, may resonate with the modern reader who, however, as the child of an age of greater tolerance, may yet feel the words unjustified or, at least, too harsh and judgmental for public utterance. Nevertheless, the sentiments and experiences Sir Winston relates are still illuminating for those who might wish to know more of the causes and centuries of history of the morass into which certern Western democracies have recently and heedlessly flung themselves.
The styles of writing have changed over the century and more since Sir Winston, then a young man making his first forray into both the military and literary worlds, penned these words. The book therefore exhibits both the flaws of a young writer trying, too consciously perhaps, to speak to an educated audience and to demonstrate his own education, and the meandering and elaborate style of the late Victorian period. The modern reader might therefore wish that Sir Winston would spend less verbiage in talking directly to his readers and more in recounting the actual events of that interesting period in history. Further, one might depreciate his choice of overly ornate language and convoluted sentence structure. If that reader should also be so unfortunate as to be a writer, that writer would certainly hope that the effects of reading too much of Sir Winston's prose would fall away from him, leaving him with his own, more direct writing style; all the more so because continuing in such fashion might lead his own readers, and especially Tephra, to belabor him about the head and shoulders with any of an assortment of readily available large sticks, bats, and cooking utensils.
