This is why I have no social life.

[newredshoes]

Okay, I've been super-curious about people's responses to Band of Brothers ever since I started poking around the fandom. So, if you've got the inclination, want to answer some questions about your favorite characters and their backgrounds?

Comments

[ia_ne]

Oookay. This is not as easy as it looks *g*

First, deciding on characters. This is series , right? Winters is my favorite both in series and real life, but I don't know enough about real!Harry to say he is a favorite. As for Nixon, hm. I find I'm very much influenced by Ron Livingston's portrayal of him and can't actually say if I'd been as fascinated with him without it. This is interesting, because series!Winters and real!Winters are actually two rather distinctive characters for me, but with Nixon it's all mixed up. Although that's of course not surprising seeing as one wrote a memoir and the other didn't share any information at all.

But anyway, I answered the quiz with series in mind, so all this isn't really important *g*

I find the background and biographical questions tricky as well! As for biographical identification, I would never do something like join the paratroopers to go to war *g*, so that cost quite a few points. Also, I don't "biographically identify" with either one completely, but the mix of university education (all I guess, not sure with Harry), geographically staying close to the roots (Winters and Harry) but also traveling a lot (Nixon) as well as not having the one dream job (all of them I guess?) seems to fit.

For background I chose yes, simply because of my middle class background and because both Winters and Harry both fall into that category. What else does background include? Religion, urban/rural? If so, the yes would probably be a little less definite, but still applicable. No similarities with Nixon.

Why am I talking about this so much?? I don't know! It's a lot of fun though!

[newredshoes]

Ohh, interesting point about how the books and the series make that difference! (By the way, in my next massive linkshare, I will probably go on and on about how I can't wait for this to come out! It'll be interesting to see how that changes future rewatches.)

I think I left "background" and "biography" purposefully vague to see what people would do with it. I was thinking things like religion, upbringing, location, and even just how much you identify with a particular guy's outlook or viewpoints. Being Jewish, for instance, I pay a lot of attention to Joe Liebgott, who is, of course, called Jewish in the series but in real life it was sort of... a point of contention, I guess? ("Yes! Well... He never denied it!" was what one vet said about him.) But even though I find guys like Bill and Babe most fascinating, I think I have the closest overall "match" with Skip Muck, in terms of how I treat friendships and obligations and humor.

I'm not really sure what I'm talking about myself, but yes, it is fun!

[ia_ne]

I didn't know about that book, that sounds very interesting! Shifty is a contributor! I have developed a very soft spot for Shifty both in the series and in real life.

Speaking of books, my copies of Biggest Brother and Parachute Infantry will be delivered tomorrow, and I'm pretty excited about that. Did you find that Parachute Infantry was different from the other books for being written so much more closer to the actual events?

As for identifying/matching with one of the characters most, I don't think I've come to a conclusion about that, if there even is one. The fascination results at least in part from the character traits that are different from me or that I wish I would have. Then again, Sobel is also fascinating, and I surely don't want to be like him *g*. Have you seen this vid? Made me like him more. And the song is great, too :)

[newredshoes]

See, that's cool -- the vid made me empathize with Sobel! Great link, thanks!

Biggest Brother I haven't read yet, but I did see a copy at a used bookstore near me -- I'll be curious to hear what you think of that! Parachute Infantry really is very different from the other memoirs I've read: its scope is smaller, and he definitely talks about things the other guys just don't really treat -- diarrhea and boredom and looting, that sort of thing. It's very intimate. In a funny way, it's also less introspective, by which I mean he's less analytical of the war as a whole. But you do get some moments that I found I was craving in the other books -- the day Webster finally leaves Easy, for one. His account of D-Day is also the most psychologically terrifying I've read, in terms of fear and loneliness and confusion. Mostly what you come away with is that Webster loathes the army as an institution but believes in the war and in the people he bonds with. There are also some great anecdotes about guys we know from the series -- my favorite is probably this utterly ridiculous song-and-dance number (basically) that Luz does in Hagenau.

Well. I don't want to describe the whole book to you before you get a chance to enjoy it. But it's a very good read, and it's really helped by the fact that it's done without an awareness of the series and the "band of brothers" trope that the vets have taken to using for their shorthand.

[ia_ne]

That's exactly what I was looking for! It's perfectly understandable for the other vets to leave out certain things out of their memoirs, but I'm very much looking forward to read one that doesn't.

Biggest Brother I'm really looking forward, too, although I don't think it will offer that many new insights into "how does Dick Winters tick", because I don't think he would have approved of that. We'll see!

It's neat how music and editing can make you more sympathetic to a character, isn't it?