Linkage
Sometimes you wonder if there’s anyone else in the world who reads what you read. Being friends with folks who keep handing me books, I have to say that I probably wonder less than most, but it’s hard to tell. It’s under those auspicious circumstances that I come to the end of John Ringo’s Gust Front and find an entreaty to his readers to go grab and read some Kipling.
I grew up on Kipling, both the poetry and the prose, and I’ll back that plea. Do yourself a favor and grab as much of that racist SOB’s material as you can find. I trust anyone on my friends list to be clever enough to sort the good bits from the bad, the part that matters from the more ugly portions - and to understand full well that Kipling, like Ringo was a product of his time.
The afterwards to Gust Front is telling there too. I’ve learned a very great deal about cavalry tactics from the man, and suddenly moving tactics make more sense than they did before. Sure, I’ll get my ass handed to me in Battletech some more - I’m no wizard - but multi-unit support and organization suddenly makes a hell of a lot more sense.
The tactics and stratagem I grew up on, mostly small groups against large, mostly mean and quiet - I still have that burned into me, but the appreciation for how things work in battle… Ringo does SF cav the way Webber does what I’d call drop-tank space naval. The same comprehension I get for space naval from Webber and drop-tank sims like Home-world II sorta slot all of this into place.
The thing they’ve all got down, however - Kipling, Ringo, Webber, Williamson, and more - is that gestalt of a thousand emotions narrowing down to shark’s eyes, where a job just needs doing and live or die gets pushed as hard as it can. It’s something I wish people could take from military/warfare situations into daily life - not the blood and killing, but the emphasis on what matters, that value is in duty. To self, to companions, to nation.
I’m hardly a nationalist, and having worked with the military before, I frankly would never volunteer to be led by some of the idiots I’ve seen - but damnit, military or otherwise, the presentation that value is a matter of action holds, and being part of action is something one never forgets.
So: Go nab some Kipling and give it a read. You can find it all for free up on http://www.gutenberg.org/ The other authors listed are all available at http://www.baen.com - they’ll do you good too.
I grew up on Kipling, both the poetry and the prose, and I’ll back that plea. Do yourself a favor and grab as much of that racist SOB’s material as you can find. I trust anyone on my friends list to be clever enough to sort the good bits from the bad, the part that matters from the more ugly portions - and to understand full well that Kipling, like Ringo was a product of his time.
The afterwards to Gust Front is telling there too. I’ve learned a very great deal about cavalry tactics from the man, and suddenly moving tactics make more sense than they did before. Sure, I’ll get my ass handed to me in Battletech some more - I’m no wizard - but multi-unit support and organization suddenly makes a hell of a lot more sense.
The tactics and stratagem I grew up on, mostly small groups against large, mostly mean and quiet - I still have that burned into me, but the appreciation for how things work in battle… Ringo does SF cav the way Webber does what I’d call drop-tank space naval. The same comprehension I get for space naval from Webber and drop-tank sims like Home-world II sorta slot all of this into place.
The thing they’ve all got down, however - Kipling, Ringo, Webber, Williamson, and more - is that gestalt of a thousand emotions narrowing down to shark’s eyes, where a job just needs doing and live or die gets pushed as hard as it can. It’s something I wish people could take from military/warfare situations into daily life - not the blood and killing, but the emphasis on what matters, that value is in duty. To self, to companions, to nation.
I’m hardly a nationalist, and having worked with the military before, I frankly would never volunteer to be led by some of the idiots I’ve seen - but damnit, military or otherwise, the presentation that value is a matter of action holds, and being part of action is something one never forgets.
So: Go nab some Kipling and give it a read. You can find it all for free up on http://www.gutenberg.org/ The other authors listed are all available at http://www.baen.com - they’ll do you good too.