Notas Breves XI
Eternal Danger
War stories, stories of Russia, Croatia, Albania, Montenegro, North Africa, of land and sea and sky. Here we live a thousand lives; the war is multiplied in a thousand different episodes. It is no longer a mere word, but a concept with numberless bits of terryfying, infernal evidence to support it, even for the benefit of those who have not experienced it directly.
But tomorrow these historical facts will be literary material. Critics will review war books rather than war. Just as in the case of Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, they will exclaim: “What a wonderful book!” And no one will think to say: “What a horrible war!”
My Secret Diary (1944)
Giovanni Guareschi
