#beach head | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

shadows-on-the-sky · 3 months ago

Note

I would love more of your thoughts on Beach Head! Particularly the way some of the themes from Wingmen were used and expanded upon in different ways 😊

Hey,

I guess it's best to start by pointing out the similarities between the two novels: both Beach Head and Wingmen are written in the same realistic and concise style. They have a very similar structure, with chapters separated between books/parts. And, of course, much of Beach Head also shares the same setting as Wingmen. It's not even hard to imagine they are part of the same universe (and, as far as I remember, their plots never contradict each other!).

Wingmen, however, is a very straightforward tale: it’s a novel about Fred Trusteau’s time in the Navy. Epilogue/scrapbook aside, it never strays from this path (and does so brilliantly). Beach Head, on the other hand, is a much more ambitious and daring work: it’s military historical fiction, but it’s also a journalistic and mystery story that touches on politics, tradition, sailing, architecture, and cuisine, among other things! As you said, it’s wacky, and I can understand why someone would think it needs an editor to trim things down, but I enjoyed the journey. Case was a smart guy and his writing is never dull, so it’s nice to read him rambling on about subjects he clearly had a personal interest in.

Case's boldness wasn’t limited only to the diversity of subjects he addressed but also to some particular themes that were present in Wingmen and had their scope expanded in Beach Head:

Anti-war/anti-establishment sentiment

It angered and confused Jack to think that in the coming clash (and he knew there would be opposition) aircraft and pilots might be lost just so that the brass back in Hawaii would have a better idea as to how many carriers could operate in a single task group. The entire affair sat wrong with Jack, even though he knew it was wrong to question orders, even to himself. [Wingmen] Jack sat and listened and was chilled by the casual manner the briefing officer used when referring to aircraft losses. It was as though the aircraft flew themselves, unaided by human hands; it was as though men were not involved at all. The briefing officer was a paper-shuffling war technician—cold, impersonal, calculating. He didn’t have to fly the planes out to the enemy-held island of Marcus. [Wingmen] “How many Marines will get killed, General?" he asked. Silence hung awkwardly for several seconds, and the general answered. “Too many," he said. The reporters scribbled away. "I could lie and say none. I could be philosophic and say that one was too many. I can be completely truthful and say that some will, most definitely, get killed, whether by getting their brains blown out by an enemy bullet or from an infected mosquito bite. I'm afraid that's just the nature of our business." [Beach Head] Stiff loglike bodies still floated there, bumping in the waves against the wrecked landing craft and tanks, becoming entangled in the pilings of the pier. Carl wondered if anyone knew their names, or even that they were dead. […] He went back over to the battlement and sat alone, distressed beyond words. [Beach Head] "You're disgusting," said Waters. He pulled the door closed behind him, thinking he heard the associate say, "And you're not?" But he couldn't be sure. [Beach Head]

Anti-war/anti-establishment themes are clearly present in Wingmen, but in a more subtle way compared to their inclusion in Beach Head. In the former, we hear about them through Jack’s occasional complaints. It’s important to note that despite its war setting, Wingmen is not a violent novel. There is really only one bloodshed scene in the novel, and it isn’t even that gruesome.

Beach Head, on the other hand, has some extremely graphic passages. It plainly shows the reader how little regard there is for human life in the battleground, and how both government and military leaders are willing to sacrifice hundreds of their own men for the slightest chance of a strategic advantage. And then there's Dave Waters, who represents the faceless agents whose job it is to clean up any incriminating evidence from the dirt.

Homosexuality

“You know,” Jack was saying, “I really thought we’d lost you once back then.” “At Wake?” “Before that. When you came down on the Essex. It was not knowing that was hard to take. And the thought of getting along without you…” “I, I…” Fred stammered. “You mean a lot to me,” said Jack quietly. Fred felt his arm stiffen slightly as he said it. [Wingmen] "There aren't many people in the world," said Tom, "who would know about me and Gordon and just accept it, without any judgments." "I know," said Augie. "I guess I'm just lucky." [Beach Head]

Wingmen is notable for presenting a gay couple who are not only capable and competent, but also free from major self-loathing issues. In Beach Head, we meet another gay couple among the novel’s supporting characters: Tom and Gordon. Tom, unlike Case’s other gay characters, is portrayed as having a more stereotypical personality, but this is never considered a negative trait, and like Wingmen’s couple, their relationship is solid and enduring. I consider them Case’s most explicit plea for sexual tolerance.

"I think that may have been one of the reasons I wrote it," said Carl. "To quiet the goddamn snoopers. Hell, if something like that happened today, the headlines would read, 'My Eight Years Without a Woman.' Everyone wanted to ask the question when I got back, but, being 1952, it wasn't considered the proper thing." He laughed. "And then again, the real prudes never even thought about it. It never occurred to them that two men could have sex." [Beach Head] He had heard about, and, yes, done some things with other Navy personnel, particularly before the war, which made the episodes with Randall seem rather tame. [Beach Head]

We've already talked a bit about Duane Higgins in the past, so I won't bother you with the same book passages again; what’s important is the point about him being a “grey area”/bisexual type of man. Carl Randall and Nelson Briles basically fall into the same category. With them, Case explores the reality of two men who would never have a romantic/sexual relationship with each other (or with any other man, for that matter) if they weren't in a very peculiar situation. It's a quite interesting scenario that can probably be interpreted as part of the situational homosexuality phenomenon, in which the usual heteronormative norms of society break down. In my opinion, this is the most groundbreaking aspect of Beach Head, as there are few examples in literature of relationships like this one being portrayed as tactfully and sensibly as Case did, and the prime example of his desire to portray “gay characters, in minor and major roles [...] as simply minor or major characters, whose sexual orientation is only one facet of their characterization.”

Female characters

“You’re a shameless woman,” he said. “Yes,” she said, smiling. “But is there a Navy regulation that says women aren’t supposed to enjoy it, too?” [Wingmen] The car was as much a statement of Augie Warrender's independence as was her apartment, her job, and her stubborn refusal to marry. […] She drove it imperiously, perhaps haughtily, irritated with the looks the businessmen on the freeway gave her when she passed them: knowing they thought it was her husband's car; knowing they assumed she was a slightly silly, mostly incompetent housewife who spent her afternoon with the soap operas and worried about ring around the collar. Her twisting thought process revealed to her that this was the reason she had gone to Vietnam. Other times she told herself that she did things for positive reasons only, to please herself. She could not bear to think that her entire career had been prompted by what she thought men thought of her. [Beach Head]

Due to its particular historical setting, Wingmen is a novel with very few female characters. Eleanor Hawkins, a “rich, attractive, and single” secondary character, fills this gap. Eleanor defies expectations: she isn’t a helpless damsel who is presented only as a prize. She is smart and incisive, but kind. Spicy, but not as a tactic to please men—Duane is uncomfortable with her advances, but he’s still smitten by her uniqueness. You finish the novel wanting to know more about her.

Now in a more unrestrained setting, Case introduced Augie Warrender as the protagonist of Beach Head's latter part. Augie is an intrepid working woman with a somewhat messy personal life. She is even more headstrong than Eleanor, and very charismatic. For a guy whose work seemed to focus on male-oriented environments, Case knew how to write women well. Neither Eleanor nor Augie are two-dimensional ingénues or vixens, nor stereotypical girlbosses. His servicemen characters can often be misogynist, but this is never a position endorsed by the narrator.

The Japanese

“He knew, almost from instinct, that he didn’t personally hate the Japanese. A sort of professional hatred was a part of the job of fighting, but that didn’t mitigate the respect he felt for their pilots. Without exception, they were professional and devoted and fought with a tenacity of purpose that he hoped his own pilots would display.” [Wingmen] "He told me what he thought. He said he felt a great relief that he didn't have to hide himself any more. It was like being let out of prison, he said, but then he came to miss us. We were his link to the rest of the world, even if we were the enemy and he couldn't talk to us. He missed us so much that he returned the things he had stolen. The only way he could do that was to take them over to my hut on the oceanside." [Beach Head]

As with the female characters, I feel that Case tried to write a sympathetic portrayal of Japanese people. There are no Japanese characters in Wingmen, but he made sure to include a passage where Jack reflects on the Japanese pilots and his lack of hatred for them (see above).

In Beach Head, he decided to risk a more personal approach. Most of the novel is split between American and Japanese perspectives. The Japanese protagonists are neither traitors nor toxic nationalists: they are ordinary people who love their country and are willing to fight for it, even if they don’t agree with everything that’s happening around them and have to wander through bureaucratic hazards to do so. I admit I don’t know enough about Japanese culture to say whether or not his description of it is accurate, but it seemed to me a quite sensible one: Beach Head's Japanese society isn’t much more or less flawed than the American one.

#ask #beach head #wingmen #ensan case #literature #lit #gay literature #lgbt literature

9 notes · View notes