#i exhausted my sp meta

[funkymbtifiction]

Hi, sorry to bother you, but I'm going through a type crisis and need your help! I think I may be the reverse version of that trend of INFPs mistyping as INFJ just because they want to be INFJ really bad, but I can't be sure. My brain is just too confused. The types I currently have on the table are INFP, INFJ, INTJ and ISFP which is kind of upsetting because those types are each so different and it feels like I'm practically at square one again.

For reference I think I'm an attachment type on the enneagram which might influence/explain my behaviors as well. Although I love telling people to be themselves and value self-expression myself, I always find myself conforming to the group and am very sensitive to what other people think of me. I love aesthetics and appearance and will dress 'quirky' not just for myself, but if I think people will view me positively for it. I tend to turn to outside sources for validation or information. Even when I'm by myself, free from judgement, I have this internal fear of being 'cringe' that I need to overcome because it makes me feel like a hypocrite.

This is indeed strong attachment and probably a social dominant instinct (so/sp is most likely). Social 6 or 9 would both feel this way, but I lean a little more towards social 9w1. It could also be Fe, yes.

However, I am also very withdrawn from others like a 9 and spend a lot of time in my head fantasizing and daydreaming. I'd rather be drawing or creating something than exhausting myself with other people though I do always end up enjoying it when I leave my comfort zone.

That fits with 9.

But anyway. I say I need help because I've always thought of myself as INFP until recently I realized I might possibly be a Ni-dom. I guess I never considered it before because I'm not a psychic wizard and I don't ponder the meaning of life daily. However, my thought patterns feel like Ni nonetheless.

Most people don't really understand Ni, and it's difficult to wrap your head around it if you don't have it. Have you read my Ni section?

Ever since I was a kid I've loved to create epic plans for my future and make lists of the things I would need. I would come up with these outlandish ideas (for example, I imagined building a swimming pool full of fish like an aquarium!) but still tried to fact-check and make it 'realistic' to be sure I could really do it. Since I've grown up a bit, those far-fetched ideas have been replaced with more reasonable ones, but I still have a tendency to think big and go deep, like when I get struck with an idea at 2AM and meticulously plan it out before I can do it and get no sleep.

The attachment to realism is either a strong sensing function or a strong thinking function. An ISJ would try to be realistic with their future ambitions and so would an ISP. The fact that you imply that your dreams were "far-fetched" and you've now matured out of them might mean you have a strong sensing function. Meticulous planning can be Si-driven if that's about all the details, or Ni-driven, if you are envisioning exactly what you want and trying to see how to get it.

I'm very introspective but mostly of myself (this isn't Fi, is it??) and often get super 'meta' with my thoughts which obviously has made this typing process a hell of a ride, lmao. I can kind of see Ne in my thought process as well but I'm not really 'scatterbrained.'

Ne is more how outside ideas cause you to get more ideas of your own -- it's not really scatterbrained (that's a stereotype), so much as A reminds you of X and that gives you an idea of how to use Y. You may want to read my ENP sections, as well as my IFP sections, on the above mentioned website to get a sense of them, because you are using broad generalities / stereotypes when referring to functions and it's hard for me to give you an objective analysis when I'm not positive you "know" what each function does internally.

[...] I just don't relate to the emotional distance, and definitely not the bluntness, of Te. I'm only emotionally detached when I feel like being heartfelt is too 'cringey', but I find that happens more within close circles without the external validation that it's OK to show empathy. Again, that could be my enneagram softening that up, but I really feel like I'm too considerate of others' feelings to be Te.

Of course you won't relate to it. IFPs can never be emotionally detached unless something is wrong (a Te grip). They filter everything through their feelings and moral judgments about the situation. So you are not going to relate to TJ descriptions.

On the other hand, I don't relate to the 'we' or group mentality of Fe. Even when I want to, I'm not super good at knowing what to say to comfort other people and find listening to people vent to be very draining and not worth my time. <- this is definitely not FJ; eww, don't come at me with your problems is more Fi-dom/9.

Finally, my opinion on the sensing functions. I have a pretty bad memory, and I'm not a traditionalist or super reliant on the past, so I don't think Si. I can sometimes get struck with impulses that I will follow through with if no one's around to judge me for it, and like I mentioned earlier I do enjoy aesthetics, dressing up, making things look pretty, matching and well-coordinated. So that's my argument for Se. 

You sound IFP, so dig more into Se/Ni, since you could be ISFP.

[jewpacabruhs]

so most of yall kno (and idec anymore, feel free to judge me, i judge myself hhh) my dumbass fucked around & hyperfixated on family guy of all things fjdkdkd... u dont have to bully me, my friends already do. but lissen it's an awful show but lowkey i wish there was a substantial fandom cuz i was harassing poor lai w character meta cuz she's the only one who will put up w my nonsense jfkdkfk and now im jus filling my phone notes with half baked essays.... like the characters??? are interesting??? which is an awful hot take ik im sorry but fjskdk i think ive always gravitated towards sp so my nerdy ass can do character analysis but now my dumbass got involved w smth much less well-done but w irritatingly complex characters for such a stupid silly show... and fg is much less character-driven too which is so dumb bc all their best eps are ones abt the characters cuz they accidentally crafted rlly interesting ones, but the writers r absolute ignorant shitheads.... like trey doesnt rlly indulge the sp fanbase but at least he mostly knows where south park's strengths lie. and that's within the characters and the dynamics between them. fg is like,,, no here's peter bein an only-occasionally-funny moron for the 300th time & it's exhausting & my dumb fuckin ass fucked around & fixated regardless djskfjdkf :( ive written up so much dumb fg meta that will never see the light of day cuz no one wants to read it which is understandable but also D: why cant i fixate on smth popular ... ive been analyzing sp for like 6 yrs & it still enthralls me but it's no longer exciting yanno... all my other fandoms r niche i needa get into smth popular so i can have actual discussions w other nerds blegh ... this is a pointless rant, i suppose my point is be grateful for your fandoms cuz gettin into smth w no fandom is v lonely fjjddj

[toasterimatoaster]

Opinions from an average viewer

(Aka, me just talking about young justice bc I have no one to talk too about this!)

So Young justice? Love it, great show and of course has its highs and lows. With season 3 out since la- no wait, uh- over a year ago It’s back in business with new characters furthering plot and much more. A new season, coming soon, probably next year.  

Now as the heading says I’m gonna go on an opinion tangent, and remember this is not end all be all, you don’t have to read this, I’m just a person on the internet with rather mellow thoughts and ideas, they’re not hot takes. Also before you continue reading:

Spoilers ahead!

I’m very happy that it got a 3rd season, especially with how season 2 ended,,, with, well you know, Wally dying and all. And boy do we get reminders of that in season 3, not only the ‘explicit’(more obvious) scenes and episodes that are dedicated to that but also smaller things,, like that ending credit scene with bruce lee and that music score; that made me tear up a bit actually, not Artemis ‘meeting’ Wally in the ‘afterlife’, not Dick reminiscing and accidentally using his name instead of Will’s, but a dog with a little Kid Flash plushie and bittersweet music. I feel like while the other two scenes were the characters coming to terms with Wally’s death and or showing that they’re still mourning him, that ending credit scene was something else entirely,,, hmm I don’t know how to describe it? 

Anyway these episodes and scenes were good character development and side plots,, The main plot is multiple, obviously one is where both the justice league and young justice team falls apart as well the continuing rise of the threat of Apokolips, The Light and Darkside. 

The teams we have now are, Justice league, Batman Inc, The outsiders and the  Young Justice team. 

Now, plot is always difficult to write and combining it with character development is even harder to do, and sometimes this show favors plot and plot set-up more than character development. I feel like this happens rather much in season 3, we get more and more knowledge about this world, about it’s conflicts, about the threats and the developments that happen, that I feel like they sometimes loose the charm that the first season did good on. We have a bigger cast, and adding more characters means that we are going to loose some people along the way. 

Let’s take an example: season 1 had 7 characters to focus on, Robin(Dick), Wally, Artemis, M’gann, Conner, Kaldur and Roy.(Also Zatanna and Rocket later on.)  Already a big cast, but every character got some development and we got to know them more, all the while both plot was either brewing or already happening. 

Season 2 got a time jump, with new characters into the roster. With not only the original 7 but now also Garfield, Cassie, Tim, Bart, Jaime, OG Roy, Tye, Eduardo, Asami, Virgil and Fishboy.. I’m sorry I don’t remember his name... Anyway! The focus was still on the OG 7 but now also on some of the new people, that is like 17 characters! We had plenty of plot lines, the invasion, the villain infiltration, the mind manipulation, the meta-humanization, the clone registration, the future boy creation(Bart)--- I’m trying to rhyme--- So A LOT. The writers were mostly able to do it well, considering what they had to work with. But I feel like some of the characters that got the least development were Cassie, Fishboy and Tim.  

Season 3 has a smaller time jump, we now have even more characters, some of them are just there and don’t have speaking lines, it’s bigger, their universe that was once the justice league and 7 teens are now.. a lot. As I said before we follow the Og’s, and then the new characters like Brion, Halo and Forager. 

Here are some personal bouts with this season: 

Firstly, one of the plots are the deconstruction and creation of teams. Sometimes I felt like it was almost parodic, at least the outsiders and Gar. It felt like it was trying to achieve season one’s team creation, but it didn’t measure up, at least for me. (And it’s not like I'm angry that they made their own team, I’m really not, I’m curious. It’s just the way that they went about it that peeves me.)

Secondly, is that there was a lot of plot set-up for next season. Both smaller thing, that might never happen (like HAL HAS WHITE HAIR/SIDES, GOSH IS THIS A SET UP FOR PARALLAX AND KYLE???)(Also, WALLY!!!), and bigger plot things like the whole Brion thing, that is obviously coming back. Plot-set up doesn’t have to be bad, but it again down comes to the balancing act of it all. Some of it felt shoved in a bit, some did not, some was obvious and some a bit more discreet. 

Anyway, this show sometimes looses that personal touch it once had, it’s one of the downsides to having everything focus on a bigger badder plot (to me), and sometimes constantly bringing in new characters can also be a downside. But they tried, especially with that Wally thing and the character development surrounding that. 

And if you like them doing this, that’s great, enjoy! Don’t let my opinions destroy your fun! 

Personal criticisms aside I of course enjoy this show, I wouldn’t be watching it and talking about it if I didn’t, It doesn’t give me grief and make me exhausted(which is always +100). But I'm pointing out some changes that I feel has happened, that might not always be positive or negative. 

So,,, that’s done. 

Btw I'm happy for Terra!

Also, About that theorizing thing,,, HAL WITH HIS WHITE HAIR, I’m not sorry, HAL HAS WHITE HAIR, EITHER HE’S JUST PREMATURELY GRAY OR HE IS GONNA BECOME PARALLAX, there’s no in-between.( jk, jk)

Also Also, GUY, we see GUY AND HIS HORRIBLE SONG. I love that song, it’s great. 

Also x3, the legion of superheroes; I had no clue what that was, being new to dc comics and all, but then I saw some posts and I’ve heard some theories about them and Wally,, and ahhhhhh.

Gosh, there is so much in this show, good and bad things and middle ground things, and yeah that’s all, It’s just rambles nothing else.

:D!

[somehwere-between]

Meta asks: 18, 19,20 😁

HEYYY BLASTED PANSY AUTHOR HELLO! Also thank you for asking these questions, I’ve been wanting to talk about them.

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? Tell us about them.

Yes, originally Tim was actually a semi-antagonist. I won’t spoil what changes, but he’ll come up within the next few chapters and will stick around until the end.

Some other minor changes (+ a big one):

Steve was originally cut, but I added him back because I wanted to explore the bond between him and Pony

Darry was originally going to get drafted, but I cut it

Angela was going to be alive

Pony was originally going to stay in California— I started liking the vibe of Tulsa and Pony having to face his demons rather than flee, so I gave him the choice to leave or stay (in-story) and he chose to stay. SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 8 BELOW:

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing?

I’m way too “short” in my writing and tend to focus way too much on repeating emotions: Darry’s almost always concerned, Soda fluctuates from angry to exhausted, Pony is emotionally worn, etc. The worst offense is Darry— I’m trying, I promise.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble about.

This will be long, so strap in!

1: I have so many side plots I need to keep track of, like:

Steve getting married to Evie

Darry’s girlfriend

Two-Bit’s job

Angela’s death: WILL be discussed in a different fic (when I have time)

Pony’s drug dependency (won’t spoil but it does come back)

Probably more that I can’t remember

Sometimes I can feel overwhelmed, but I promise that all will be discussed either in fic or in a sister fic. I worry though that no one cares and it’s all pointless. Maybe it’s irrational to have that fear, but I still do.

2: So I like to type characters (MBTI and enneagram) and I realized that I think I’m writing Pony as an ISFP. Kinda funny, considering in canon is Se (extroverted sensing) is pretty.... dead. But hey, it happens. It wasn’t intentional though. Maybe he is still an INFP and I’m overthinking it. He’s still a 1w9, just disintegrated into a 4 (look, I know I’m putting him through hell, but I won’t lie— it’s fun). He’s still probably sp/sx.

On that note, I honestly think Steve is an ISTP, though I can’t tell for the life of me what his enneagram is. My guess right now is ISTP 6w7 sx/so. In canon, he’s not given anything beyond “quiet, bitter, and physically reactant to his emotions”, so there’s nothing to really work with. That’s part of the fun, I guess, but it’s also annoying that he’s only shows a few times and then completely disregarded.

3: I keep on toying around with the concept of bi Ponyboy, but my knowledge on LGBTQ in the late 60s is, well, limited to google searches and asking my mom about my gay uncle who passed away during the AIDS epidemic. Needless to say, I just don’t have much to go off of (personally) but my own experiences of being bi in the south. And even then, I’m not risking my life. So maybe I will, maybe not. I’m not a romance writer— at all— so don’t count on anything.

4: I love some of the chpater titles that I’ve done. Chapter 8’s “Shit’s Better Than Nothing” and Chapter 5’s “It’s A Funny Thing” are my favorites. There’s also a lot of good lines, such as:

Those aren’t the only ones, but it’s some of my favorites. If you have any, tell me!

IMPORTANT NOTE:

If anyone wants to help me out, then here’s a Google form https://forms.gle/AhVAqkLjeL7mprPFA that will help me figure out what you guys want moving forward with this. There’s no need to do it, but I would appreciate it!

[praximeter]

I personally love fake history style fics and the level of detail you use in night war (along with amazing well thought out description of Bucky's inner monologue) really pulls me in and enhances the raw feelings Bucky has. I really want to get across that I love your style of writing as it gives a better understanding of all the stakes at play in buckys situation from major incidents to little asides about social expectations etc. 1/2

So what I’m trying to get at is that I admire the amount of research you do for this series and was wondering if you had any favourite resources (documentaries, books, forums, sites) or anecdotes about ww2 era that you found useful/ interesting or enjoyed most? Any recommendations at all to check out for this era/subject thankyou. 2/2

Hey anon! Thanks for writing in, and thanks for your kind comments! 💕 I’m so happy you’re enjoying the story. 

Let me apologize in advance for the absurd and hilarious length of this answer. I’ve been meaning to do a “research, sources, and methods” post for a while for meta reasons, and, well, here it is.

My primary source of research material is definitely books, but there are a lot of amazing resources online including material published by the U.S. Government (reports, publications, etc.) that helps me be as accurate as possible when it comes to troop movements, etc. There are about a thousand documentaries out there about the war, but you can’t go wrong with Ken Burns’ The War or World War II in Color. 

My favorite single-volume history of WWII is probably Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings. It covers all theaters and it draws very heavily on primary source material–journals and messages and even letters taken from the bodies of soldiers. Its focus is on the human experience of the war rather than on a detailed military history (X brigade of Y Corps marched Z kilometers to fight a pitched battle…etc.). One of my favorite bits from that book (of which some parts made it into The Night War) is this:

“The ground for fifty yards outside is MUD—six inches deep, glistening, sticky, holding pools of water,” gunner office John Guest wrote home. “Great excavations in the mud, leaving miniature alps of mud, show where other tents have been pitched in the mud, and moved on account of the mud to other places in the mud. The cumulative psychological experience of mud… cannot be described.” [p.447]

As much as I wanted to just plagiarize this entire letter, I tried to evoke the horrible exhaustion of the mud in a few places in The Night War, such as:

I want is quiet, just some quiet and rest and to be warm with no fucking rain and no mud and no mortars but most of all I want this to be over. [September 27, 1943)

Freak accident with mortar tube in Harry’s squad and we have two dead because of I think a malfunction with mud or something I don’t know. [October 11, 1943]

Short on rations as it has been impossible conditions—this fucking mud—and we did not get resupplied before this assault so me, Glenn and Castellano have been going to each foxhole to take stock of what we have and split the difference as needed. Which means my own foxhole is a mud pit, these little shits better be grateful. [October 13, 1943]

Another great resource for writing about Bucky’s Sicily/Italy campaign was The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw, who is really more of a pop historian than an academic like Hastings. Nonetheless, he writes on a lot of different WWII-era subjects that are all focused on individual stories, and his works are great gateway books into more rigorous nonfiction about the war. 

I’m including below a list that is not comprehensive but rather represents some of the works I’ve either found most helpful in writing The Night War or I just plain enjoyed. I’m so sorry anon, this is not what you were probably looking for!

[holy hell is there a lot under this cut]

Military History

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

A definitive history by a guy who was the CBS reporter stationed in Berlin in the late 30s.

Inferno: The World At War, 1939-1945 by Max Hastings

My personal favorite single-volume history, and one that inspired a number of the Commandos’ experiences, such as their encounter with the Czechoslovakian family (Jan and Alžběta) near Kozmice (Operation Umbrella). The focus on Alžběta’s fear for her daughters and the risk of violence she perceived to them came directly from some of the stores in Inferno about Italian civilians who were brutalized and raped by “liberators.”

The Memoirs of Field-Marshal Kesselring by Albert Kesselring

Interesting to read the German perspective, though I admit I mostly skimmed this. Kesselring is one of those guys who got bizarrely recast as a “Good German” after the war, like Rommel, but he committed war crimes in Italy. And he was a Nazi, so.

The Few: The American “Knights of the Air” Who Risked Everything to Fight in the Battle of Britain by Alex Kershaw

Again, more pop history, but there was some good stuff in this one about the day-to-day experiences of RAF pilots, though almost none of that made it into The Night War.

With Wings Like Eagles: A History of the Battle of Britain by Michael Korda

A pretty good, quick primer on the Battle of Britain. Some details from this book made it into The Night War but only in terms of things that Bucky observes (like signs being missing at railway stations).

Overlord: D-Day and the Battle for Normandy by Max Hastings

Hastings is a really superb writer. I didn’t read this cover to cover but I did take some inspiration from it for the Commandos’ Normandy campaign (June 1944 to July 1944).

The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan

Another classic about D-Day.

The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson

Another great history - this is the third in his three-volume history of the war.

Soldiers’ Experiences

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen A. Ambrose

A classic for a reason. This is the basis for the wonderful HBO series Band of Brothers, which is highly recommended and probably kickstarted my love of the era way back when I saw it at 11 years old.

Citizen Soldiers: the U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Surrender of Germany by Stephen A. Ambrose

Another classic. A great look at the individual experiences of the actual men who fought the war. 

Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Black Heroes, At Home and at War by Linda Hervieux

This is a primer on the institutionalized racism of the segregated U.S. armed forces and the experiences of black soldiers, though it is by no means comprehensive as it focuses on a single unit. Still, I took some inspiration from this book about what Gabe may have witnessed or experienced himself during his training.

The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey from the Beaches of Sicily to the Gates of Dachau by Alex Kershaw

Focuses on a specific commander in the 45th Infantry Division (The “Thunderbirds”) who had a remarkable journey through the war that in some ways mirrored Bucky’s. Kershaw writes pop history but there were some amazing details in this book I used to help flesh out the campaigns in Sicily and Italy especially.

The Road to Victory: The Untold Story of Race and World war II’s Red Ball Express by David P. Colley

Understanding the convoy system was helpful for logistical reasons but also, it gave some flavor to Gabe’s experiences as well. There is one mention of the Red Ball Express in The Night War, after Bucky is injured during Operation Goodwood and is back in England (July 29, 1944):

Thank god for the best friend anybody ever had. Steve busted me out of the clink (this makes the second time)—the sappy bastard tried to carry me like I was his fainting dame. I said no dice pal and hopped along as best I could until we made it outside and there was Gabe with a truck waiting like he was my own personal red ball express.

Politics

Never Surrender: Winston Churchill and Britain’s Decision to Fight Nazi Germany in the Fateful Summer of 1940 by John Kelly

Honestly, had nothing to do with The Night War but I read it because Summer 1940 is one of my favorite stretches of the war and this was a really interesting way to imagine the “what if?” had Britain not held fast against the Nazis.

Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olson

One of my favorite WWII historical books ever. It does a stunning job at “setting the stage” of London during the early days of the war.

Resistance Efforts

A Train in Winter: An Extraordinary Story of Women, Friendship, and Resistance in Occupied France by Caroline Moorehead

Probably my favorite book written on the French resistance, full stop. The character of Geneviève Marcel was strongly inspired from some of the incredible women featured in this book.

Village of Secrets: Defying the Nazis in Vichy France by Caroline Moorehead

Did not like this as much as Moorehead’s other work, but it did inspire a really fun Commandos mission that never made it to the final story - basically, the Commandos found themselves in a remote French village in the fall of 1944 and had to organize an ad hoc defense of the village along with several French maquis, who were mostly just boys aged 15-20. Naturally, the Commandos kicked ass and there were some great scenes with Bucky teaching the boys to box and to shoot a rifle. Sadly, it had to get cut for logistics reasons.

Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family’s Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France by Alex Kershaw

This book was a little weak on its sources (in my opinion) but it did a good job of evoking what it was like to live and operate in Occupied Paris, which obviously became important in March 1944 for the Commandos.

Sabotage, Espionage, Code-Breaking, & Special Operations

The Women Who Lived for Danger: The Women Agents of SOE in The Second World War by Marcus Binney

This book isn’t that well-written, but it gave me some great ideas for Howling Commandos missions. Sadly, several of those ideas – sabotaging a submarine, for example – never made the final cut. I read this book because I was fleshing out my headcanon for Peggy, whom I imagined to have been part of the SOE prior to joining the SSR. In my headcanon, she’s the one who extracted Dr. Erskine from the Continent, and she got a lot of her training from the various SOE training stations.

Church of Spies: The Pope’s Secret War Against Hitler by Mark Riebling

Honestly, this book was just fun. I liked the little window into German operations and resistance efforts and it also gave me some great insight into the backstabbing, lack of trust, and unhealthy rivalries inside the Reich, which I used in determining how the Hydra organization might function had it been real.

Rogue Heroes: The History of the SAS, Britain’s Secret Special Forces Unit That Sabotaged the Nazis and Changed the Nature of War by Ben McIntyre 

Some good stuff on how small special operations units actually operated during the war.

The Secret Lives of Codebreakers: the Men and Women Who Cracked the Enigma Code at Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay

The inspiration for Peggy’s sister Gwendolyn came from this book. Plus, it’s a very easy, readable primer on codebreaking and Bletchley Park as compared to some of the other tomes that are out there.

Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker’s War, 1941-1945 by Leo Marks 

The Cost of Courage by Charles Kaiser

This was the inspiration for Geneviève Marcel’s family’s story.

The Holocaust

So, I studied the Holocaust a little in college and so I don’t have a list of all my sources for it (though the Holocaust doesn’t really play a role in The Night War until February 1945), but here are a few good ones:

Art from the Ashes, edited by Lawrence L. Langer

An amazing collection of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry written about the Holocaust and by Holocaust survivors.

Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

One of the best memoirs on the subject.

The Night Trilogy by Elie Wiesel

This had an enormous impact on my understanding of survivor’s guilt and the exploration of one’s psyche following traumatic experiences.

War and Genocide: A Concise History of the Holocaust by Doris L. Bergen

Kapò, an Italian film about a young Jewish woman in a concentration camp.

Conspiracy, a film about the Wannsee conference.

Miscellaneous

When Books Went to War: The Stories that Helped Win World War II by Molly Guptill Manning

Learned from this book that the single most-read book by American GIs was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which, fittingly, I had Bucky read in September ‘43 and send a letter to his mother asking her to buy it for Curly for her birthday. 

The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America At War by A.J. Baime

There’s a pithy saying about the war that goes like this: “The war was won because of Russian blood, British Intelligence, and American Industry.” Something like 40% of all American industrial output went to arming the other Allies. It’s CRAZY. And the story of how that industry ramped up from 1940 through the end of the war is really interesting, and this one in particular I really enjoyed. Anyway, the only thing from this book that really ended up in The Night War was this:

I remember Castellano in my face yelling “whatever fucking happened to a goddamn bomber an hour?”  right after another stuka strafed us not even twenty yards away and Harry yelling “bombers are expensive Frank, you aren’t!” 

Fiction

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

Amazing contemporaneous fiction written about the French experience in the early years of the war and occupation. The author was a Russian Jew immigrant and was ultimately deported and killed in Auschwitz. Her daughter discovered this unfinished manuscript and published it in the early 2000s.

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

A fictional account of a German married couple plotting and executing their own small resistance. 

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

One of my favorite books of all time, and one that does an incredible job at imagining the effect of warfare on the human psyche.

Redeployment by Phil Klay

Short stories set in the modern OIF/OEF era.

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

One of the most important books ever written about war (WWI).

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

Another of the most important books ever written about war (Vietnam).