Doing Wrong By Acting Right

From 2014, my take on a work of genius.

  "After a while, he could no longer see the birds and he began to be frightened again.
     I am not my five senses, he thought.
     I am not this thought.
     Though I walk through the valley of the shadow... belay that.
     In the end, there was only the tracks.  That's enough, he said, to himself, I can dig tracks.  Out of spite, out of pride, he counted the crossties aloud.  He counted hundreds and hundreds of them.  When he had to stop, he leaned his head on his rifle and held to the blazing rail with his strong right hand".

                                                                                          

Dog Soldiers, Robert Stone.

        

                  
     (This is Ray Hicks, about to die. His death is modeled on that of Neal Cassady.   He has just been in a firefight against 4 evil men, and two of them are dead.  He has been hit under the arm with an airmarshal round and is in very bad shape.  He is carrying 3 kilos of weight, not 2.  He is bleeding to death and is dying of shock and dehydration.  He tripping on 'shrooms and heroin.  He thinks he is walking in a warm rain.  He has smuggled in all this smack as a favor for a worthless journalist buddy of his.  His buddy is busted from the get-go, and the people he is dealing with would never pay a dipshit such as he is.  Ray does not approve, but he gets stubborn when people try to steal from him.  Ray has become a major problem.  The blue triangle and red circle represent his pain isolated, a zen trick.  It is not working.  Ray has violence and manhood fused. The only books he read before he joined the Corps were I, The Jury and The Martian Chronicles.  He has just killed one of his best friends due to a misunderstanding.  He is a Marine and very stand-up.  The movie was titled "Who'll Stop The Rain", probably to keep it from being confused with The Dogs Of War.  Not the best title.  Good movie, great book.  This was a most incisive parable of what the Vietnam war did to this country).

I thought then, and I think now, that this is the way a man should look and act.  Er,... Maybe dial back some the automatic rifle action and the heroin/dead men/corrupt federal agent thing.

 

There is a reason some guys become movie stars.  Here we have the very picture of determined alpha male.  I think Mr. Nolte is a left-wing nutcase but he sure had an image.
Damn, I wish I was cool!