Phil Klay
Phil Klay
Phil Klayis an American writer and United States Marine officer who won the National Book Award for fiction in 2014 for his first book-length publication, a collection of short stories, Redeployment...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionWriter
CountryUnited States of America
abstract confused felt interested puzzle question represent stories troubled war wrote
I started with things that I was troubled by or confused by or interested in, and then I wrote stories to try to puzzle my way through it. But the question is not how to represent war, because it's an abstract thing that's felt differently for all the characters.
believe combat death decisions exactly god human life notion prayer purpose serves stakes tremendous war zone
Prayer in a combat zone serves exactly the same purpose as it does in peacetime. In war, the stakes are life and death, true; but if you believe in God and in the notion of a human soul, then we are always making decisions of tremendous significance.
certainly figure people stories war
People should be able to tell stories that are important to them to try and understand what they mean. I don't think you figure anything out on your own. Certainly not war stories.
war
I've been asked what differentiates war literature as a category, and I don't think there is anything.
takes time understand war
War is complicated and intense, and it takes time and thoughts to understand what it was.
arena courage display experience impose millions narratives politics touch war
War is an arena for the display of courage and virtue. Or war is politics by other means. War is a quasi-mystical experience where you get in touch with the real. There are millions of narratives we impose to try to make sense of war.
compare experience open readers tendency using war
We have a tendency to think of war as this quasi-mystical thing, and that interpretation flattens the experience - by using different perspectives, I wanted to open a place for readers to compare and contrast, to make judgments, to engage.
easy experience gain notions rare reality simple war
Going to war is a rare experience in American culture, so it's easy for simple notions to gain a lot of weight. The reality is always more complex.
served war
I'm not anti-war. I served in a war, and I served proudly. But just or not, necessary or not, war is the industrial-scale slaughter of other humans.
activity experience form human people priesthood separating varied war
Supposedly, going to war initiates you into this gnostic priesthood of people who've had a liminal experience forever separating them from civilians. Except... you go there, and it is what it is. A form of human activity as varied as any other.
intensely iraq war
I didn't want to write a 'this is how it is' Iraq book, because the Iraq War is an intensely complicated variety of things.
deal treating war
Treating war as farce is one way soldiers deal with it.
creative decision english history iraq join marines studying war
I'd been in college studying English creative writing and history when I made the decision to join the Marines in the runup to the Iraq war.
conversation less policy public serious served war
Less than 1 percent of American have served in 12 years of war, and serious public conversation about military policy is sorely lacking.