Talk:The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

Military history: Aviation / North America / United States / World War II

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about abortion?[edit]

someone stated to me that this poem is about abortion, and everything described in it is about abortion

It isn't. It is similar to abortion, but it isn't about one. The whole "it's about abortion" thing stems from the continuous nit-picking of poems. It is about young men fighting in war due to war being glamorized and not knowing all the horrors of it. In his explanatory note about the poem, Randall Jarrell explains what it is like in a ball turret and I am sure if it wasn't about a man in a ball turret he would have noted so. --Drkangelcat (talk) 17:46, 16 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's not about abortion, but the imagery does resemble that of an abortion. It simply follows Jarrell's extended metaphor of birth. I don't believe that it is about abortion, but rather that Jarrell uses the imagery to hint at that the sacrifice of the soldiers is a governmental abortion of people. - C. Starkey

A picky word about "flak"[edit]

Flak means anti aircraft gun (German: Flugzeugabwehrkanone), their exploding grenades was called "flak fire" or just flak. The English once called it AckAck I believe. So it's not just fire from arcraft guns, he was shot upon both from the (invisible) ground and from whirling enemy fighter planes. So the explanation of "flak" / "flack" in the article seem a little incorrect. I like the poem though. Interesting political misinterpretation. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.241.159.50 (talk) 08:50, 15 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]