Is war a humour-free space?

War can be above and beyond tragic or heroic.

I read some books about war, but not many. Most of Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, bits of Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago”, small chunks of other stories. Beyond images of death-ridden, life-crashing, heart-stopping horror and all-encompassing, unconditionally-stated, human-capabilities-surpassing heroism, I could barely see anything else in them. It’s probably controversial to say, but tragic stories bulk up a trivial narration of war. The context, actors, and actions might change, but the content remains similar, if not identical. They make me feel detached: like I’m reading war history, which in itself is tragic, but also hard to relate to.

Yes, personalisation makes war a bit more hurtful, but does it add anything else than yet another shot of horror?

Does it help us to see war beyond and above tragic or heroic?

Collectively, we’ve got this model of a proper war story — in this mental trap, only tragic and heroic matters, everything else seems to be improper, almost offensive and immoral.

The exhausting quest to find the tragedy of all tragedies.

The toxic curation of refined heroism.

The neglect of those that don’t fit into the khaki-coloured mould.