Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror
Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror written by W. Scott Poole is a book that tells how World War One influenced the horror genre and fundamentally changed it forever. It delves deep into the psyche of man and shows that the war to end all wars truly did touch every facet of our existence. It is deep at times but certainly not incomprehensible, however it does have a few pitfalls that readers need to be wary of.
Pros
The book is well written, Mr. Poole has impeccable word choice and grammar along with good organization. He has an excellent grasp of World War One history, especially the social and pop culture aspects of it. He goes into great detail about how World War One changed the men who fought in it and how civilians experienced it, expounding on how these experiences changed the very nature of what man found terrifying. He backs up his claims with examples of movies, artwork, and books that were produced during and after the war. He even talks about how the realm of psychology was forever changed by the war through the emergence of “shell shock”, what today we commonly call “PTSD”. He goes further than just works produced immediately after the war and explains how even todays horror has its roots in The Great War. It is an all encompassing book that does a great job explaining horror, pop culture, history and how it all comes together.
Cons
With so many pros, one might ask what real flaws this book could have? Well there are several and they almost made me stop reading it entirely. One aspect that bothered me was that the author would continue to spew information about a specific person or film or piece of art without stepping back to elaborate on it. There would be a few pages of just constant information before he explained how it fit into the bigger picture In my opinion the amount of information was usually unnecessary and could have been shortened. It was information overload and I say that being someone who continually does research and reads almost all day everyday, my worry is that it may overwhelm the average reader and especially someone who is not expecting this level of depth. Coupled with that there are some parts where the book is quite dry. Sometimes I struggled to finish certain chapters, not to say they didn’t have good information just that they were not an easy read.
Another issue I had was that despite Mr. Poole being a history professor and seeming to have a fair bit of knowledge on World War One, he makes some claims that I would only expect to hear from someone with cursory knowledge of the war. One time he calls the war a useless conflict and that really struck me hard because it does not take much research to see that it was not useless. The war did have a purpose and even though it was not as black and white as say World War Two, it still had its reasoning and purposes behind it. Another issue I had was that he believed no one could find ecstasy or pleasure in combat, in fact he called the idea “hokum”. I can tell you from my personal experience talking to veterans and hearing interviews that, even though it may be a small minority, there are men that enjoy combat. It is not hard to find this evidence and even though war in and of itself is a terrible thing, that does not mean there are not moments when men find pleasure in it.
The two examples above were not the only times that the author stated his personal beliefs, he also brought his own personal politics into the mix. Mr. Poole interjecting his political opinions is what almost made me put the book down entirely, if it were not for his meticulous use of sources to back up the facts that he did use I likely would not have finished it. Most heinous of all was that he talked about modern politics, specifically hinting at US President Donald Trump and his administration, and not in a non-partisan way either. This also went on to partially ruin the ending of the book.
The conclusion of Wasteland is a jumbled mess. The first half of it is spent attacking the United States and the second half talks about how some of the biggest influencers in the horror genre died. Neither of those topics is something that I or likely any other person reading this book came to hear about. If I was him or his editor I would have put those parts in an anecdote section at the end and wrote a real conclusion, not leave the annoying, unfulfilling mess that it is.
I really do not see what this has to do with the history of horror, and I read the book.
Things to Know
At times the author seems a little bit pretentious, especially in the parts where he interjects his own opinion, but that could just be me and it may have not been intended that way. Also sometimes there are long sections describing a certain artist or influencers life. These sections did not bother me as I think it helped to better understand the time period and psyche of those people but some may find it off putting and drawn out.
Recommendation
Wasteland: The Great War and the Origins of Modern Horror by W. Scott Poole is a wealth of knowledge despite having several drawbacks. When this book shines it shines but when it doesn’t it really doesn’t, and despite finding this book good I feel like it isn’t for everyone. If you are interested in horror or pop culture and want to know more about the history of it I say go for it. If you are like myself and are just interested in the First World War I say hold off on it. Even though it does an excellent job explaining the social aspects of the war, there are other books specifically about the war that will do just as good a job without all the nonsense in between. It feels like, to me at least, in order to fully enjoy this book you must be interested in World War One, film history, art history, psychology, and pop culture, a very niche audience to say the least. I don’t want to turn you away from this book if it does seem like something that you would be interested in but I also do not want you to buy it and be disappointed like I was.
