The play Gadfly was both interesting and slightly disappointing, in a way. I loved the questions it raised about what it means to be a pacifist--I remember one scene when Sam was trying to register as a conscientious objector on philosophical grounds, and the draft board refused to recognize his C.O. status unless it was on religious grounds. Sam, a very stubborn character, refused to say he objected on religious grounds, and he was signed up. Another issue that the play raised for me was the hypocrisy of some pacifists. At one point, Sam is working with other soldiers who (correct me if I'm wrong) opted for alternative service rather than serving on the battlefield. The other soldiers say they are pacifist, but are still rooting for the "good guys" in the war, which is the USA, from their perspective. This raises the question of how pacifist you really are if you're cheering one side on, and Sam struggles with this throughout the play.
Aspects of Gadfly that I was a little disappointed by was the emission of the other editors of Menno Pause who were expelled. From what I understand, when one of those editors, Jim Wenger, was discovered to have posted an ad for a same-sex companion, this was a major factor in his, Sam's, and the other two editors' expulsion. In the play, that entire thread was omitted. As Hayley pointed out in class, this is part of a long tradition of LGBTQ erasure. According to the article we read on the Center for Mennonite Writing, Jim Wenger was the only one of those four expelled students who had not been able to completely recover from his expulsion. Perhaps this aspect of the story didn't fit with the overall struggle Sam had in the play, but it's still an important story that deserved to be included in some way.
From our thread on Haylee's post, I say we agree to disagree on the matter of LGBTQ inclusion/exclusion, but i really loved, like you did, the poking at ideas of pacifism. I both thought that Sam's refusal to declare CO on religious grounds was admirable and completely ridiculous. Either way, it raised some important questions in my head as to why governments give CO status because of a "religion", when all a religion really is, is a bunch of beliefs and convictions that a group of people hold (maybe tradition too), and Sam was fighting for to get CO status, its just that no one else was involved in his "religion." Religion being recognized at all by governments for things like this is just an odd concept if you think about it...
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the issue of Jim Wenger, as you probably already know. I got an email from Dan Hess after some correspondence about a misunderstanding about my article and he said, "I haven't seen the play but you aren't the only one who noticed the absence of Jim. I know that Sue and Sam kept in touch until Jim's untimely death. Why they didn't insist on his inclusion in the play is not known to me."
ReplyDeleteI think Jim played an important role in Sam's life and I think it's an important part of Mennonite history, especially in the context of this class, to discuss these issues, or at least give them some light.
Interesting, Hayley. I'd love to hear more about your correspondence with Dan Hess.
ReplyDeleteJake, I appreciate the ways in which you observed the themes of pacifism and its critiques in this play. It's a value that shouldn't be taken for granted. At the same time, I understand your disappointment in its evasion or erasure of Jim Wenger's story, especially since you read the Dan Hess article first, before seeing the play. It's hard for an artist to tell all dimensions of a story--clearly, there's at least one more story to be told here. Kolton, as far as religious convictions being honored by a government is concerned: the recognition of conscientious objection on religious grounds was a huge change in the way governments viewed minority groups, honoring a conviction that went against military conscription. The development of Conscientious Objector status with draft boards during World War II was the first official recognition of this alternative, even though Mennonites had been refusing to do military service for nearly 400 years before that time.
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