Final thoughts on The Moon is Down

Loved. It. So powerful and knowing the history of it just makes it more so. People were living the things Steinbeck wrote about. I can't believe people in this country (like you Clifton Fadiman and James Thurber) could be so clueless about its beauty and power.

Some of my favorite lines:

(on the introduction of Dr. Winter): "He watched in amazement while his thumbs rolled over and over in his lap. Doctor Winter was a man so simple only a profound man would know him as profound."

(the Mayor on being told by Colonel Lanser that the people were orderly and would cooperate with the new regime): "They are orderly under their own government. I do not know how they would be under yours."

(Lanser to the traitor Correll on how conquered people are not peaceful. God I wish Steinbeck would have chosen to kill Correll off in some gruesome fashion): "I am tired of people who have not been at war who know all about it. I remember an old woman in Brussels-sweet face, white hair; she was only four feet eleven; delicate old hands...We didn't know her son had been executed. When we finally shot her, she had killed twelve men with a long, black hatpin." 

(Winter on why they are bothering having a show trial for poor Alex Morden): "I would guess it is for the show. There's an idea about it: if you go through the form of a thing, you have it, and sometimes people are satisfied with the form of a thing...The invaders will have a trial and hope to convince the people that there is justice involved."

(the Mayor to Lanser on why he would not condemn Alex Morden to death):

"I'll tell you what I'll do. How many men were on the machine guns which killed our soldiers?"
"Oh, not more than twenty, I guess," said Lanser.
"Very well. If you will shoot them, I will condemn Morden."

(the Mayor's final words to Alex Morden): "Alex these men are invaders. They have taken our country by surprise and treachery and force....When they came, the people were confused and I was confused. We did not know what to do or think. Yours was the first clear act. Your private anger was the beginning of a public anger. I know it is said in town that I am acting with these men. I can show the town, but you-you are going to die. I want you to know....Alex, go, knowing that these men will have no rest, no rest at all until they are gone, or dead. You will make the people one. It's a sad knowledge and little enough gift to you, but it is so. No rest at all. Good-by, Alex."

(on the people's sabotage efforts): The jolly lights did not shine out on the snow, for by law every window must be black against the bombers. And yet when the English bombers came over, some light always appeared near the coal mine. Sometimes the sentries shot a man with a lantern and once a girl with a flashlight. And it did no good. Nothing was cured by the shooting.



(on the way the town treated their occupiers): Now it was that the conqueror was surrounded, the men of the battalion alone among silent enemies, and no man might relax his guard for even a moment. If he did, he disappeared, and some snowdrift received his body. If he went alone to a woman, he disappeared and some snowdrift received his body. If he drank, he disappeared.....And the soldiers, smelling warm food from the little restaurant, went in and ordered the warm food and found that it was oversalted and overpeppered.

(I must include Molly's scene where she kills lovesick Lieutenant Tonder, the man who carried out the execution orders against her husband): She looked at the table, and she saw the big scissors lying beside her knitting. She picked them up wonderingly by the blades...until she was holding them like a knife, and her eyes were horrified....Slowly she raised the shears and placed them inside her dress. The tapping continued on the door. She heard the voice calling to her. She leaned over the lamp for a moment and then suddenly she blew out the light. The room was dark except for a spot of red that came from the coal stove. She opened the door. Her voice was strained and sweet. She called, "I'm coming, Lieutenant. I'm coming!"

(Doctor Winter's reaction to Lanser saying he would lie to the people and tell them Orden had begged for his life): "They would know. You do not keep secrets. One of your men got out of hand one night and he said the flies had conquered the flypaper {emphasis mine}, and now the whole nation knows his words. They have made a song of it....You do not keep secrets, Colonel."

(the Mayor to his wife when she says they can't arrest the Mayor): Orden smiled at her. "No," he said, "they can't arrest the Mayor. The Mayor is an idea conceived by free men. It will escape arrest."

Those scenes and the Mayor's final scene where he quotes from the Trial of Socrates are the sort of writing that sticks in your throat and won't let you go. I can see why it inspired the resistance. I want to say that it's a shame we were occupying a country ourselves 20 years later but that situation is a bit more complicated. The North Vietnamese regime followed the particularly brutal model of the Chinese Communist Party and certainly their people were the worse off for it. And look at what happened in Cambodia. WWII had easy answers and clear villains but most wars do not.