The implicit optimism of the [field service post card] is worth noting–the way it offers no provision for transmitting news like “I have lost my left leg” or “I have been admitted into hospital wounded and do not expect to recover.” Because it provided no way of saying “I am going up the line again, ” its users had to improvise. Wilfred Owen had an understanding with his mother that when he used a double line to cross out “I am being sent down to the base, ” he meant he was at the front again. Close to brilliant is the way the post card allows one to admit to no state of health between being “quite” well, on the one hand, and, on the other, being so sick that one is in hospital. Paul Fussell
About This Quote

This quote is about the importance of taking care of yourself by doing things that make you feel better. The field service post card was used during the First World War. It allowed soldiers to write to their family and friends while they were on active duty. They could not use the word "I" in their letters because it was forbidden by military regulations. The postcard allowed them to write things like, "I am quite well, but will probably be sent down line again soon." This allowed them to say what was on their mind without saying "I" or directly communicating how they were feeling about themselves.

Source: The Great War And Modern Memory

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More Quotes By Paul Fussell
  1. Every war is ironic because every war is worse than expected. Every war constitutes an irony of situation because its means are so melodramatically disproportionate to its presumed ends.
  2. If I didn't have writing, I'd be running down the street hurling grenades in people's faces.
  3. The implicit optimism of the [field service post card] is worth noting–the way it offers no provision for transmitting news like “I have lost my left leg” or “I have been admitted into hospital wounded and do not expect to recover.” Because it provided no...
  4. I find nothing more depressing than optimism.
  5. The past, which as always did not know the future, acted in ways that ask tobe imagined before they are condemned. Or even simplified.
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