For thousands of years, rulers and governments have used war to reach their political goals. Warfare has evolved, and still does even today, with new tactics and new equipment, although it has developed differently in each country or region. “The Art of War” was written in China, in the 5th century, in a time of chaos. These strategies were game-changing and all kings who used them added territory to their realms. Later, the book left China and travelled the world. Nowadays, it is part of the military curricula of many countries and it is even used in other areas, such as business.
The 5th century was a turning point in warfare. In Europe, the mighty and invincible Roman army was becoming weak and vulnerable. The great Roman Empire, which ruled Europe for about 500 years, had been founded on the fear of his army. They were disciplined and would train intensively, having some manoeuvres planned to defend and attack. In the meantime, in China, battles were unfolding according to some chivalrous-kind-of-rules, where war was more like a game than a way to get a victory.
Sun Tzu changed all that. He viewed war from a strategic perspective and not only as a clash of powerful and bloodthirsty men. Besides discipline, which Sun Tzu thought was essential, he believed that soldiers had to be competently guided, according to a bigger picture. “Little” details like the terrain, the weather, supply lines, the strengths and weaknesses of the enemy, needed to be analysed carefully and decisions on the field should be based on such information. Instead of finding a way to kill as many soldiers as possible, the idea was to apply techniques that would undermine the opponent even before the battle would start. War was, thus, the last resource and should be fought in accordance with other initiatives that would lead to the final and total victory.
Unfortunately, we are currently going back to war time. Therefore, there are many military commentators on different TV channels explaining what is going on in different battle fields. If we pay attention, we will notice that many of the strategies they talk about are exactly what Sun Tzu discussed 1500 years ago. For example, tanks cannot circulate through a forest and the battlefield gets muddy in the rainy season [Chapter 10, about the terrain conditions]. This shapes decisions on how to attack the enemy. When Napoleon marched his army into Russian, he did not consider the weather (it was freezing and the soldiers did not have warm enough clothes) nor the terrain (they got stuck in mud). Besides, the army distanced themselves from their supply chains. Therefore, many men were lost on the way to Moscow. This is the opposite of what is stated in Chapter 7 about getting the army as a whole to the final destination.
Sometimes we hear about cities that are won (or lost) by one side of the conflict. The strategic importance can be related, for example, to the terrain (if it is situated on high ground, for instance) or their intersection to supply chains. Attacks on troops’ supply lines and on energy facilities aim to demoralize soldiers and the civilian population. However, in Chapter 3, Sun Tzu states that attacking cities is not advisable at all. Therefore, the best option can be to choose other alternatives. The Battle of Stalingrad, in World War II, is a good example of what could happen if a city is attacked. In that Chapter, Sun Tzu also talks about the ratio of the number of men in each army and what to do in every situation. For example, if the number of enemy soldiers is much greater, the army should retreat without fighting. Otherwise, all men would be dead. What happened in Dunkirk during World War II illustrates this.
Preparation is key and information gathering is paramount to get to know the enemy very well, especially their strengths and weaknesses. Chapter 1 discusses how to get duly ready for war and how to deceive our opponent, making the population ready to support the government and the army. Modern campaigns are also based on years of preparation. Every time we hear about an attack, we also hear commentators saying how many years that attack took to be planned in detail. Propaganda is widely used, especially through media, to get the population on the government’s side (this is valid, of course, for both sides of the conflict).
Chapter 13 refers to spies and how to distinguish them. The information collected by them can be useful for preparation and also to follow what the enemy is doing during the war. There was no more fertile time for spies than the Cold War. They were literally everywhere. All the types of spies mentioned by Sun Tzu were employed by every country (and they still exist, more than we realise).
In a nutshell, “The Art of War” was so complete that current situations were already included in this 1500-year-old publication. Hence its ongoing success.
Sources:
- ”The Art of War”, by Sun Tzu and translated by Samuel B. Griffith
- Article: “Sun-Tzu”, by Joshua J. Mark (World History Encyclopedia)
This article is part of the THE INTREPID BOOK SOCIETY series
The Intrepid Book Society is a fictional book club. Every month, a book (or more) is recommended and/or discussed according to a keyword.
Anna Funder was aiming to write a book about her favourite author: George Orwell. Yet, when doing the research, she literally found Eileen Blair, Orwell’s first wife. She was hidden between the lines of Orwell’s writings and in the passive voice of his six biographies, all of them written by men. From here, Anna Funder started to paint a picture of how men erase “wives” and how women are led to believe that their role in life is to support men in their pursuits, without any recognition. The shocking reality is so amazingly and clearly described that it makes you think about what is happening around you. It is so obvious, yet not many people seem to notice.
The film “The Wife” is based on this reality. Although a total fictional story, we can see it could be a true one (maybe it is and we are still to discover it). Glenn Close plays the role of the wife of a man who has just been awarded the Nobel Prize of Literature. It turns out, as we learn at the end of the film, all his books were written by her. And yet, it was he who got published, who got famous, and who got recognition for high-quality books. Why did she accept that situation? She wanted to be published and read, but realized it was not going to happen because she was a woman.
Caroline Criado Perez showed how women are systematically ignored and erased through hard data. In daily life, in workplaces, in health care issues, in public life, everywhere there are numbers proving that women are discriminated against systematically, like they do not exist, like they are a kind of weird man. Adequately, the book is called “Invisible Women”.
Having decided to become a writer after graduating from the university, Salman Rushdie was failing by all accounts. His first book had been a flop, but he was not willing to give up just yet. It was 1976 and Salman Rushdie was wondering what he would write about next. So, he thought about going back to his happy childhood. He booked a trip to India and made a tour through memory lane. Being born a few weeks before India became officially independent, he decided to base his new book on a boy born exactly at midnight on 15 August 1947. The result was the book “Midnight’s Children”, which was awarded the Booker Prize in 1981, the Booker of Bookers in 1994, and the Best of Bookers in 2008.
“The Secret Story” is a story about a murder. We learn that right in the first sentence of the book, so no surprises there. What we are going to discover throughout the book is what led to that murder and the consequences it had in the lives of those involved. Strongly based on Greek tragedies, the story is a tragedy of modern times.
The mother of a Chinese child dies. A stranger takes the little boy to London to give him an education. The boy goes with the stranger because he is suffering and there is nothing left for him in his hometown. The boy changes his name and becomes an Englishman. His tutor enrolls him in a special university in order for him to get a degree in translation. And there is where things turn sour. A secret organization, the true nature of his work as a translator, the return to his hometown, the bond with his friends, all collides in a spectacular and unexpecting ending.
Ms Clara Smartest began the session summarizing the story of the book: “The author tells the story through the letters that are being exchanged between the main character, Juliet Ashton, and the other characters. Juliet is a writer and, naturally, she loves books. She is on a book tour when she receives a letter from a man living in one of the islands of the English Channel. He is contacting her about a book that used to belong to her. Conversation gets going and Juliet learns about an intriguing book club created unexpectedly during the Second World War. The letters are exchanged shortly after the war has ended and emotions are still running high.”
Written by the British-Turkish author Elif Shafak, “Three Daughters of Eve” tells the story of Peri, a Turkish young woman who goes to the UK to study in Oxford. Daughter of an ultra-religious mother and an agnostic father, she witnesses her brothers taking different paths. Her older brother rebels against the system and is imprisoned and tortured, leaving him traumatized for life. Her younger brother follows a religious path, like his mother, with many pitfalls. Peri tries to stay neutral, with tragic consequences. In Oxford, she becomes friends with two young women from other Islamic countries, with different attitudes towards religion. She also meets Professor Azur, hoping he could help her with her questions about God, but instead that path leads to a scandal.
“Hamnet” is the story of how the death of a child impacted a typical 16th century family living in England. The boy was living in Stratford-upon-Avon with his mother and his siblings. His father had moved to London to find better ways to provide for his family. The boy was called Hamnet, a variation of Hamlet, and his father was William Shakespeare. The boy’s death, and his father’s subsequent grief, gave rise to the renowned theatre play “Hamlet”.
Ms Clara Smartest, who had “officially” been put in charge of introducing the book of the month, took the floor.
The group then discussed details of the book. The solution found by Blake, the regular guy who was actually a hitman for hire in his spare time, was the most radical. André, the architect in love with a much younger woman who didn’t love him with the same intensity, was the most practical, accepting the new reality and adapting rapidly. The confrontation between the two little Sophias, uncovered a hidden secret about their families. The singer Slimboy and his duplicate found the most original solution and the success of the “oldest” was doubled. David’s fate was repeated. Joanna, who had married and became pregnant in those three months, realised that she shared the love of a man with another person. Lucie realised she had to share her son. Finally, Victor Miesel had a golden opportunity to start a new life.
“Let me just say that it was delightful to see how much we helped each other to ‘decode’ this book. I heard that some of you decided to learn a new foreign language, which I personally think it’s great. Knowing a foreign language opens a door to a whole new world”, said Ms Clara Smartest.
“The book for this month was written by Oscar Wilde, an Irish writer who lived in the last half of the 19th century, during the last years of Queen Victoria’s extensive rule. His famous playwrights wittily characterized the society at the time and surpassed his numerous poems and short stories. His only novel, ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’, tells the story of a beautiful young man throughout his increasingly decaying life. At the beginning of the story, a friend paints his portrait, forever preserving its untainted beauty. This painting will have a crucial role in his life”, said Ms Clara Smartest.
“A few remarks about the author before we give you the floor”, added Ms Clara Smartest. “Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a pilot during the war and a courier, having crossed over the desert many times. He wrote several books, including one which stem from his nearly-dead experience after crashing in the desert. The description of his hallucinations is very interesting and lively. In a way, ‘The Little Prince’ also stems from such an experience, but reflects as well his concerns about the direction the world was heading. The thesis in the book is that grown-ups forget to be open to the world, as when they were kids, and understand nothing.”
“It’s a beautiful fable about how adults lose sight of the most important things in life, like what love really is and how to make friends. Those people who the Little Prince met during his journey had become so focused on their purposes they had forgotten anything else. Therefore, the story aims to remind adults how it was to be a child, full of amazement and curiosity about the world”, said Mr Mark Mindhearting. “I especially like the fox. It’s like the voice of conscience we sometimes have in our mind, telling us to look closely, to become aware of what it is all about, really. It’s the fox that says the ‘essential is invisible to the eye’, as saying to look beyond what you can see with your eyes, that the important things, or better yet the most important things, are felt, not seen.”
Lothar-Günther Buchheim was born in 1918. He was 15 years old when the Nazis took power and, while attending the Hitler Youth’s meetings, where he had military training, he seized the opportunity to take photos and write articles about the activities of the organization. When World War II broke out, he was studying art, but he left his studies to become a war reporter for the regime. The Ministry of Propaganda had created military structures (called 
Mr John Booklish officially opened the meeting briefly introducing the book under discussion: “Levantado do Chão”, by Jose Saramago. Before he would go on about the story of the book, he made a bibliographical note about the author.
Although not disagreeing with this entirely, Mr Jeremy Toughready said that the story showed how resilient the farmers were, and how that helped create a strong will and a strong mind. They were prepared for everything that might come, not afraid of the consequences. They just went for what they wanted and for what they thought it was right, despite political affiliations. What he meant, he added, was that they did what they did not because of some political belief, but because it was just right.
Lieutenant Ulrich Schmied, working with the Police of Bern, is found murdered inside a car on the roadside. The police officer responsible to solve the case is Walter Tschanz and he is helped by Commissar Bärlach, who cannot investigate the case as he is very ill. However, Bärlach tells Tschanz that he knows who the murdered is and hopes that Tschanz can discover who he is by himsellf and bring him to justice. As the investigation progresses, the case gets stranger and stranger. Bärlach’s actions are bizarre and obscure until we reach the end of the story and everything is explained. Although it is a crime investigation and the main characters are all police officers, the short story is not about the investigation itself. In reality, it is about criminals who get away with murder… or at least try. It is about the good and the evil and the battle between the two. And it is about Commissar Bärlach’s relationship with a great criminal…
“A Farewell to Arms” is a vivid description of his experience in World War I and aims to show the reader how war is in reality. It is heavily based on his own experience. The main character drives ambulances like he did and he falls in love like Hemingway did. Although the descriptions of the war are authentic, the romantic connection is not (maybe he wrote what he wanted to have happened).
Tim Marshall wrote a second book, “The Power of Geography: Ten Maps that Reveal the Future of Our World”, detailing issues regarding some of the regions analysed in the first book plus other regions that were not included, like Australia… and the Space. Then, he furthered the Space topic in a third book, “The Future of Geography: How Power and Politics in Space will Change our World”.
What if Hitler had won the war and succeeded in achieving his terrible plans?
London is the stage of all the action. Strike’s office is located in the trendy Soho, at the heart of the city. On the same day, the brother of his childhood, and dead, best friend knocks on the door to ask him to investigate the murder of his sister, which was ruled a suicide. The case has nowhere to go, but the client promises him a lot of money, enough money to pay Strike’s debt and the one-week salary of his new employee. He reluctantly accepts the case and heads to Mayfair, the city’s poshest borough, where the wealthiest people in the country, and maybe in the world, live.
Grenouille has no body smell and, because of that, he is feared. People are not afraid of him, they just feel he is different in a completely and unbeknownst way and just keep their distance. No one knows, except Grenouille himself, that he has an enormous gift: he can smell and precisely categorise all the smells (good and bad) in the world. He can also detect the tiniest fragrance that has travelled from far away. For Grenouille, who has no moral values, only this gift matters. So, killing to acquire the body smell of a particular person is just a collection method, nothing more.
You do not just read James Joyce; you become an Irish person that participates in the narrative.
After being postponed due to the strike of writers and actors in the USA, “Dune: Part Two” will finally open in theatres around the world this month. Both Part One and Part Two were adapted from the first book of the series “Dune”, which is the name of the first book.
WORDS IN IDEAS 