The oldest known literature, written in the Sumerian language, dates back to the Middle Bronze Age (circa 2600 BCE). War is as old as mankind. At some unknown point in time, the two came together. The result is the literature of war.

On Memorial Day, as we commemorate those who have served and sacrificed for the freedom the rest of us enjoy, my thoughts turn to the variations on a theme known as the literature of war. War has been expressed through every written art form, including novels, poetry, memoir, essay and graphic literature. It is history viewed through the lens of each author.

Through literature, war has been glorified and vilified, made just and unjust, raised up to soaring beauty and razed down to something incomprehensively ugly. The literary depiction of war depends on whether the writer views it as winning or losing – not necessarily the actual battle, it can also be about the moral battle within one’s conscience.

Writers are challenged to convey to non-combatants, what combat is like. What the aftermath is like. How it changes those who engage in it and those who find themselves caught up in it.

As long as there is war, humanity will try to express its impact through literature. Try to give it meaning. Try to make madness logical. Mankind has never learned enough about war to end it. War literature represents mankind’s eternal paradox in words.