Life, 1918-11-21 · page 26 of 34
Life — November 21, 1918 — page 26: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
**The Two-Panel Comic (Top):** Shows soldiers in a trench discussing post-war plans. One won't go to America because he'd have to return; the other just wants time to make a phone call. This is dark humor about soldiers' modest hopes for survival and communication during WWI—reflecting the grim reality that many wouldn't survive to have any future at all. **The Large Illustration (Bottom):** Captioned "Kaiser: THE CHART CAN'T BE WRONG. I MADE IT MYSELF," this depicts German Kaiser Wilhelm II apparently studying a military chart or map in a bunker or command post, with dead soldiers visible. The satire mocks the Kaiser's confidence in his own military planning despite visible failure—suggesting his charts/strategy are worthless because they're based on his own (flawed) assumptions rather than reality. It's wartime propaganda satirizing German military leadership. **The Text Article:** Discusses what books readers will want after WWI ends—not just war stories, but forward-looking literature helping people comprehend what happened and what comes next.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
754 What to Read Next E shall begin to read something again presently — something, that is, besides the war news in the papers. What is it going to be? Shall we be reading war stories, the experiences of combatants, for the next twenty years? Are the airmen and the bombers going to sell books to us? No; not they can write. Writers who have it in them can make books about anything, but it is what is in them that makes the books, and not what they choose to write about. Of course there will be books about unless the war, and heaven send there may he some good ones; and of course the background of most books for years to come will be the war. There will be histories and memoirs, and a record will be made that will contain: many things not generally known, and will not be nice reading for Germans. But the books about to come will be forward-looking books about the next period in human experience. Every- “1 WOULDN'T WANT TO GO TO AMERICA NoW, "CAUSE I'D ONLY HAVE TO COME RACK. WOULD YOU body knows now about the war most as much as he can hold. The mass of readers will reach for some- thing that will help them to compre- hend what has happened and where “WouLp 1? 1p BE SATISFIED IF THEY'D ONLY GIVE ME TIME ENOUGH TO MAKE A "PHONE CALL.” they are and what they must do next. They will want to know what there is left in life besides graves and taxes, and whoever best tells them will be the best seller. Kaiser: THE CHART CAN'T BE WRONG. I MADE IT MYSELF comicbooks.com