In an article titled "The Price of War, Front and Center: James Gandolfini Sits Down with Scarred Survivors of Iraq“ (Bill Carter, The New York Times, 06 Sep 07), two versions of nightmare meet.
"In the HBO documentary 'Alive Day Memories,' Dawn Halfaker, 27, a former Army first lieutenant, is sitting in a chair on a stark stage, talking, somewhat incongruously, to James Gandolfini, the star of 'The Sopranos.' " An Iraq vet meets Tony Soprano. A representative of the nightmare called war meets a representative of a fictionalized version of the nightmare called gagsterism.
"Mr. Gandolfini serves as the interviewer in the film. It deals with the recovery of American veterans from devastating injuries inflicted during the war in Iraq." Mr. Gandolfini inhabited and made popular a television world of violence that seemed somehow self-contained and safe. The dream of the show did not harm anyone directionly. Ms Halfaker, on the other hand, had a role in a waking nightmare that has had and continues to have horrendous ramifications in hundreds of thousands and millions of lives.
"Ms. Halfaker, whose right arm and shoulder are gone, blasted away by a rocket-propelled grenade, says she has wondered whether her child, if she ever has one, will be able truly to love her. And then a look of intense emotion clouds her face. Ms. Halfaker’s eyes flutter, seemingly looking at some image far, far away." She sacrificed the wholeness of her body, and perhaps of her life, for a governmental dream turned nightmare.
"Finally, after a long pause, Mr. Gandolfini asks quietly, 'What were you just thinking about?' And Ms. Halfaker tells him: 'The reality of, will I be able to raise a kid? I won’t be able to pick up my son or daughter with two arms.'
Whose dream included such hideous details? When will we awaken from this nightmare?
