How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
This was war. War against irresponsibility, against those elements that were sabotaging—and such sabotage was clearly intolerable—the engines of the state, against the wholesale flouting of reasonable and liberal laws, especially that law which, for the community's good, sought to limit the growth of population. All over the planet, said the luminous face with gravity, the leaders of state would be speaking—tonight or tomorrow—in similar urgent terms to their various peoples; the whole world was declaring war on itself. (1.13.1)
The "war" against "irresponsibility" that Prime Minister Starling announces to the people of England marks the beginning of the repressive police state. As the global food crops fail and people turn against the government, the government turns against the people.
Quote #2
'Oh,' said the man. 'Well, there's not a lot I can tell you. There doesn't seem to be a central government at the moment, but we're trying to improvise some kind of regional law and order. A sort of martial law you could call it. You behold in me one of the resuscitated military. I'm a soldier.' He snorted another laugh. (4.2.7)
After both the central government and the repressive police state crumble, the people of England turn away from civil policing altogether, and embrace martial law instead. Since there have been no real wars on Earth for generations, the whole idea of a national army seems homespun, heroic, and like a nice change of pace.
Quote #3
By what hypocritical gesture of the head were the supplies being maintained? Civilian contracts with no questions asked; the troops called the anonymous tinned meat 'bully', and there was no such animal as that; the keeping of law and order was not incompatible with tolerance of the quiet work of the slaughter-house. Martial law was the only way, Tristram supposed. An army being primarily an organization set up for mass murder, morality could never be its concern. (4.8.6)
Although the repressive police state declared an outright war on the British people, the men behind the martial law are doing things with more subtlety. Quite early on, Tristram begins to realize that the rule and order maintained by the British Army is compatible with the murder and cannibalism of citizens.
Quote #4
[. . .] it stands to reason you've got to have a war. Not because anybody wants it, of course, but because there's an army. An army here and an army there and armies all over the shop. Armies is for wars and wars is for armies. That's only plain common sense.'
'War's finished,' said Tristram. 'War's outlawed. There hasn't been any war for years and years and years.'
'All the more reason why there's got to be a war,' said the driver, 'if we've been such a long time without one.' (4.8.13-15)
According to The Wanting Seed, why is it that people are so willing to accept the necessity of war?
Quote #5
'But,' said Tristram, agitated, 'you've got no conception what war was like. I've read books about the old wars. They were terrible, terrible. There were poison gases that turned your blood to water and bacteria that killed the seed of whole nations and bombs that smashed cities in a split second. All that's over. It's got to be over. We can't have all that again. I've seen photographs.' (4.8.16)
As a history teacher, and someone who considers himself to be a fairly serious historian, Tristram has factual knowledge of what war was really like before the Perpetual Peace. This knowledge helps him to resist being taken in by romantic, nationalistic notions of war, and by the "plain common sense" of the lorry driver.
Quote #6
'I didn't mean that sort, mister. I meant, you know, fighting. Armies. One lot having a bash at another lot, if you see what I mean. One army facing another army, like it might be two teams. And then one lot shoots at another lot, and they go on shooting till somebody blows the whistle and they say, "This lot's won and this lot's lost." Then they dish out leave and medals and the tarts are all lined up waiting at the station. That's the sort of war I mean, mister.' (4.8.17)
Unlike Tristram, the lorry driver has a romantic notion of war. He imagines it as an honorable enterprise, where men do battle just as if they were playing a game—a game, mind you, with clear rules for right and wrong, and in which no one ever cheats or does anything underhanded or despicable.
Quote #7
'Why are we fighting? We're fighting because we're soldiers. That's simple enough, isn't it? For what cause are we fighting? Simple again. We're fighting to protect our country, and, in a wider sense, the whole of the English-Speaking Union. From whom? No concern of ours. Where? Wherever we're sent. Now, Foxe, I trust all this is perfectly clear. (5.2.16)
After being tricked into joining the British Army, Tristram works as a Sergeant Instructor until he is reprimanded for teaching the soldiers to ask critical questions about the army and the "war." How does this "no questions asked" policy compare to the State propaganda that helped keep people in line at the beginning of the novel?
Quote #8
Was war, then, the big solution after all? Were those crude early theorists right? War the great aphrodisiac, the great source of world adrenaline, the solvent of ennui, Angst, melancholia, accidia, spleen? War itself a massive sexual act, culminating in a detumescence which was not mere metaphorical dying? War, finally, the controller, the trimmer and excisor, the justifier of fertility?
Although Tristram entertains these questions, he cannot accept that their answer is yes. For him, war remains an unjustifiable act of violence and brutality.
Quote #9
With great difficulty he heaved the corpse off his stomach on to the trench-floor; it groaned, collapsing. Fearful, he crawled away sorely to whimper alone, the smell of the monstrous smoked-bacon breakfast still swirling above. His sobs started up irrepressibly; soon he was howling with despair and horror, seeing, as if the darkness were a mirror, his own wretched screwed face, tongue licking the tears, the lower lip thrust out quivering with anger and hopelessness. (5.8.26)
Although Tristram himself never entertains a romantic vision of war, he's still overwhelmed by the real horrors of the battlefield. Far from the kind of glorious, honorable battle that the lorry driver imagines, the trench warfare that Tristram experiences is lighting-swift, chaotic, and totally puke-worthy.
Quote #10
Everybody must die, and history seems to show (you're a historian, so you'll agree with me here), history seems to show that the soldier's death is the best death. Facing fearful odds, as the poet says Ashes of his brothers, temples of his gods, and so on. I don't think you'd find anybody against the present system. (6.2.36)
Tristram's worst fears are confirmed when he realizes that the British Government is now depending on the British Army for population control: rather than rationing food or babies, the nation will simply kill off the surplus population by sending it off to war (against itself).