Levitating the Pentagon: Evolutions in the American Theatre of the Vietnam War Era by J. E. Fenn (review)

Book Reviews255 the awareness of ghosts—thus held, in Hearn's mind, the potential for exposing the illusion of ego, something most appealing to this often disillusioned , even bitter man whose awareness of his own failings Dawson neatly traces. But why Japanese ghosts? For one thing, the richness of pre-modern Japan's ghostly world appealed to Hearn. "[Hearn's] emphasis on ghost stories indicates his conviction that Old Japan redeemed itself in the fullness of its imagination, in the creation of stories about those individuals banned from the society or punished by its inflexibility" (96). As we see here, "ghosts" in Dawson's argument stand not just for the uncanny, the spirit world, but for something social, for that which is excluded from mainstream society. Hearn, a recluse in later years whose lack of mastery over Japanese only added to his isolation, identified with these Japanese ghosts, finding "his home with those sections of the community, those ghosts of the past, excluded like himself from the new order" of Meiji Japan (98). On the surface perhaps an unlikely spokesperson for these ghosts, he was, as Dawson demonstrates, well suited to the task. J. PHILIP GABRIEL University ofArizona J. E. FENN. Levitating the Pentagon: Evolutions in the American Theatre of the Vietnam War Era. Newark: University of Delaware Press; London and Toronto: Associated University Presses, 1992. 289 p. Vietnam War literature encompasses an extensive corpus in all genres as reflected in such popular anthologies as Carrying the Darkness: The Poetry ofthe Vietnam War, Coming to Terms: American Plays and the Vietnam War (1985), and in numerous novels. Several bibliographies published since 1989, such as John Newman and Ann Hilfinger's or Christopher Stephens's, as well as ajournai, The Vietnam Generation, document the diverse literary responses to the war. While there have been several critical studies of Vietnam literature, most notably Philip Beidler's Re-Writing America: Vietnam Authors in Their Generation, 2nd ed. (1991), J. W. Fenn's Levitating the Pentagon (a name emerging from a major protest movement of the 1960s) can rightfully claim to be the first extended survey ofVietnam War drama. Fenn's purpose is directly stated in his prologue: "the principal aim and motivation of this work are to examine the dramatic scripts and productions that had their genesis in the passions engendered by the conflict, and which were produced during or shortly after the war era" (11). He excludes films, maintaining that "Unfortunately, even at this time of writing neither the playwrights nor their works have been given serious consideration either by the commercial theatre or by Hollywood" (12). Surprisingly, Fenn does not 256Rocky Mountain Review acknowledge David Rabe's screenplay for Casualties of War (1989) or, earlier , Robert Altaian's production of Rabe's Streamers (1983); he also discounts the dramatic merits of Full Metal Jacket (1987), Hamburger Hill (1987), or Born on the Fourth ofJuly (1989). Overall, there is much to admire in Fenn's study. He convincingly relates the plays to the social and political events of which they were a part. He finds that "[a] recurring theme observable in virtually all the serious dramas written about Vietnam is the failure or inefficacy of American culture mythology" (88). Fenn impressively traces several "recurring themes"— guilt/responsibility, escape through drugs, "distrust of authority figures," problems of identity and belonging—through more than eighty-five Vietnam War plays in order to "reveal a distinct evolution in dramatic techniques , philosophy, forms, and structure" (49). After an effective opening chapter, "A Culture Under Stress," Fenn divides his survey into seven chapters ; chapters two through five are restricted to different theatres— Experimental, Radical, Documentary, and Abstraction—while his last three chapters explore plays of initiation, experience, and homecoming. In discussing the Experimental Theatre, Fenn studies the Living and Open Theatres, focusing on the "abstraction, allegory, and allusion" (24) found in Kenneth Brown's The Brig, Jack Gelber's Connection, and Megan Terry's Viet Rock; he succeeds admirably in isolating the cultural anxieties of these theatre communities. His comments on radical theatres such as Teatro Campesino and Bread and Puppet are equally effective. Fenn lets the Trial of Cantonville Nine and Pueblo primarily exemplify documentary theatre...