The Front
In our informal and unannounced "syllabus," we've been discussing roughly a chapter a day of All Quiet (partly respecting those of us who are reading as we go). The Front has been a force and a presence from the beginning, but now, in ch. 4, we actually arrive: "We are not, indeed, in the front-line, but only in the reserves, yet in every face can be read: This is the front, now we are within its embrace."
From that point (p. 53 in my version), Paul reflects on what he's seeing and feeling: "Our faces are neither paler nor more flushed than usual; they are not more tense nor more flabby--and yet they are changed. We feel that in our blood a contact has shot home. That is not figure of speech; it is fact. It is the front, the consciousness of the front, that makes this contact."
The Western Front is a remarkable aspect of WWI, a constant image when you're not there and an almost unbearable reality when you are: zig-zag parallel trenches that go from the North Sea coast of Belgium through France to the Swiss border, with No-man's Land in between. Always there, to be approached, dwelt in, retreated from, and returned to. Paul says that when they arrive at the front, "every word of our speech has a new ring," and "perhaps it is our inner and most secret life that shivers and falls on guard."
In this novel, I wonder how we're supposed to comprehend the force of the Front both physically and psychologically. We've been saying that WWI was the meaningless war, but in the narrow space of the Front, all meaning seems to be concentrated, the value of life most immediate. Being at the Front: a "moment" that shouldn't happen to anyone yet reveals everything as it really is in a flash. Paul has already talked about the truthfulness that he and his comrades possess over and above those who orchestrate and promote the war.
The knowledge obtained at the Front is the most severe and unadorned kind of knowledge, but it doesn't seem to be of any use in living apart from it. Any thoughts on how the Front is depicted in ch. 4?