ANZAC TO UNDERSTANDING
Including "Anzac, the Play: A Saga of War and Peace in the 20th Century" and "A Quest for Understanding"
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In my heart I felt a rekindling of the anger I felt when the war had been declared in 1939....It was even called The Second World War. My genie, the one that first got loose for me in August 1939, sometimes erupted and I lashed out at my father. WHY? But, he was doing 'his bit'. He had done 'his share'. He knew it and I knew it. What more could he do? What more could I do? It was my turn now,. There was no getting out of it.....It has been a genie for me held sealed inside my brain. The pressure would always be there. My life's purpose would be learning how to release it, masterminded by philosophy as my father's genie had been masterminded by humor. M.A. Mann
1915. Whilst one chap was looking through the hole the Turk let fire with a machine gun and blew his head off and scattered his brains all over the back of the trench! Goodbye to my first mate!
And when it was all over, I went out into the darkness to walk alone for a little and to get the chill night air blowing upon my forehead. It was as clear and fine a night as it had been all day - cloudless, still, and starlit and - forgive me - but I could only think of Him whom we had left on Hunters Hill, with his feet towards the sea, lying out there in the cold and the quiet, O God, when should I get used to it?
1918. Another chap and I were the only 2 original members of B. Company 25th battalion. Our battalion in 1917 was sent miles behind the front line to Divisional Headquarters to be rested and re-organized and us oldies were given Paris leave for a fortnight. We had a whale of a time together. Back to the battalion, back to the trenches and "No Man's Land", yes, you guessed right! He was killed. He was not a mate, it just so happened we both got Paris leave at the same time. As I was at this time a Loner; I just accepted his death as routine, as part of the game!!
Back home in Charters Towers, understandably the family were delighted to welcome me home. The Freemans and Crowleys were teamsters . I went out to see them and find out if I could take a trip with them. I got a lot of roo's (kangaroo) skins, but one day I got lost and had to spend an hour watching a stick in the sand to see which was north and south! I had followed three 'roos for quite a while until I got a lady with a large joey in her pouch. Just before she died she threw the joey out of her pouch which ran near my horse and scared my horse who broke his bridle. I had the pleasure of following the horse back to the road carrying about six pelts. The look on that roo's eyes just before she died reminded me too much of the look on some of my mates who died while I watched them. It finished my roo shooting, I never shot another. W. A. Mann
Anzacs had, imbedded in their hearts, a vision of a lifestyle that was carefree nad peaceful. What they won for Australia and what they helped win for the world, was the right of human beings to live a good life in peace. This book is an effort to help us strive for remembrance of this vision with more intensity than we now expend on the glorification of their military deeds. M. A. Mann
From Anzac, the Play
High on a camel's hump of Achi Baba, He stood beside a field of mulberry and oak, Restlessly the scarlet poppies swayed. Did this Turk Mustafa Kemal know the cause For which the valiant Hector fought and died?
And gentlemen, If for this we fail, may the spirit of the men Who died in their great love and trust in us, Haunt ever our souls. And may that part of us That will most surely die, should this our vision fail, still wander ghostly on this earth, Until our warlike spirits are all destroyed, Or tamed by some great world catastrophe, That will with tongue of fire and more Horrible presaging, cry to the worse Than plague infested world, that man must live In peace.
From A Quest for Understanding
The play itself had huge difficulties particularly for a small ninety-nine seat stage. It was not a true history play. I had no interest in writing that. Deep down I wanted to know why war. I had to have some universal characters. How else could I show the mean, the still point, that ethical axis that a civilization must aspire to if it is to survive when its destructive tendencies are gaining ascendance.
I knuckled down to reprint ANZAC, with additional background material which I considered necessary since fewer and fewer people are mindful of that war in the way that we were and we still do not have the peace. All my relatives sent me information they had. As I was working on it, I found myself writing the story of my own life because from the living of my life, I was gleaning the philosophy that I had to have.
Perhaps a philosophy of life based on the primacy of the conscience may begin to address the human condition, the majesty of it, the fragility of it and the regenerative powers of it.
The Science of Being Altogether combines both science, operating in the field of understanding which is human, and spirituality operating in the field of understanding which is divine.
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About the Book
"Anzac, the Play: A Saga of War and Peace in the 20th Century", was written in Berkeley in 1969, published in 1971 and produced at the Globe Playhouse Los Angeles in 1984 with readings at the Lankershim Arts Center, No-Ho, North Hollywood in 1996. Accompanying the play, is historical documentation of the lives of the families from whom the characters were drawn as well as war letters of Willie Augustus Mann, 1914-1919, his own story and relevant pages from the Anzac Book, written by the Anzacs themselves, published in 1916.
"A Quest for Understanding" is rooted in this Great War, the First World War, the war to end all wars. In Australia, half the eligible young men enlisted. Their casualties were horrific but they brought Australia on to the world stage. They were called Anzacs, members of the Australian, New Zealand Army Corps, a name coined on the Gallipoli Peninsular, Turkey in 1915. Theirs was a shining light of naked courage, an epiphany of what it meant to be human beings who had earned their own freedom and freedom for the world. To be a child of Anzac was a privilege and a great joy. The quest for the understanding of why war by one of these children began with the Second World War in 1939. It would go back to the Greeks, to the origins of English Literature, through halls of learning across two continents, to the great religions and recent scientific advances and into the heart of a woman. It ended with a Practical Philosophy of Life based upon the understandings: reverence for life, gender differences, the female as the guardian of ethics, and the in-organic nature of money. It offers the individual conscience as humanity's inherent connection to the Life Force of the Universe, or God.
About the Author
Mary Anneeta Mann was born in Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia Her formal education ended after two years of High School. She obtained her B.A. degree with honors in English from Sydney University, the M.A. in Theatre from the University of California at Berkeley and the Ph.D. in Communications and Drama from the University of Southern California. Her book HUBRIS: The Construction of Tragedy, based upon Aristotle's Poetics and his Science of Being Altogether, explores the world view of tragic dramatists in plays from the Greeks to the present day. Her three plays for youth and family are Maria and the Comet on the life of Maria Mitchell, The Round Table which moves between the knights and ladies of King Arthur and the United Nations at the dawn of the 21st. century, (published as TWO FAMILY PLAYS) and ThuGun and Natasha, a drama with rap, moving beyond guns and violence, written for inner city youth in the United States of America. Science and Spirituality, co-authored with Rev. Leland Stewart of Unity-and-Diversity and other compilers, clarifies the common origin of both Science and Spirituality and, through the understanding of spirit is one, paths are many, shows how people of all faiths and belierfs can celebrate their common humanity. There Are No Enemies begins with the Philosophy of Life and includes articles on its practical ethics and poems as well as "The Right of the Womb - post 911". Mary has a son Attica Andrew and a grandaughter Destiny.