9 ms·

If you find this an interesting topic, you might enjoy this book: The Facemaker by Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris: https://drlindseyfitzharris.com/the-facemaker/ https:

by wdb 4y ago

If you find this an interesting topic, you might enjoy this book: The Facemaker by Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris: https://drlindseyfitzharris.com/the-facemaker/ https://drlindseyfitzharris.com/the-facemaker/ From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. The war caused carnage on an industrial scale, and the nature of trench warfare meant that thousands sustained facial injuries. In The Facemaker, award-winning historian Lindsey Fitzharris tells the true story of the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to restoring the faces of a brutalized generation. Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, established one of the world’s first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of facial differences, Gillies restored not just faces, but identities and spirits. The Facemaker places Gillies’s ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine and art can merge, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.

rqtwteye 4y ago
I still remember the pictures of real war injuries they showed to us during a first aid course at military. Such pictures should be shown way more. People have a way too clean conception of war, probably because of movies. It's dirty business with horrific consequences.
- vasco 4y ago
  Many Hollywood movies depicting war or any military related things have the sponsorship (or are co-scripted) of the DoD, mostly as a recruitment tactic, the same way they pay for the anthem to be played at NFL games. How else can you get a bunch of kids to have as a life long dream to kill and be killed? You make it look cool and glamorous and hide the nasty bits. If war movies were real they'd all end up with your team half dead in combat and the other half committing suicide back at home from the PTSD. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment_complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment...
  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
    if you self funded such a movie, would you be allowed to publish it?
    - krastanov 4y ago
      Of course you would be allowed to (self) publish it, first amendment and so on. Whether you would be vilified by jingoists and/or glorified by anti-war activists is a separate question.
  - kwhitefoot 4y ago
    > DoD, ... they pay for the anthem to be played at NFL games. What? And that is not controversial?
    - devilbunny 4y ago
      I had never considered that the DoD might pay for playing the national anthem at NFL games (playing the anthem is a staple of high school games, and I know my school didn't get any DoD funding), and after a quick search it appears that what they pay for is things like flyovers, having service members hold out a large flag on the field, buying them tickets to the game afterward (where they can be seen in uniform in the stands), etc. It's marketing. And the number bandied about in the first few links was something like $5.5 million over three years. Not a huge amount of money.
  - mattbrewsbytes 4y ago
    I think kids are recruited because they are disadvantaged in some way - economically, academically, etc. and are presented with a notion that the military is their only option to "escape". I don't think kids dream of killing because they see movies, I think they dream of the camaraderie, wanting to look like & talk like those they see in the movies and to fight against bad forces in the world. Only 10% of the military people actually engage in combat [0] (was a stat from when the US had troops in Afghanistan). If the trades advertised as much as the military there wouldn't be shortages of electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, etc. Some of those careers are just as highly technical as programming and might pay just as much (sans stock options). Hollywood doesn't make movies about plumbers though. [0] https://www.thesoldiersproject.org/what-percentage-of-the-military-sees-combat/ https://www.thesoldiersproject.org/what-percentage-of-the-mi...
livindub 4y ago
Not to say that any of this is funny in any way, but I've always found it fascinating how mankind can find humor in even the worst facts of life. It might not always be pretty, but in this case there is a beautiful and IMHO hilarious movie about the subject of facial mutilation in the first world war period: Au Revoir Là Haut, translated as See You Up There in English. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5258850/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5258850/
bigmattystyles 4y ago
I learned of this from the Richard Harrow character in Boardwalk Empire. The show didn't delve into his mask, but it prompted me to research such prosthesis. That's a show that doesn't get enough love.
hnbad 4y ago
Similarly, most people aren't aware that one of the biggest contributors to reconstructive cosmetic surgeries in Germany was the coal mining industry. Because coal mines had such a horrific track record of disfiguring injuries, they gave rise to an entire industry of reconstructive cosmetic surgery before WW1. After WW1 the surgeons mostly pivoted to treating veterans.

by wdb 4y ago

rqtwteye 4y ago

I still remember the pictures of real war injuries they showed to us during a first aid course at military. Such pictures should be shown way more. People have a way too clean conception of war, probably because of movies. It's dirty business with horrific consequences.

vasco 4y ago
Many Hollywood movies depicting war or any military related things have the sponsorship (or are co-scripted) of the DoD, mostly as a recruitment tactic, the same way they pay for the anthem to be played at NFL games. How else can you get a bunch of kids to have as a life long dream to kill and be killed? You make it look cool and glamorous and hide the nasty bits. If war movies were real they'd all end up with your team half dead in combat and the other half committing suicide back at home from the PTSD. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment_complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment...
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 4y ago
  if you self funded such a movie, would you be allowed to publish it?
  - krastanov 4y ago
    Of course you would be allowed to (self) publish it, first amendment and so on. Whether you would be vilified by jingoists and/or glorified by anti-war activists is a separate question.
- kwhitefoot 4y ago
  > DoD, ... they pay for the anthem to be played at NFL games. What? And that is not controversial?
  - devilbunny 4y ago
    I had never considered that the DoD might pay for playing the national anthem at NFL games (playing the anthem is a staple of high school games, and I know my school didn't get any DoD funding), and after a quick search it appears that what they pay for is things like flyovers, having service members hold out a large flag on the field, buying them tickets to the game afterward (where they can be seen in uniform in the stands), etc. It's marketing. And the number bandied about in the first few links was something like $5.5 million over three years. Not a huge amount of money.
- mattbrewsbytes 4y ago
  I think kids are recruited because they are disadvantaged in some way - economically, academically, etc. and are presented with a notion that the military is their only option to "escape". I don't think kids dream of killing because they see movies, I think they dream of the camaraderie, wanting to look like & talk like those they see in the movies and to fight against bad forces in the world. Only 10% of the military people actually engage in combat [0] (was a stat from when the US had troops in Afghanistan). If the trades advertised as much as the military there wouldn't be shortages of electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, etc. Some of those careers are just as highly technical as programming and might pay just as much (sans stock options). Hollywood doesn't make movies about plumbers though. [0] https://www.thesoldiersproject.org/what-percentage-of-the-military-sees-combat/ https://www.thesoldiersproject.org/what-percentage-of-the-mi...

livindub 4y ago

Not to say that any of this is funny in any way, but I've always found it fascinating how mankind can find humor in even the worst facts of life. It might not always be pretty, but in this case there is a beautiful and IMHO hilarious movie about the subject of facial mutilation in the first world war period: Au Revoir Là Haut, translated as See You Up There in English. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5258850/ https://m.imdb.com/title/tt5258850/

bigmattystyles 4y ago

I learned of this from the Richard Harrow character in Boardwalk Empire. The show didn't delve into his mask, but it prompted me to research such prosthesis. That's a show that doesn't get enough love.

hnbad 4y ago

Similarly, most people aren't aware that one of the biggest contributors to reconstructive cosmetic surgeries in Germany was the coal mining industry. Because coal mines had such a horrific track record of disfiguring injuries, they gave rise to an entire industry of reconstructive cosmetic surgery before WW1. After WW1 the surgeons mostly pivoted to treating veterans.