Talk:Pete McGill

Christ, HT might as well have replaced his scenes with a like number of pages that read "INTERMISSION" in big bold letters at the center. I didn't even bother with the template because there's really just nothing there. Timeline, name, nationality, affiliation. (I don't like that one, by the way; it's way too vague.) And I notice that now that something's actually happening in northern China, albeit far to the north of McGill's previous position, he gets transferred even farther south, as if he had to evacuate because Beijing was still close enough to the action that he might have done something. Shanghai holds promise, though; it was a very exciting, turbulent place to be in the 30s, even compared with other decades in its own modern history. Actually it was much more exciting to observe from afar than it was to be right in the middle of the Japanese versus communists versus KMT versus warlords versus triads versus Westerners knock-down-drag-out brawl, but McGill could let us be the observers: "God this is so exciting. I'm just glad I'm not directly exposed to it; better him than me!"

You know, looking back on it I'm not sure what led me to declare him a strong character despite his being squandered into uselessness. He's really little more than the latest in a long line of HT's stereotype of enlisted military personnel being universally hedonistic when they have nothing better to do, except that usually they do have something better to do, at least part of the time. Maybe I liked McGill because he introduced himself by rooting for the Yankees. Maybe because he's an American in Asia and I had just returned from that continent myself when I picked the book up. But he really is nothing special, is he?

Actually, with the half-exception of Victor Radcliff, and maybe some I haven't read like Hasso Pemsel, HT doesn't seem to be able and/or willing to write truly compelling POVs anymore, either. Turtle Fan 21:16, September 11, 2009 (UTC)