War Correspondence
The war correspondent has been perhaps the most romanticized of all journalistic occupations since World War II. As if often the case, however, the romance is undercut the brutality of reality which is situated metaphorically in a quote attribute to Allen Pizzey, one of Fletcher’s peers:
“For journalists who cover wars, luck is like a blind trust fund; you can make withdrawals but not deposits, and you have no idea how much is left.”
Literary Allusion
Literary allusion is usually a very hot topic to browse for when constructing metaphors. And when it comes to literary allusions, the more familiar the reference, the more felicitous the metaphor. The author gets past the obstruction of possibly wading into the pools of triteness by acknowledging that he is dealing with a possibly overworked bit of figurative imagery:
We packed up two jeeps and crossed the border into Rwanda, heading deeper into that most overworked of African concepts, “the heart of darkness.” It fit Kigali at the time.
Holocaust and Genocide
Rwanda, of course, is the African nation that produced what may actually be an greater level of genocidal inhumanity than the Nazis. In the aftermath, a museum sprung up in the country to draw attention to this particularly 20th century brand of evil and the weird way reality synthesizes into metaphor pops into place:
There they stood, two Germans and a Jew outside the Rwandan holocaust museum. It could be the opening line of a sick joke. As they discussed their joint history, Arik told the Germans that his grandfather had died in Auschwitz. The Germans’ response, speaking for their nation, was like a punch: “We didn’t know.”
War is Good for Business
Fletcher brandishes a dull blade when he tries to sever the semantic differentiation between being a war correspondent and being a correspondent who covers wars. He is far more direct about other less than tasty aspects of the business, however:
I have never considered myself a war correspondent but rather a correspondent who covers wars, not by choice or design, but because conflict is the bread and butter of foreign correspondence for an American television network.
Money Matters
While covering the Soviet/Afghan war, Fletcher treks along with the “freedom fighters” being supported by America: the Mujahideen. (Later, these same guys would form the Taliban and, having changed nothing else, would be labeled as terrorist enemies of America.) It is a treacherous assignment and Fletcher is forced to essentially pay out of pocket to ensure his own bodily safety. The attempt to get the money back from his bosses goes metaphorically awry:
When I tried to claim the money back from NBC, they refused to pay, admonishing me for not having a receipt. I sense in this the hand of…my bureau chief in Paris, who went through my expense accounts like Sherlock Holmes hunting for Moriarty. Any financial hanky-panky…would have flung me over the Reichenbach Falls.
