Huh? I understand that the baby boomers have a weird set of emotional and parental issues that cause them to weep at the very thought of their parents' "Greatest Generation" age cohort. On the scale of things I don't like about the boomers (mortgaging my generation out with the federal debt, outsourcing my generation's career tracks to fatten themselves, obsessive nostalgia and their feeling American culture stopped in '78, etc.) this rates rather low.
But is this book cover necessary?
Yes, yes. Heroism in WWII and all that (I'll keep the snark low about it really being the Soviet's victory). But Homer? I though the real horror of the World Wars was exactly how mass-produced, and not heroic, it was – it involves firebombings and suicide planes and factory production and nuclear warfare and mass conscription. There's no beauty of Achilles' shield being crafted by the gods, but someone handing you a rifle as you get off a boat.
I can only assume there's a Odyssey cover on its way of the current Iraq conflict, with a group of solider wandering around a hostile land just trying not to get killed and get the fuck home.
God I hate Greatest Generation nostalgia. And the boomers.