How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph) or (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #10
You apologize, in passing, for not writing about the war. We will be sending you a copy of our most recent issue, with a relevant editorial. As you will see, we do not believe that artists have an obligation to strike up attitudes to the war. Indeed, they are wise and right to ignore it and devote themselves to other subjects. Since artists are politically impotent, they must use this time to develop at deeper emotional levels. Your work, your war work, is to cultivate your talent, and go in the direction it demands. Warfare, as we remarked, is the enemy of creative activity.
This is the letter from Cyril Connelly at Horizon to Briony. It argues that creativity and war are opposed, and that authors shouldn't write about war. Briony ends up disagreeing, it seems like. Or at least, the novel she writes is about the war in part. You could even say that war inspires her creative activity, since Cecilia and Robbie are killed in the war, which leads her to make up a happy ending for them.
Quote #11
Finally the colonel, who began his letter by addressing me as "Miss Tallis," allowed some impatience with my sex to show through. What was our kind doing anyway, meddling in these affairs? (4.19)
The colonel has read over Briony's manuscript draft of her novel—the novel we've just read. He's correcting errors—telling her that officers at the time wouldn't have been wearing berets, for example. He also seems to think women shouldn't be writing about war.
Of course, Briony is writing about the war because it's her story; she needs to tell about the war to explain what she did and what she has to atone for. But the novel also suggests that war is something that happens to women as well as men. Cecilia is killed in the war just as much as Robbie is.