[LadyBrooke]

Yes, that is indeed the excerpt I am referring to. Yes, it depicts the reality of war, but I feel that instead of people learning the reality of war from literature they should learn it in real life. I can sit a kid a kid down, and read him the excerpt and half of them will think that it is ‘cool’. Guts and blood and brains splattered everywhere are ‘cool’ to many of my of peers because they see it on t.v. and movies - that doesn’t mean that they consider it reality. In fact, as long a book or movie or t.v. show is labeled fiction, it won’t matter how realistic the subject is portrayed, because it is in the same category as Twilight, Shakespeare, Nancy Drew and Jane Austin - all fiction. It can be ignored because it is not real.

People will not learn unless they see real people who have been hurt in real wars and have suffered real consequences. It is unfair to demand that Tolkien and other authors dealing in fictional worlds should have to carry a burden that isn’t demanded of our real world leaders and workers. Why not demand that our lawmakers, our teachers, and our newspaper writers teach the same? Our lawmakers can speak of heroic sacrifice without having to detail the grim reality of death many people suffer in war - and not just our soldiers' deaths but the civilians on the ground and that is acceptable. Nobody speaking of the nuclear bombings spoke of the reality of suffering for many years. It is a struggle to get benefits for soldiers unless one got national news coverage - just ask my great-uncle, who only got his benefits for his Vietnam injuries this past October.

People need to face issues in the real world, and stop blaming our literature, video games, movies, and television for what is in fact a failure to acknowledge reality in the real world. I am currently in High School and just finished taking World History last year. And never once was the real horror of war talked about. We managed to do a whole chapter on WWI without once talking about death beyond the obligatory so-and-so million people died in this war. The rest was on the political issues behind and during the war. That is why so many people can’t understand the reality of war - because unless you or a close friend or family member is fighting in it or lives in the country where it is taking place war isn’t real.