Monday, June 1, 2015

Military Fiction Books And Other Publications

By Ericka Marsh


Those in charge of medical lobbies should try to keep a reading selection that represents the interests of a general public. Instead, the shelves and tables of waiting rooms everywhere seem to be overrun with glossy interior decor and gardening magazines. Doctors' offices would better stocked with reading selections if they included some military fiction books and other publications, simply to give the fellows some to do but stare at the walls.

There are a few generic conventions which are conformed to, bent, or broken as the author dares and the editor permits. Narration is more likely than not to be told in first person, since the fictional memoir form is especially popular. There will be a potentially huge cast of supporting characters. The great majority of these will be soldiers at war. The genre's fans are known to favor detailed knowledge of all the tools of soldiering, as well as all a soldier's tactics.

The genre has no firm borders, though, and can be said to embrace much fantasy and science fiction within itself. Space opera is the most popular subgenre of science fiction, and what distinguishes it is almost completely soldierly. It is the subgenre of science fiction that is full of characters whose first names are Captain and Lieutenant and who shoot beam weapons at each other, spaceships shooting at other spaceships, and ordinary tactics exaggerated by futuristic technology.

Militarized space opera is so dominant that many in the broad public seem to assume all science fiction is space opera. Understandably, this is to the frustration of many science fiction enthusiasts. It does, however, attest to the universality of the war story. So do all the martial elements in fantasy, whether in the form of the classics of the field or yesterday's new video game.

The entire genre of espionage literature can be classified a sub-genre of war literature. This classification has espionage literature playing the same role with war literature that espionage agencies play among a nation's armed forces. Nearly any fictional intelligence agent of note has a background story of service in the combat arms, and were at some point identified from within that pool of fighting men. Most still hold rank.

Some parents will hesitate before feeding the kids war literature, worried that the inevitable graphic violence might imprint itself on their character, or that it might even inspire the kids to enlist one day. Studies might reassure them that violence conveyed through print lacks the shock effect of seeing it on-screen. However, this also must be weighed against the need to provide reading material that genuinely inspires a life-long love of reading.

Bright kids sometimes dedicate themselves to one type of literature for as long as several years. Some will be drawn toward fantasy, which offers magical beings and a vaguely medieval atmosphere. Those who prefer their settings more futuristic will incline toward SF. But many children aren't intrigued by wildly imaginative material.

Stories of combat have energized young men for thousands of years. Many may object, and their objections should receive a fair hearing. But the distribution of war literature could also lead to more boys learning to read and more men going in for their check-ups.




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