Do you think that a writer can capture what it's really like to be in a war, if he has never been in a war?

Question

Or how about a movie director?

Do these mediums do the act of war justice?


I'm reading a book right now called "Beasts of No Nation" that deals with a child being forced into fighting in a civil war .

Do you think that a non-soldier can write a book about what goes through a little boy's mind if he is forced to fight in a war, especially if this author has never experienced war himself?

Answer 1

Yes, if he is very empathetic, can flip his brain into the situation, with knowledge of all the technical details and studies of first-person accounts.

Answer 2

I seriously doubt it. And Hollywood does a damn poor job also. I've seen at least a thousand too many 'soldiers' fly through the air after a large artillery round lands right next to them and get up shooting when there wouldn't be enough meat scraps left to make a good meal for a poodle. War is dirty, death is ugly and final, plans are chaos and luck is the main thing that gets you through. Most of us who've been there can't even relate the scenes accurately to someone else, our brain tends to edit out the reality of the more painful events, fortunately. One day I may try to do this as an antiwar effort because, "I hate war." FDR said it first but I say it now. What stops me from trying is the moods I get in when I try to write accurately about it and the fact that I don't think my effort would do much good. There are many books from many older wars that should enlighten people and lead us to find a better solution to conflicts than murdering one another. Read All Quiet on the Western Front or Regeneration or The Eye in the Door (or the third of that Factual honest trilogy). Still, even in my fractured mind I realize that wars will continue because their are seriously bad leaders and people with such diverse ideas of what is right and moral that they will try to kill us if we don't kill them first. It sickens me.........

Answer 3

No. I guess he just used first-hand accounts from people involved. Writers during WW1 wrote what they saw in stories and poems(1 which died 1 week before the armistance). So he can never really give you the actual feeling of a hellish war.

Answer 4

yes

because that is the power of 'imagination'.

george lucas wrote starwars without ever actually going to space and all those other planets.

a very good psychiatrist can simulate all emotions for any particular situation.

go see '2001 space odyssey'

read some stuff from 'homer'

and NO

never did these mediums ever justify war

have fun reading !

Answer 5

Stephen Crane pulled it off in his e book The crimson Badge of braveness. He never observed a single conflict of the american Civil conflict yet he interviewed loads of the veterans of the conflict.

Answer 6

Crane and the "Red Badge of Courage" says yes.

Answer 7

hmmmm...good question!
If he did extensive interviews and followed the soldier, then maybe...but it's still written from the author's perspective so...I don't know...Seems there is less and less objectivity and way more opinions these days...

Answer 8

You should read "The Red Badge of Courage".

Answer 9

No. and don't ever think that youn can. Just thank god that yoiu never went through war