Tuesday 16 November 2010

Facts vs. Fiction

'You never kill anyone that you want to kill in a war.' (Ernest Hemingway, 'For Whom the Bell Tools')

I was talking with a friend the other day... he said he didn't like horror movies mostly because they are so full of violence and well... the first thought that popped into my head was... 'don't read a history book, then!'. I touched on that thought (using other words, of course... [yes! I CAN be polite.. I don't have to say EVERYTHING that pops into my head just the way it does... I don't always have the energy to do so, but that's another matter entirely]) and as I was poking around the subject of violence in human history, he said that one day he was actually appalled by a documentary on national television... something about religious wars at the end of the Middle Ages... there! My theory has just been confirmed. Plain history can be just as horrifying as a horror movie. You just have to take a look at it.

Sometimes I just wonder what makes the concept of war so attractive to us... is it just because it's an excuse to unleash violence and then make of it an act of courage...? I think it just might... the only time people tend to agree that it might just be okay to kill another person is in war. That thought is so frightening to me I can barely stand it, but it is true.. I remember thinking at some point (I was 4 or 5) that a war wouldn't be such a bad thing... I mean... I could have the opportunity to kill someone and get away with it. I can't say it wasn't appealing in what is now to me in a very frightening way, but so it was. And it must be true for others... I remember the last line of 'The Hurt Locker'. It went something like 'Because war is a drug'. If it is, it has the ugliest side effects...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_7r6eALGyg [careful with the lyrics...]

R

P.S. As I was trying to put down a few thoughts on Hemingway's novel I came up with this:
Words drip out of a pen
Making an unbearable noise.
Writing with blood is the tool of my trade!

Does it make any sense?

3 comments:

  1. I don't get wars at all. And I also do not understand why someone would take it as a good thing. The only thing it leaves behind is a bunch of dead people. Yay wars! Okay, I could be ok with The Cold War though.

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  2. You are officially tagged for the winamp test.

    But I'm sorry, you'll have to copy paste the questions from my blog, as I had to do that as well when I was tagged. (might wanna copy them from andra's blog - there's a link in the post - she has written less comments).

    I'm curious what will come out of this.

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