Set the wayback machine to the 2002-2003 school year. I was 17 years old, suffering with senioritis and itching to go of to college. It was in this year that I would be confronted with a book that would stick with me, probably to my dying day. My teacher, Mrs. Coughlin, introduced
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien to my class, and to this day it is one of the best books I have ever read.
One particular story really sunk into my mind called "How to Tell a True War Story". In the vignette, O'Brien tells a series of stories, either factual, fictional, or somewhere in between. The point was to illustrate that the veracity of war stories is not dictated by fact or fiction, but based on whether or not it "feels right" like a gut instinct. This story would war with the rational processes of my mind as I studied history for 8 years of undergrad and grad school. The contrary point is this: "History is the interpretation of past by the present, based on primary and secondary sources" - as drummed into me by Professor Magliari. These two different ideas are ever present in my mind when I watch historic or war films. Now I always wonder why they are told, and what the story means.
