Wednesday September 23
“How to Tell a True War Story”
Peer-Editing Workshop
Documentary / Research
Begin Reading
Peer-Editing
• Marking Utensils (Highlighters, Pens)
• Be constructive (positive feedback only)
Mr. Stocum’s dank
memes
Peer-Editing Marks
• HIGHLIGHT quotations
• CIRCLE introductions
• UNDERLINE commentary
• BONUS – STAR topic and concluding sentence
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
“How To Tell a True War Story”
In any war story, but especially a true one, it’s
difficult to separate what happened from what
seemed to happen. What seems to happen
becomes its own happening and has to be told
that way. The angles of vision are skewed.... The
pictures get jumbled; you tend to miss a lot. And
then afterward, when you go to tell about it,
there is always that surreal seemingness, which
makes the story seem untrue, but which in fact
represents the hard and exact truth as it seemed.
What?
• The stories may be true, but may not be.
• We were not there, so how do we know if
they are true or not?
• We become detectives, we search for clues
Focus Questions
• What story does Rat Kiley tell? What does the
story show about Rat’s character?
• What is Mitchell Sanders’ story about? Why
does he tell it?
• Tim gives several definitions for what a true
war story is and is not. Identify two definitions
Tim offers. Which do you prefer?
• What war story haunts Tim’s dreams?
Warm-Up
• Words to Live By
• Show an in-depth analysis of the quotation on
#1 of your handout.
• Ask yourself, who- what- when- where- how
why
Magical realism is defined as what
happens when a highly detailed,
realistic setting is invaded by
something too strange to believe.
Silence!
“They can’t do that. It wouldn’t go down. So
they lie there in the dark and keep their mouths
shut. And what makes it extra bad, see, is the
poor dudes can’t horse around like normal, can’t
joke it away, can’t even talk to each other,
except maybe in whispers.”
Walk Away
“But the guys don’t say zip. They just look at him
for a while sort of funny . . . Then they salute the
fucker and walk away, because certain stories
you don’t ever tell” (O’Brien).
Lies . . .
“I got a confession to make” Sanders said . . .
“The glee club. There wasn’t any glee club”
What’s the moral?
“Hear that quiet, man?” he said.
“That quiet – just listen. There’s
your moral” (O’Brien).
• Silence, the quiet, is all one can
say to a true war story
Rat’s gone Crazy
• Shooting a Baby Buffalo
• Why?
Rat’s Act of Violence
Doesn’t solve his own anger and
depression issues.
“Amazing,” Dave Jensen said. “My whole
life I’ve never seen anything like it.”
What is he referring to?
Adrenaline Rush
What’s Adrenaline?
• Chemical in the body that temporary distills
the senses.
• Can make you “invincible”
• Different state of mind
Tim’s Adrenaline
• He be trip’n
• “The grass, the soil—everything .All
around you things are purely living
,and you among them, and the
aliveness makes you tremble.”
What the hell is the point?
• “You close your eyes. You take a
feeble swipe at the dark and think,
Christ, what’s the point?”
• We don’t know how a war is going
until it’s over; especially the soldiers
A true war story is about people
• For example, “I’ll picture Rat Kiley’s
face, his grief, and I’ll think, You
dumb cooze” (O’Brien).
• Why does he say this?
War Stories
• Are about the people who see but
never listen . . .
• Everyone has an opinion of how others
should act, but don’t take it to
themselves.
Find an instance where O’Brien’s
writing reflects the Magical
realism of war and write a
paragraph on how he achieves
this effect. What kinds of truths
can Magical realism reveal? (Use
a Quotation).