Anyone running a doctor's office or any other kind of establishment with a waiting room should consider providing reading material their clients will enjoy. So many of these waiting rooms are either empty or filled with women's reading material. Military fiction books and magazines are especially popular among men and boys. Perhaps the fellows are stealing war books from lobbies nationwide. If not, office managers would do well to order some war stories.
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 field of spy and espionage stories can be seen as a subgenre of the war story. Their relationship is akin to the way intelligence is a facet of a nation's armed forces. Almost every fictional spy holds rank in an armed force, and typically was recruited from one into the intelligence service. In this sense the espionage story is a subgenre of war story identified by its branch of arms, akin to the subgenres focused on air combat or submarine warfare.
Understandably, there will be discerning parents who balk before letting their children enjoy reading about Okinawa or Shiloh. It might comfort them to know that violent print material lacks the neurological impact of seeing the same violence in real-time on the screen. Today, though, any conscious parent might balk before striking what their child loves. There might not be too many opportunities to inspire a love of books.
It is common among children to focus obsessively upon a particular genre. Sometimes it is girls and fantasy, with its dragons and wizards. Add technological elements and it becomes science fiction. Boys who need more realism sometimes seem to tune in to war stories and little else when it comes to reading material.
Tales of war have excited men and boys since the Trojan War and no doubt longer than that. It isn't difficult to grasp the objections of thoughtful parents. But distributing this material in lobbies and bookshelves might inspire boys to learn to read and inspire older men not to skip their medical appointments.
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 field of spy and espionage stories can be seen as a subgenre of the war story. Their relationship is akin to the way intelligence is a facet of a nation's armed forces. Almost every fictional spy holds rank in an armed force, and typically was recruited from one into the intelligence service. In this sense the espionage story is a subgenre of war story identified by its branch of arms, akin to the subgenres focused on air combat or submarine warfare.
Understandably, there will be discerning parents who balk before letting their children enjoy reading about Okinawa or Shiloh. It might comfort them to know that violent print material lacks the neurological impact of seeing the same violence in real-time on the screen. Today, though, any conscious parent might balk before striking what their child loves. There might not be too many opportunities to inspire a love of books.
It is common among children to focus obsessively upon a particular genre. Sometimes it is girls and fantasy, with its dragons and wizards. Add technological elements and it becomes science fiction. Boys who need more realism sometimes seem to tune in to war stories and little else when it comes to reading material.
Tales of war have excited men and boys since the Trojan War and no doubt longer than that. It isn't difficult to grasp the objections of thoughtful parents. But distributing this material in lobbies and bookshelves might inspire boys to learn to read and inspire older men not to skip their medical appointments.
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