A review from tyler gibb When i found this old paper-back copy of Johnny Got His Gun in some stinky used book store, the only thing i knew about it was that clips from the movie adaptation had been used in an old eighties heavy metal video.   It's been a few years since i read Dalton Trumbo's most famous novel but the imagery and shear emotional turmoil that it arrested within me, still remains. One fact that truly bothers me about human conditioning is the idea that outside forces have a direct and overwhelming effect upon you and how you perceive the world. I, as i would assume many of you do as well, always liked to think that i am my own person and that i have original thought. But "Johnny Got His Gun" is one of the few works that truly reminds me that i am at the mercy of the world and not vice-versa.   Taking you straight and mercilessly into the realms that we as Western humans prefer to glamourize with action movie style fantasy, Trumbo uses the plight of Joe, a regular soldier, violently wounded, as his example of the truth about war.   More so than ever, war is becoming this abstract thing that we see on television looking more like a video game with every new American weapon systems advancement. This is so completely arrogant and in "Johnny" Trumbo brings you face to face with a horror that you couldn't even imagine if you tried right now. I can't even try describe it to you because it would belittle the story telling mastery that the author possesses.   The ultimate horrors of mankind lie not in your imagination which has been desensitized by the modern world, but in that which you can not imagine and that which we as comfortable Western, middle class WASPs will likely never ever have to fathom.   From my bereft ego, "Johnny Got His Gun" stole my feeling of autonomy in that the book itself, i dare say, veered my life on a new course by making me see what before was only remote and glorified.   I tried to resist this next rant but i'm overcome, so here goes: Remembrance Day (Veteran's Day) is a joke. To designate a single day so that a bunch of ungrateful grand children can pontificate upon how cool it would have been to serve in a great war is even more shameful than the way we treat veterans in general. I won't be wearing a poppy but the subject will be on mind and not just for a single minute of the year. Amazon.com may have Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo so why not give it a read.