Living near recent warfare shapes how people interpret sudden explosions
Evidence
I’ll remember that night for the rest of my life, because I woke to a shattering explosion. In a flash of blinding light I was thrown six feet from my bed, hitting the wall and then crumpling to the floor. I sat there, shaken and aching in the sudden darkness, sure we were at war; my first thoughts were of the battleship. Why would it fire at the field station? This was not quite as preposterous as it might sound. After all, just twenty-five months earlier the United States had invaded Panama, ousting Manuel Noriega in Operation Just Cause. Bullet holes still marred the walls of buildings in Gamboa a mere ten miles away. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 460
Categorization
- FICTION: The narrator’s false alarm — a lightning strike on a radio tower mistaken for a warship opening fire — is a ready-made scene for fiction about the psychological residue of war.
- XREF: connects to: People can witness visible war signs without emotionally registering danger — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 387
Related
Broader Connections
- People can witness visible war signs without emotionally registering danger
#expands(0.55) — Julien Gracq, Balcony in the Forest, 387