O' Brien, although writing within the genre of "war stories" does not stay confined to the expectations viewers/readers of war stories may have. The "story truth" O' Brien speaks of, "...can make things present" (O'Brien, "The Good Form"). Stories falling under the war genre may present themselves so as to fill this expectation that strays away from reality. Part of the expectations are to see violent gory scenes as a very exaggerated view of wars. What many of these movies fail to do is focus on the feeling of the soldiers and the thoughts racing through their minds as they sit next to a freshly killed corpse. Although thoughts of regret may rarely creep up their faces, the general feeling is, "killed or be killed". The violence most war films and books are filled with, leave little room for feeling.
O'Brien's stories challenge this idea because he describes a calm and a boredom that constantly arise. As opposed to the irrationality and chaos characterizing many war stories, O"Brien's friends "play long, silent games [of checkers]. "There was something restful about it, something orderly and reassuring." (O'Brien, "Spin"). War stories do not go into detail about who is being killed, at least not as much detail as O' Brien does. In, "The Man I Killed", we are introduced to a young man lying on the side of a road. "His jaw was in his throat, his upper lip and teeth were gone, his one eye was shut..." (O'Brien, "The Man I Killed"). This man challenges those who we believe should be in war. Most soldiers are strong and manly, while this man had womanly features and prayed every night for the war to end, a clear contradicition of what a soldier should be. Although this particular story stays true to the idea of selfish, inhumane acts, typical war stories do not show the solider sitting by an enemy' s side in remorse.
It is not until, "Good Form" that we learn the character Tim was the not the one to kill this man. "I remember feeling the burden of responsibility and grief. I blamed myself." (O'Brien, "Good Form") The story truths are those that can be presented to the reader as what is really going on, but only exisits in the realm of fiction; just as Tim actually killing the man was not what really happened. Perhaps all of these atrocities that happen during war, are best as stories where they can be remembered at will. Otherwise, they may be too painful to live with. The exaggerated view of war and battles and gore may be avoided by O'Brien in order to show that although events may happen, humanity still should always exist and even though a person may be an enemy, he is still a person, with hopes of a family, a career and a life more than that which is plagued by the disgusting portrayal of human beings. Sadly, this form of entertainment, has come to be expected by viewers and readers of war stories.
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I full heartedly agree with your response to O'Brien's, splitting from a typical "war story". Especially the overly saturated works that have been made in its context. Although one expects a war movie to have blood and gore, it doesn't mean that aspects of emotion other then a bloodfest isn't wanted or needed.
As well as his vantage point of creating a new perspective of the soldier. This being a O'Brien's use of describing the quite, boredom of the day to day. An opposite to the what in most war written stories, of an ever going jungle expedition.
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