Johnny Got His Gun

**delores 74** · May 11th, 2009

I saw this movie about 20 years ago (thanks to the Metallica video letting me know it even existed), and it was very strange and hard for a 14 year old to truly appreciate. After reading here about some of you reading it and talking about how disturbing it is, I decided to give it a try and bought it last weekend. I'm about 75-80 pages in, and while it is a good book so far, one thing bothers me: the complete lack of punctuation other than periods. There are no commas, no quotation marks, no capitals, nothing. IMO, that makes for a harder read. Anyone else who has read it feel this way too?

**rjt65** · May 11th, 2009

No --I reread it 6 months to a year ago and it did not bother me. The stream of consciousness I think that was meant to portray...

enjoy

**delores 74** · May 11th, 2009

I get the whole stream of consciousness thing, but if I'm not careful, I'll read right through it and not grasp a thing.

**hipmamajen** · May 11th, 2009

I didn't notice the punctuation issues, I think I was just so weirded out by the story that all that stuff kind of flew by.

**BlackThorn** · May 11th, 2009

Dunno, only seen the 'One' clips by Metallica. Hehe, that was like the first bullet that eventually killed Metallica too... (they INSISTED they'd never do a video, they were a Garage Band! A Bootleg Band! Don't even buy our records, bootleg them, they used to implore their fans...)

But I freakin' live on commas. I have a hard time trying to convey exactly where I want to put the pauses in my thoughts most often. I wish there was another type of comma, that meant short break, while one meant long break, so I could make how I write in here a bit more fluidly. When you're speaking, you can play with the breaks in your thoughts however you want to. When you're writing speech, you can only really... hmmm... well, King manages to control all aspects of written speech, so I won't get into that conversation.

But I never read it, so I can't say.

**Patricia A** · May 11th, 2009

I am just saying... if you didn't get it. You need to do time in the service of your country, sacrifice your life and limbs then read it again.
It all about your frame of reference.

**delores 74** · May 12th, 2009

Originally Posted by Patricia A

I am just saying... if you didn't get it. You need to do time in the service of your country, sacrifice your life and limbs then read it again.
It all about your frame of reference.

I most definitely "get it", it's just the lack of punctuation that makes it a little harder to read than the normal book. I'm getting the hang of it, but it is taking a bit longer to read as well.

**Turd Ferguson** · May 17th, 2009

Johnny Got His Gun was on of the very last books I read in high school- that and Alive. It was a very disturbing book from what I recall. Anyone considering a career in the military should read it before making up their mind.

**delores 74** · May 18th, 2009

I just finished it last night, and to say that it is disturbing is an understatement. I wanted to scream right along with him when he realized that no one was going to help him. I simply cannot fathom being in such a state. I would have gone absolutely crazy long before he did. I could just feel the frustration and anger building as I read, which was one of Mr. Trumbo's points, I presume. This book is a true chiller.

**Patricia A** · May 19th, 2009

Originally Posted by delores 74

I most definitely "get it", it's just the lack of punctuation that makes it a little harder to read than the normal book. I'm getting the hang of it, but it is taking a bit longer to read as well.

Please allow me to apologize for being so terse.
I hate to qualify an apology with a but... but, this book moved me on such a deep and personal level that I find it hard to be objective about it.