Ben Fountain is the author of Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (2012). Today we will be reading a speech he gave about his novel to an audience of students at the U. S. Air Force Academy. This reading should give you a preview of many of the novel's themes and after we read the novel will be the basis of our first in-class exam. Read the text carefully. Some of you will have this text in your edition of Billy Lynn. Others of you will not. The PDF on the speech can be found on our website.
Reading:
Ben Fountain, "Soldiers on the Fault Line: War, Rhetoric, and Reality" (PDF on the website)
Study Questions:
1. What is the Fantasy Industrial Complex (FIC) and what does it do? What is its relationship to the military?
2. How can we cut through the FIC numbing sensation according to Fountain?
