thumb|War Porn (2016), dust jacket cover
War Porn is a anti-war novel by Roy Scranton completed in 2011 and published in 2016 by Soho Press.
The novel presents structurally integrated stories told through both third- and first-person narratives presenting contrasting and complex perspectives on the Iraq war.
Scranton served with the US Army from 2002 to 2006, and was deployed as a Specialist with the 1st Armored Division to Baghdad in 2003 and 2004. The term "war porn" refers to graphic images of violence collected in war zones, often "viewed voyeuristically for emotional gratification."
Structure
War Porn is set just prior to and during the early years of the Iraq War (2003-2011) The novel presents three main storylines, divided into five sections resembling the configuration similar to "Russian nesting dolls": "A-B-C-B-A." The intertwining narratives revolve around the US invasion and occupation of Iraq in the early years of the war and its impact on a number of American and Iraqi soldiers and civilians.
"Strange Hells" comprises the "A" narrative (sections 1 and 5, both set in a Utah suburb). The author employs a limited omniscient third-person point-of-view. The focal characters include Aaron "Sto" Stojanoski, a recently discharged corporal in the National Guard whose Military Police unit was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and stationed at Camp Crawford and the Abu Ghraib detention center. Dahlia, identified only by her first name.,is a disaffected suburban housemate and a key protagonist in this homefront narrative.
"Your Leader Will Control Your Fire" comprises the "B" narrative (sections 2 and 4, set in Baghdad in 2003 and 2004). The story is presented from a first-person confessional point-of-view. The protagonist is Army Specialist Wilson. Identified only by his rank and last name, he serves as a Humvee driver in combat zones in Baghdad. The "B" narrative dealing with Wilson is fragmented into vignette-like chapters, each two or three pages in length. The chapters are introduced with an epigraph which quotes from the U.S. Army Ethics and Combat Skills Handbook and the M16 Weapon Manual.
The "B" narrative is the only story that incorporates flashbacks: these are signaled by their presentation in italics. All the events described in Wilson's flashbacks are set in the United States.
"The Fall" is the single "C" section occurring sequentially at the mid-point of the other narratives. The author employs an omniscient third-person point-of-view. The central character is Qasim al-Zabadi, an Iraqi university mathematics professor living with his extended family in Baghdad and Baquba during the war; he later serves as an interpreter for US occupation forces.
The Babylon "prose-poems" Each of the five sections in the novel are preceded by a unique "prose-poem", all uniformly entitled "Babylon". These stream of consciousness-like passages are amalgamations of the "fables, lies, half-truths, myths, delusions, and anxieties that underwrote the Iraq War" and include references to operations conducted by US military intelligence during the war.
Plot Summaries
Strange Hells (Columbus Day, 2004): “A” narrative (Section 1)
The novel opens at the suburban home of Dahlia and Matt, both Gen-Xers. A monogamous heterosexual couple, they have been co-habitating in the US state of Utah since 2002. Their relationship is quietly deteriorating. Dahlia is discontented with the domestic role she has drifted into with Matt, but seems resigned to it. A former all-state soccer champion in college with a Master’s degree in Anthropology, she works part-time in a bagel shop.
Matt is employed part-time as a freelance computer programmer. An introvert, he suffers from low self-esteem, and unlike Dahlia, he is no longer physically fit. He attempts to conceal his mild yet chronic dependence on marijuana and alcohol.
The couple has invited a few local friends to their holiday barbecue. Like themselves, they are self-absorbed, politically liberal twenty-somethings, with New Age affinities. Preoccupied with their own personal and professional uncertainties, they are ignorant of the realities related to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the experiences of US and allied troops. Dahlia laments to herself that “wars drag on.”