In Praise of Violence

Gerard Jones on why children really need to kill make-believe monsters.

BY John Podhoretz

October 7, 2002, Vol. 8, No. 04

Killing Monsters
Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence
by Gerard Jones
Basic, 261 pp., $25

THE OTHER DAY, Joe--my fiancee's five-year-old nephew--decided to let me in on something. "Can I tell you a secret?" he asked. "My grandma bought me a special present." He paused. "It's called a gun."

I knew full well his grandmother had bought him no such thing. Joe isn't allowed to play with guns. "She bought you a gun, did she?" I said.

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