Reality brutality

I have to confess that I laughed out loud when I read Craig 
Douglas’s description of his visit to the Bannockburn event 
(Letters, 2 July).
By The Newsroom
Published 3rd Jul 2014, 01:00 BST

I’m sorry he had such a miserable time, but the thought of the mighty Robert the Bruce’s exasperated curses concerning his lost car keys resounding around the arena had me in stitches. It’s such a glorious (if inadvertent) reminder of the ultimate banality of war.

It also raises the question: why is it considered acceptable to take children to see “a brutally realistic re-enactment” of a gruesome 14th-century battle, but considered an affront to their sensibilities to have them inadvertently exposed to a few expletives?

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To those on the winning side, distance may lend enchantment to the most horrific events, but it is sobering to think that future generations of children may be taken to see brutally realistic re-enactments of some of the bloodiest battles of the two World Wars.

Suffering and loss reduced to a form of family entertainment.

Carolyn Taylor

Wellbank

Dundee