{"id":14194,"date":"2026-05-01T11:07:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T18:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/?p=14194"},"modified":"2026-05-19T11:09:53","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:09:53","slug":"gates-of-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2026\/05\/01\/gates-of-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Gates of Fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.realcleardefense.com\/articles\/2026\/05\/01\/art_and_war_with_a_master_storyteller_1179885.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">from RealClear Defense<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Art and War with a Master Storyteller<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p>By\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.realcleardefense.com\/authors\/john_j_waters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John J. Waters<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&#039;Gates of Fire&#039;: Steven Pressfield&#039;s study on fear &amp; virtue\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/K0H9nUvkdcg?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A novelist writes to move someone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He begins by probing his own feelings\u2014the things he loves and the things he hates. The things that pique his interest and pierce his heart; the things he fears but will never admit. He distills these insights into a story about life, and through his words seeks to induce a feeling in the reader, to make the reader love or hate or identify with people who do not exist. The novelist entertains, delights, grieves, and consoles us. Ultimately, the great novelists cause us to reflect on our own lives and, on occasion, to change them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By this measure, Steven Pressfield is a great novelist. Pressfield is the author of more than 10 nonfiction books, several Hollywood films, and, with the publication of\u00a0<strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Arcadian-Novel-Steven-Pressfield\/dp\/1324124253\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Arcadian<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0this month, 12 novels. From his pen has flowed millions of dollars in sales of books and movie tickets. But it was one book \u2013\u00a0<strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Gates-Fire-Novel-Battle-Thermopylae\/dp\/055338368X\/ref=pd_lpo_d_sccl_2\/133-6046417-4491516?pd_rd_w=pOvRO&amp;content-id=amzn1.sym.4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&amp;pf_rd_p=4c8c52db-06f8-4e42-8e56-912796f2ea6c&amp;pf_rd_r=CNBR3NA1Z5EGTVVSGA7T&amp;pd_rd_wg=FCgBU&amp;pd_rd_r=8b08aaf5-5345-468e-a9be-40aea2b49acc&amp;pd_rd_i=055338368X&amp;psc=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gates of Fire<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0(1998) \u2013 that cemented his legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realcleardefense.com\/articles\/2026\/05\/01\/art_and_war_with_a_master_storyteller_1179885.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">click to continue reading at RealClear Defense<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from RealClear Defense Art and War with a Master Storyteller By\u00a0John J. Waters A novelist writes to move someone. He begins by probing his own feelings\u2014the things he loves and the things he hates. The things that pique his interest and pierce his heart; the things he fears but will never admit. He distills these [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14195,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14194\/revisions\/14195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}