A couple of comments, not prompted by any one post, but the
whole discussion:
Years ago, Rex Miller's Slob was highly recommended to me. I
never finished it (which is rare for me). The graphic
violence and torture against women did not seem intended to
repulse the reader, or even inform a despicable character.
Instead, it seemed intended to give the reader a vicarious,
pornographic thrill in the misogynistic violence. That's what
I found repulsive. I still can't believe Harlan Ellison
blurbed it during the same period of time he was writing
columns excoriating Brian DePalma for doing the same thing.
And it must have been popular, since the Chaingang character
was spun off into other works, including, appropriately
enough, comic books -- he was such an over-the-top comic book
creation anyway, a sick adolescent fantasy.
(Given how much the book repulsed me, I find it a bit
surprising that I don't remember any specific images from it,
for which I'm thankful.)
On the other hand, the tortures in Derek Raymond's I Was Dora
Suarez, among other of his works, is equally graphic.
However, there the reader is justly disgusted by the violent
acts. So context matters.
And it doesn't even have to be very explicit to shock.
Violence that surprises can have great effect. For instance,
the death of the Lt. in Naked and the Dead shocked me, and
has stayed with me.
As for Al's book, I find it interesting that, a third of the
way through it, Kiss Her Goodbye's violence is not that
explicit. This is not to say you don't know what's going on,
or that it doesn't hit you in the gut (among other places),
but that Al skilfully gives the reader just enough for the
reader to fill in the rest. For instance, in an earlier post,
I mentioned that, in the first few pages, Cooper knocks
someone's teeth out with a bat. Looking back, though, I
realized it was never stated. Cooper swung a bat into the
victim's face and there was a crunch. I supplied the teeth
image myself. It could have been a nose, cheek, etc, but
since I'm sensitive to dental violence, I filled in the gaps.
(For the record, I get the distinct impression that the
violence will become more graphic by the end of the
book.)
As I said before, our own sensibilities come into play. For
instance, I am still haunted by a relatively small scene in
Thompson's The Getaway, where Carol briefly gets stuck while
trying to sit up in a small cave. It initiated a small case
of recurring claustrophobia I hadn't previously known I
had.
So, anyone else got any scenes that haunt them?
Mark
ps -- how's this for lingering images? I still can't write or
say despicable without thinking of Daffy Duck's
pronunciation.
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