At 12:19 AM 20/03/2005 +0000, you wrote:
>Never fear. This is my last post on this topic,
although if you'd like to
>continue the discussion off-list, I'd be more than
happy. I'm afraid I'm
>boring everybody else now.
I don't think the topic becomes tiring, Al, so much as the
gratuitous use of the word "gratuitous" to end discussion
before it begins, which was, I believe, your original
objection.
And may I suggest that depictions of violence should be
disturbing to readers.
I don't think it's overuse or familiarity that inures readers
to violence. It is, I think, more the depiction of violence
without consequence. Fights seem to suggest a few days,
hours, moments of recovery and tough guys are back at it.
Nobody suffers concussion. Nobody suffers permanent brain
damage. Nobody gets arthritis in their hands from throwing
punches, unless maybe they're an aging boxer. Nobody ever
develops a permanent limp. Can't ever recall reading the
hollow thunk I heard when a man was kicked in the head at an
actual bar fight, though I confess I may be reading the wrong
books. Never heard that sound in a movie either.
People who are shot in movies or books either die (they're
known as expendable characters) or spend a few days in
recovery. They never spend the rest of their lives in
wheelchairs, shitting into plastic bags (Did everyone see the
work shitting or should I have written "shitting into fucking
plastic bags"?)
People who have their teeth extracted without benefit of
anaesthesia stay with us, perhaps because readers are
sufficiently shocked to imagine the scene and the
consequences for ourselves. That's a good thing in my books.
I don't see why readers should feel comfortable with casual
violence in books any more than they are in life. Could
depictions of casual violence without consequence, the type
of thing that does not upset delicate readers, be inaccurate,
lacking in vivid detail and plain old bad writing?
Best, Kerry
------------------------------------------------------
Literary events Calendar (South Ont.) http://www.lit-electric.com
The evil men do lives after them http://www.murderoutthere.com
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