Wouldn't you know it, I turn my back for a minute, and
somebody posts something interesting. Kevin Burton Smith's
recent comments on Neo-Noir, seem to have sparked some
interesting comments, and I'll throw in my two cents.
It's all about context. In movies there has been an upsurge
in the popularity of "Torture Porn," over the last few years.
Movies like Hostel and Saw have shown people suffering at the
hands of sadists to provide the audience with vicarious
thrills and little else. I was worried, quite frankly that
Allan Guthrie's latest novel was going to end up being the
same sort of thing. While the violence in Hard Man was, I
think, way over the top, the book didn't end up being a print
version of Hostel. Guthrie's crazy character, Wallace, had a
motive for what he was doing beyond mere sadism, although his
actions were sadistic. (I think Wallace's motivations could
have been explained a little better, but that's beside the
point.)
Charlie Huston's Been Caught Stealing has also been
mentioned. It does have a pretty ugly scene near the
beginning, but the actions are entirely in character for the
bad guys, and the scene also helps to show how Hank Thompson
ends up on the road to becoming the sort of person he turns
into. So, the violence has a purpose. It moves the story
along, and has consequences. It doesn't then fall to the
level of torture porn.
The problem often isn't violence, it's the
lack of story or engaging (though not necessarily likeable)
characters that make violence seem unseemly, at least to
me.
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