![\"Semi-realistic](\"https:\/\/thecrimefactory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/The-Seduction-of-Violence-300x300.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I like violence. I like it in movies, on my TV and in books. I like MMA fighting. It gives me an adrenaline rush, increases my heart rate, has me holding my breath, my entire body tensing. I like Jason Statham, old marital arts movies with Bruce Lee, Steven Segal, Jackie Chan. I like watching women kick ass. My favourite move fight scene was the one in True Romance<\/i> where Patricia Arquette\u2019s character is getting the crap beat out of her by some thug played by James Gandolfini, and she\u2019s standing there with blood pouring down her face, barley conscious and she laughs at him and gives him the finger. It was a primal and bloody David and Goliath moment where she eventually takes him down with a corkscrew to the foot and then beats him to death. Fantastic!<\/p>\n
I like shows about serial killers. The Dexter<\/i> series is brilliant. I like Hannibal \u201cThe Cannibal\u201d. The scene in Red Dragon<\/i> where The Tooth Fairy sets his victim on fire and sends him hurdling down the street in a wheel chair was crazy. The Spartacus<\/i> series is another favourite TV series with all its sex, blood and extreme gore. The episode where the guy got his face sliced off and his brain slid out blew me away. I thought that was amazing.<\/p>\n
I like writing violent scenes in my stories, torturing my characters, and hopefully, my readers a little bit. At least evoking emotion from my readers\u2013anger, horror, dread, empathy, etc. I\u2019ve had people say strange things to me after reading one of my stories like how they wouldn\u2019t want to get on my bad side, somehow confusing me, the writer, with my character. Yet, I\u2019m not a violent person. I\u2019m peaceful. I would never intentionally hurt anyone, even if they\u2019d wronged me and would have deserved a good pounding. I\u2019d simply set them on fire in a story to purge any anger, and then I\u2019d meditate, working on forgiveness and understanding.<\/p>\n
Violence for me has very clear cut boundaries with well drawn lines of what I find appealing and what I find horrifying or traumatic in a bad way, as I think it does with most people. While I enjoy combat sports like MMA, it\u2019s more about watching two skilled and highly trained fighters battle for supremacy. Witnessing a fight on the street or in a bar for instance, I find upsetting.<\/p>\n
In stories and in movies, for me, violence needs to have a purpose. If it\u2019s just violence for its own sake, for the entertainment of it, then I find it a turn off. I didn\u2019t see Hostel<\/i> and I never watched any of the Saw<\/i> movies. Had no interest in seeing them. Torture as entertainment seems too much like a snuff film for me. Maybe the Saw<\/i> movies really aren\u2019t like that, I wouldn\u2019t know because I\u2019ve never seen them. It\u2019s just the impression I get from hearing about them. I didn\u2019t see The Passion Of The Christ<\/i>. No thanks. I don\u2019t need to watch him being tortured, chunks of his flesh ripped out with hooks. I watched the Ted Bundy movie and after I wished I could have unwatched it. The violence done to young innocent women was stomach turning for me. It left me with a feeling of disgust.<\/p>\n
A century ago, and as recent as 1962, we had public hangings in Canada. Families would travel hours to witness it, picnicking with their children. I couldn\u2019t image seeing something like that and not being disturbed by it, in a bad way. Violence involving animals sickens me. I could never watch a bull fight, or a dog fight, don\u2019t agree with the seal hunt, or killing whales for sport. I wouldn\u2019t go to a rodeo, even horse racing has me worried about the welfare of the animals. I won\u2019t eat veal.<\/p>\n
I suspect the reason we are so seduced by violence is because we like to be shocked and excited, gripping the edge of our seat, holding our breath, our heart pounding, waiting for what\u2019s coming next. That adrenaline rush can be addictive too. In fact there\u2019s actually a twelve step program for Adrenaline Addiction. Seeing violence might appeal to a very primal part of us somehow; humans it seems have always had a lust for blood, and violence has always been a part of the human experience. If you look at the history of humans, the days of the Romans with their gladiator games, feeding people to lions for sport, the Aztecs with their human sacrifices on the steps of their temples, the bloody Inquisition of the Catholic church. It\u2019s always been with us.<\/p>\n
I think we must like to see (in the movies) and read about things that we don\u2019t want to do ourselves or experience in our own lives, yet we want to know about them, learn from them. We like to see people triumph over adversity and we live vicariously through that experience, imagining what we might do in the same situation. And perhaps we need these stories, these violent depictions, to witness good triumphing over evil, to remind us which side we\u2019re on. Or to remind us which side we should be on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I like violence. I like it in movies, on my TV and in books. I like MMA fighting. It gives me an adrenaline rush, increases my heart rate, has me holding my breath, my entire body tensing. I like Jason Statham, old marital arts movies with Bruce Lee, Steven Segal, Jackie Chan. I like watching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal-takes","category-stories-hub"],"yoast_head":"\n