For the squeamish

The Philadelphia Inquirer's David Hiltbrand (a mystery novelist in his own right) wonders if society isn't getting desensitized to gratutious violence and if there's anything to do to change this:

You may believe that you've already gotten a bellyful of Hollywood violence, from Psycho to Pulp Fiction. But many pop culture experts agree that the lavish intensity of today's carnage makes previous eras look dainty.

"In the last few years, there's been a steady increase in the amplitude," said Stephen Prince, a professor of communication studies at Virginia Tech and the president of the international Society for Cinema and Media Studies. "Characters were beheaded in D.W. Griffith's Intolerance in 1916, but it was shown quickly and in long shot.

"Today you might see it in slow motion, with close-ups from multiple camera setups. It'll have an aggressive sound component to make it texturized and sensual. You'll hear the arterial blood splatter. The whole treatment is much more detailed and loving."

Novels are going down the same visceral path.

"I have noticed an increase in gratuitous violence, a desensitizing of violence," wrote Oline Cogdill, the longtime mysteries columnist for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, in an e-mail. "... Some writers feel because films and television have gone so far, that they need to do that to attract an audience."

"In the old days of the thriller/mystery, murder was the ultimate crime but it was usually just murder," concurred Margaret Cannon, a critic for the Toronto Globe and Mail, by e-mail. "Now we have... sexual crimes, torture, really nasty stuff, along with the murder."

The ratcheting up of violence is most evident in this season's network TV series.

"With competition from cable, I think networks have had to go further in graphic representations of violence," said Cynthia Felando, a film-studies lecturer at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "I've had squeamish reactions watching CSI."

Granted, I don't watch nearly as much television as many, but I do think the tolerance for extreme violence and bloodshed has gone up. But books? I'm not so sure. Maybe because (metaphorically, of course) I put a paper bag over my head and run around shouting "THE SERIAL KILLER THRILLER IS SO OVER!" and am just waiting for everyone to catch up with my thinking.

All seriousness, though, if it works in the context of the story, any level of violence should stay. If it doesn't, no sense in killing off a character in gruesome fashion just for kicks.

Comments

[Cornelia Read]

Yeah, I went off Thomas Harris when he sliced the guy's brain up for Clarice's dinner. On the other hand, wasn't there a stage direction in TROILUS AND CRESSIDA that went "enter with bloody stumps" or something?

Plus, I've got a serial killer in my thing. Maybe by the time it's actually published, the trend will be so over it will come off as charmingly retro. Or an homage...

[Elaine]

You want gratuitous? Mo Hayder's first book (can't even remember the title now)put me off the rest of her work. The grisly method her murderer loved to emply immeditely struck me as a quick gimmick to attract attention to a first novel.

I'll go along with Oline-a good story is a good story and being over the top in the gore department shouldn't be necessary. I'm probably alone on the fence with Hayder, but that's my two cents.

[Ingrid (I.J.Parker)]

I expect that I agree theoretically with the charges in the article, but Val McDermid's MERMAIDS SINGING was such a good book and so carefully constructed and so very well written that it made me reconsider all the generalizations about excessive violence. There was probably more shocking and explicit violence in that volume than in any of the bestselling books, but all of it was justified by what the novel was meant to portray.
I do use violence and gore on occasion because murder is often violent and bloody. But I have also had a few "clean and gentle" killings that wouldn't upset the most sensitive of mystery fans. And never of a cat. :)

[Elaine]

So true, Ingrid! MERMAIDS SINGING was raw, but somehow I wasn't grossed out by the graphic scenes in that book. As Sarah compliments Domenic re Manifesto for the Dead (pulling it off)-I'd have to say that Val is such an exceptional writer that she 'pulled it off' as well.

[Stuart MacBride]

Might the rise in graphic violence in novels not have something to do with the fact that as a society we’re a lot more visual than we used to be?

[Allan Guthrie]

It's easy to say books are more violent these days. But is it true? Maybe it's just me, but I think that one of the biggest selling authors of yesteryear, Micky Spillane, was pretty violent. And if it's graphic violence you're after, try the climactic scene of John D MacDonald's SLAM THE BIG DOOR. As for Margaret Cannon's comment about sex crimes and torture... well, what about sleeping with your retarded sister (Day Keene's WHO HAS WILMA LATHROP?) Or necrophilia (Latimer's SOLOMON'S VINEYARD)? Torture? James Ross's THEY DON'T DANCE MUCH, Wade Miller's GUILTY BYSTANDER.

But for graphic violence, sex crimes and torture, the Jacobean dramatists are pretty damn hard to beat. Mind you, Shakespeare managed it with TITUS ANDRONICUS.

[Elaine]

Allan's references illustrate the point - Why the hell do we need all this? What's wrong with just a damn good story?

[Victor Gischler]

"Why the hell do we need all this? What's wrong with just a damn good story?"

Elaine,

I don't think "need" has anything to do with it. Some people just like it that way. I like my fiction very gritty. I enjoy a good flinch. Some people read horror because they *want* to be shocked or disturbed or whatever. When I put graphic violence into my own work, it's not because my publisher or editor has asked for it or because I think I need to do it to sell X number of books. I do it because it pleases me to do so. At signings or conventions when readers ask me about my work, I'm very up-front with what kind of book it is because I don't want the reader to buy it if it obviously isn't his/her cup of tea. Why so much graphic violence? Because there are readers and authors who like it.

Victor