It’s scary the number of young writers who, though they may never publish, write extraordinarily gruesome stories and novels.  Pain, torture, and cruelty seem to be, not just acceptable, but celebrated.  Purposefully sadistic and, in some cases, masochistic, as well, the writing demonstrates, not just a disregard for decency, but a willful, even joyous delight, in the suffering of self and others.

Am I alone in considering this an extremely disturbing phenomena?  To me it seems, if they can write this sadism/masochism, not with condemnation, but with such a sense of acceptance, delivering this as if it were a just and normal, approved and even satisfying, state of being and living, that we have a very large proportion of very disturbed psychopathic and sociopathic individuals populating our nation.

Now, I’m sure that conservatives and fundamentalists, especially the sort who embrace Limbaugh and Palin, might point and cry out that this is the fault of the decline of family values, the decline of religious influence, and the influence of liberal perspectives.  However, many who are creating these startlingly gruesome treatises embrace both the neo-conservative perspective and Christian fundamentalism.  Not all, but certainly a provable great many.

Fiction carries its author’s overt or sublimated perspectives, views, philosophies, and ideologies.  If gruesome treatment of others and self is considered acceptable behavior, not condemned, but expected and delivered as normal, what does this say of our culture? I shudder to think what it means to our future.

Recently:

• Writing Pedagogues
• They Work Very Hard
• Treading the Dangers of Fiction
• Infighting About Grammar & Punctuation
• Scary Writers
• New Novel, Chapter Two
• To the Book Store
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• Raw Gore, Explicit Cruelty, Debased Sex in Novels
• Back from Summer Hiatus