As a Taoist, as a Buddhist, I detest violence. I do my best to diffuse it, to rub in into something else. Sometimes humor, sometimes arguments, but it is something that must be avoided. People in the Deep South find it weird I don't have a gun. For me, that's just asking for trouble.
Please note, I did say conflict was alright. Just not...violence. Not the bodily harm.
So, wait, why do I love martials arts movies? I suppose I could get all Freudian on my own butt and talk about the need to be primal, to have some sort of expression of the basal emotions on a level that would not be appropriate in polite society. Yes, that might be true, and I might even agree to it.
May I point out, however, that, even Gandhi agreed with war-when all other options have failed.
My theater arts teacher, during one scene I had of conflict in a play I was directing, said something very profound to me. She said, "humans seek the positive. They don't want to smack each other unless they're not themselves. Always seek the positive in every scene."
Given that and the Mahatma's comment, sometimes, stories resolve themselves into violence. Sometimes violence is the option. Sometimes the violence is the substitution for something else and the physcial manifestation of it. Violence is alright in fiction, if all other options have failed.
I'm currently working on a novel and they are being attacked by the Undead. Well? There you have it. YOu can't talk them down off of their Undead-ed-ness. But that's okay. Could a story like Silence of the Lambs be told without the violence. Nope. Even that, at the beginning, good old Hannibal is just talking. He's talking about being violent with Clarice, but he is not being violent...not yet.
I'm not talking about torture porn. That's just bad. Screw Saw.
I'm talking about Fight Club. But let's look at the recent Avengers: Age of Ultron. I felt that could have been toned down, but, it was a bit excessive. Jurassic World? It talks about science, but degrades itself into horror. Star Trek was one of the few where they tended to find alternatives to fighting and violence (however, I think there's a message there, too....that there is always physical conflict and war, no matter the time).
So? When you create, always ask, should there be violence?
Sidenote: I don't think it's an issue of masculinity, either. Watch movies like Aliens and Kill Bill.
Woman are woefully underrepresentated in cinema and that pisses me off. And, yes, they can commit violence.
Take a moment and try to understand violence. Does it serve the narrative? People often wonder, since Christianity states "Thou Shall Not Kill," (yet they frequently support wars, go figure...); what about Buddhism, which doesn't actually state anything like that. With us, it's an issue of intent. Violence is not appropriate, depending on the intent of the fight. You stomp a bug? When there's no reason to-that violence. You kill them man strangling your wife? Defense. Think about it.
Stuff to think about. And stop hurting each other.
But watch the ass kicking above.
Peace,
Roo
1 comment:
Martial arts movies don't really count as violence. They are much more of a dance than violence. Watching a martial arts movie vs. a martial arts competition makes that more than evident.
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