Writing - Why Violence?
Why are so many video games tied to sex and violence?
Browsing the local video game store, it seems like half the titles are struggling to outdo every other game on the yardstick of violence, pain and gore. Why are so many of them a battle? Games don't have to be violent. They can be based more on exploring and learning, rather than fighting. Or they may be based on building. That is what I liked best about the (decades old) game Doom, or The Sims, was the ability to build your own levels or houses. The game part of it was not as interesting to me as the exploration of the environment.
Now that I think about it, the book "Talking to Dragons," (Book four of the Enchanted Forest Chronicles) by Patricia C. Wrede, is so much like a video game. The whole plot is a journey through an ever-changing environment toward an unknown goal, overcoming obstacles that happen to be trying to kill you. Okay, we're back to the violence. But at least the main character is not endowed with any particular skill, and doesn't actually kill anyone or anything.
The standard formula for writing fiction seems to require a protagonist against a seemingly insurmountable (no pun intended) antagonist in a setting of epic strife.
I picked up one game for a haunted house simulator. You use the controller like a flashlight to explore the dark house. It gave me shivers just to imagine playing it.
What are the motivations for the characters in a story? The strong ones are fear and desire. Fear of: pain, hunger, death, emotional pain, betrayal, humiliation, cold, burning, bad surprises, hate, etc.. Or a Desire for good things: Air, Water, food, warmth, comfort, trust, closeness, love, sex, etc.. Or a Desire for bad things: sex,revenge, obsession, anger.
Some books are not based on physical conflict with an evil enemy. For example, "The Old Man and the Sea," by Hemingway, "A Friend at Midnight," or "Family Reunion" by Carolyn B. Cooney. These books are stories about a struggle against nature, or against your own family, or overcoming your own sense of embarrassment.
Popular books or movies often try to snare the reader's attention by starting with something incredibly violent or disastrous, and then going through a flashback to fill in the story. For example, the plot to the (extremely violent) movie"Kill Bill" starts with a punch to the face (and a fight to the death). I flinched. Then the movie has to go back four years to fill-in the viewer on why this is happening.
What is the book equivalent of "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood?" My wife suggested non-fiction, but I think it might be a young children's book like "Goodnight Moon," or maybe an inspirational, self-help book. Or, some parts of the Bible. (Other parts can be truly horrific when you think about them.)
How can you build trust in your readers? One way is to always give them what they expect. If they expect a thrilling yarn, then that's what you write for them. If they expect a laugh-out-loud experience, then that's what you write for them. Either way, an author does not build up expectations for a happy ending, and then pull the rug out from under the reader by delivering a tragedy. But how can a book give them a safe experience (without sex, violence or bloodshed) that actually grows them as people and creates a relationship (with the book) which changes them for the better?
As far as a story goes, the stress on the main character may be emotional, rather than physical. Every character or person has a set of core beliefs or rules that they live by. It defines who they think they are. If those core beliefs are challenged, they cannot abandon them without significantly changing their psyche. There are peripheral beliefs or practices which they are willing to change or abandon without losing their sense of self.
So, in a book, it may be the character's beliefs or practices which are challenged, rather than his physical safety. Although, I suppose the purpose of "Goodnight Moon," is to lull the hearer to sleep, rather than challenge a character to anything.
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