Violent thoughts.

A virus has floored me, physically and emotionally. I Feel Sorry For Myself. Without reason, which is always hardest to tolerate. Could the concentrated season of Hannibal Lecter films followed by ‘Collateral’  (Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx) on Saturday have anything to do with these sudden black tinted glasses? On the whole I think not. N and I watched ‘The Young Mr Lincoln’ (John Ford, Henry Fonda, 1939) on Sunday which made me all gulpy and sentimental. I do love it when Good conquers. They made black and white films in all senses in those days. It must have been one of the earliest courtroom dramas. 

N lent me Collateral with the warning it had violence in it. I lent him the Lecter trilogy and am waiting for a reaction. 

On-screen violence and violence in novels I find acceptable and even enjoyable in the right context. I’ve been trying to define the context that makes it acceptable for me. Car chases and numerous gunned-down bodies turn me right off - I’m just bored by it. The violence has to have some form and structure and be a part of the development of character and plot. The current ‘Luther’ killer who started off killing only evil-doers is a good example. He has degenerated into wholesale killing from a place of rage and the quest for revenge (which he calls justice).

On a strictly personal level the violence mustn’t engage my emotions too much, or be part of a true story. Hence my preference for vampires and the supernatural. It takes it out of the realms of the possible. 

All that said, I really can’t explain why I prefer crime novels above all else, and can happily watch a man eating his own brains whilst nothing will make me watch the Hurt Locker.