- Joined
- Sep 10, 2009
- Messages
- 11,062
- Reaction score
- 2,668
I compare most fiction in whatever medium to rollercoasters. The thrill of the rollercoaster is putting your body through something that makes it think it is in danger, that it might be about to die even, but in a completely safe way. With fiction we often want to be taken to those same places - not necessarily just violent ones, but also overly romantic or very silly or whatever - we want to push our imaginations to the extreme, see what it would be like to get to experience the things we simply don't in most of our lives.
That's not to say there isn't also fiction that holds up a mirror to nature, that does actually quite the opposite: puts a microscope over the mundane. But that tends to be more literary fiction. The more popular books I find tend have that escapist dangerous exciting elements.
ETA: Ack! Not saying Lit Fic can't be popular either, but I'm thinking of the Grishams and the EL Jameses and the JK Rowlings and the Stephen Kings.
This is exactly what I was going to say, only said better. I think it's a matter of facing scary, dangerous situations without having to actually be at risk. Scary, bad things happen, and I think stories with violence are a "safe" way to face these things and contemplate them.
I think it's also why we've seen such a huge upswing in post-apocalyptic stories. We're pretty much constantly being faced with the idea that our world and society could completely collapse in our lifetimes. Global warming is going to be catastrophic, we could have a major illness, Russia could invade the Ukraine and start WWIII and we could all die in a horrible vacuum bomb apocalypse.
These are terrifying things, but things we kind of need to think about. For me, I think it actually makes me feel better to see people surviving in situations like that--knowing that people can be strong and still make it.
As for why we ask here, exactly as said above, I personally don't feel comfortable looking up things like how to stab someone in Google. Now, I did call a relative who is a police detective once to ask what would happen if a body was found in a river, but I would have been uncomfortable asking that to someone I didn't know. My relative enjoyed answering it, but I'm sure we sounded insane to anyone else. Honestly, I'd generally rather avoid the speculation that I might want to know because I'm thinking of offing someone.
There are also some topics that could get someone in trouble just for asking. When I was trying to figure out how a character would blow up the Capitol building, I was trying to figure out if he would be able to get a bomb in it. I have no doubt that if I had called and said, "I'm wondering how someone would sneak in a bomb" I would have ended up on a watch list, and considering the whole you can be held indefinitely without charge as an enemy combatant thing, I'd rather not push my luck in that regard.