Today is a day of frustration. I've just finished a crime novel written by a previously-unread author that I am not even going to post about because I thought it was just awful. It was just poorly written, it read like the author (who is also a screenwriter) was hoping it was going to become another big blockbuster tv series, and it was so out there as to be well beyond where I go when I suspend disbelief. I put the book down extremely frustrated wondering if this sort of stuff is on course to become the norm in this genre with authors trying to outdo each other with how gimmicky their serial killers can get, or with methods of killing that are just beyond outlandish. If the point of these violence-soaked novels is that society is getting more violent, well, hello, duh -- it's all over the news; I got that memo already and I certainly don't need to open a novel to discover that message. What ever happened to the idea of a decent, intelligent story, or one that tells its readers something about human nature in the process? Does anyone besides me even want that sort of thing any more? I don't know about anyone else, but the extreme violence in these books to me is just unnecessary, but seems to be getting worse, more on the edge -- and even more frightening -- more popular as time goes on.
I don't like violence in a book when it is overdone and there is no other redeeming value. And it does seem that it is a trend to have extreme violence or violence against children or women. I assume it is not just violence you object too, because I know you like the books by David Mark that are too violent for me. (I liked the first one, but not books 2 and 3.)
ReplyDeleteIt's really more the idea that the violence in these sorts of thrillers just escalates from book to book, getting more ridiculously outrageous. I'm not even going to name the book I just finished, but the things that the killer did to his victims were just so over the top, so graphic, and frankly, when an author spends a number of pages going into the mechanics of each violent act and then adds as the cherry on top the victim's pain into the mix, that's just over the top and unnecessary to the story itself. Highsmith, for example, who is one of my favorite authors, uses violence in her novels, but it's not the primary focus.
DeleteTorture scenes (of any length but especially extended scenes) are one thing I cannot take at all, even within a book which otherwise is very good. I have often pondered why I can accept violence in one book and not in another and have a hard time pinning it down.
Delete" I have often pondered why I can accept violence in one book and not in another and have a hard time pinning it down."
DeleteI totally understand what you're saying. I think it's all in how graphic the author feels he/she needs to be to reach an audience. Face it. Even cozy novels get violent, but again, the violence isn't the point.
I don't like unnecessary violence, Nancy, torture, mutilation, etc...in fact, I also dislike books that are poorly written and I have come across quite a few recently.
ReplyDeleteI guess
Deletea) there must be a market for it
b) some people are more interested in money than quality where writing is concerned and
c) I'm going to have to do better research when selecting a novel.
Have you read the Mysterious Matters blog? There are a few rants about current crime fiction trends you'd like, I think. http://mysteriousmatters.typepad.com/
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'll give it good read tomorrow, but I did love this:
ReplyDelete"I get depressed, too, because I feel like we, as an industry, aren't taking chances on great writers and books. So many books feel so safe, as if written by committee. Reading the flap copy in that indie bookstore, I felt like I was reading the same thing over and over again."
I think it's all about what sells -- which I get, but still. Does that mean that the general reading public won't buy anything these days unless it's filled to the brim with over-the-top violence, torture, and pain? Do you know how many books are on the market about deadly viruses in the wrong hands? Seriously - how much of that stuff can people really take? And does it mean that the general reading public doesn't care about quality?
Bravo.
ReplyDeleteThe obvious answer is, of course, don't read those books. But the problem is that it seems like this uber-violence has taken over the market, squeezing out writers who could feasibly offer more intelligent mystery/crime novels. So frankly, unless it's a writer I trust, I really don't even want to try the new stuff that's coming out.
DeleteI agree with everything you said in your post. But who is pushing the violence and gore and what many call "torture porn?" Is it publishers? I don't really think it's writers on their own.
ReplyDeleteAnd if this is what sells, who is buying this stuff?
The incisive, late Maxine Clarke, used to ponder if people who are reading books with "torture porn" and piling body counts, were sitting on the bus next to her.
That gives me chills.
I'd like to see statistics on who reads this stuff, who buys it, who likes it, etc. I'm tired of reading books where I have to skip those chapters in italics which reveal the mindset of the psychopath or where I have to skip paragraphs or sentences I unknowingly began to read.
I just read a pretty good book by a world famous (woman!) author where the descriptions of the torture and murder of women -- as well as the killer's thoughts about how much he enjoyed it -- were way beyond the pale. I had to skip a lot of the book.
Yet, The Hummingbird by a Finnish woman author was a good story with a complicated, immigrant woman detective which had intelligence and no gratuitous violence. It's one of the best mysteries I've read this year.
But I read the second book by a new, good British woman writer, and it's got more brutality than her first one.
Why is what I'd like to know.
I think it's all about the market. Just the other day someone asked if I'd like to read their new book, which they said was "violent and sadistic." As if the person was proud of the fact! I get reading for entertainment (give me Inspector Montalbano any day), but torture doesn't entertain me. And Maxine was correct -- you have to wonder exactly who is reading that stuff to be entertained. That scares me, as does the fact that it leaves less room for quality books to be introduced for people like you or myself who want something intelligent. And people wonder why I prefer vintage these days.
DeleteBut my question is why some readers want violence and sadism? What is wrong here? And who wants it? I don't know any women readers who like this.
ReplyDeleteRight after I posted this, a woman reader online who hadn't seen the post recommended a book which she said, and I quote, was "violent and sadistic." So while I don't personally know anyone, they're out there, women and men both. And women read Mo Hayder, who also does some pretty awful things in her novels.
DeleteI read The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder. While I think she was right in revealing the truth about Japan's 1937 invasion of and really genocide against the people of Nanking, the book was really brutal. I had to skip half of if, but her goals were good. But, yikes!
ReplyDeleteI can't read books by Karin Slaughter, Chelsea Cain or Tess Gerritson. One book by Gerritson about a woman doctor being tortured by a psychopath who had kidnapped and tortured her 20 years earlier, caused me to not take out my garbage for three nights -- and I live right next door to the compactor. So, no, I don't read these books.
So many intelligent mysteries are out there with little violence or enough to set the stage for an investigation, but not to be gratuitous.
A woman editor wrote an essay a few years ago saying that publishers told artists to design crime fiction covers with tortured or dead women on the cover -- even if the victims were men or children. So, it seems like misogyny sells!
That editor refused to edit any more books with women as victims of "torture porn."
It is quite a statement about the reading world today that this is accepted.
I know one woman who likes this kind of book; the rest of the women readers I know don't. Maybe someone will write a social analysis of this phenomenon and where it comes from. Sexism within the society? It's beyond me.
I get the violence etc re Nanjing. But her first series novel was overloaded with torture and violence and I haven't gone back to her since.
DeleteI'd like to see a socialogical analysis of this trend in crime fiction and the increasing gratuitous violence and body counts. Why this is happening, who is reading it and why.
ReplyDelete