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A new book is out offering us an exegetical look at modern horror movies that go back to the 1960s. I am not uninterested, but such a book goes low, low down on my virtual stack of 'wanna reads'. The book reviewer has some qualms about the work, and I want to keep this point:
What a vulgar thought it is, right, to speak of remorselessly and repeatedly stabbing a sexy young woman unto a horribly violent death, 'fucking' her life out with a knife. Yet, as he says, how obvious! That this should be entertaining may be unfortunate but it's hardly a mystery. At least it is better to exorcise this male ferocity through movies and art.
I know I get a lot of therapeutic value out of working my virtual knife into the short-skirted babes in Grand Theft Auto 4. And I think our understanding of ourselves is enhanced when we accept this shadow underside rather than assuming we are essentially angelic beings except for a few monsters among us. The wiser heads have always known that there is a bit of a monster in just about all of us, albeit more in some of us than in others.
(Source: Ty Burr reviewing Jason Zinoman's "Shock Value" for The New York Times)
Elsewhere the book poses questions it neglects to answer. The author quotes the director Brian De Palma — “There is just something about a woman and a knife” — and then wonders, “But what is that something?” without once considering the most obvious, phallic interpretation.Aside from being obviously amusing, I think this hits on a more general problem when it comes to discussing books and movies and even social problems. Although life on the streets is as raw as it ever was, when we deal with issues on a formal, public level, we seem to have such a strong filter for only the most politically correct perspectives, a problem which I think the reviewer raises nicely here.
You can’t deliver the final word on horror movies if you’re afraid to look.
What a vulgar thought it is, right, to speak of remorselessly and repeatedly stabbing a sexy young woman unto a horribly violent death, 'fucking' her life out with a knife. Yet, as he says, how obvious! That this should be entertaining may be unfortunate but it's hardly a mystery. At least it is better to exorcise this male ferocity through movies and art.
I know I get a lot of therapeutic value out of working my virtual knife into the short-skirted babes in Grand Theft Auto 4. And I think our understanding of ourselves is enhanced when we accept this shadow underside rather than assuming we are essentially angelic beings except for a few monsters among us. The wiser heads have always known that there is a bit of a monster in just about all of us, albeit more in some of us than in others.
(Source: Ty Burr reviewing Jason Zinoman's "Shock Value" for The New York Times)
