Mass Shootings, AK-47’s and Pulp Fiction

It’s been a rocky few weeks:  a mass shooting, a child attacked and pulled to a watery death by an alligator—both in Orlando.  In between, there were the usual killings of note in which nameless, faceless people in foreign wars are blown to bits.  There was also the novelty of sports violence.  And of course, I can’t be sure but I would bet my bottom dollar that a bunch of refugees died somewhere in transit and somewhere someone mourned.

That’s kind of why I just decided to take a break from writing this blog—take a break from all that kind of crazy, which is so present with us; it reminds me of those bats in Goya’s dreams that cover our night world with their beating, flapping wings.  I kept wondering about one question that revolved around death:  why do we hate it in life but thirst for it in fiction?

The Spanish caption reads:"The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters."

The Spanish caption reads:”The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters.”

I don’t think it’s because we are necessarily bloodthirsty by nature.  If that were the case, I would just give up on being human altogether and embrace the ugliness of being a monster.  I would stalk the streets in search of victims—a long blade in my hand.  Why fight human nature?

One theory is that fiction allows us to crave murder and mayhem—the impulses of that childish monster locked up in our psyche—and in doing so, we actually defuse that monster.  Detective fiction, for instance, doesn’t necessarily feed our lusts but defuses them.  It is an outlet, not unlike the commotion of flapping bat wings that issue from the head of Goya’s sleeping man.

AK-47

But you see, this theory—the idea that fiction is just a displacement of our fears but doesn’t necessarily mean an actual death wish—this theory doesn’t entirely hold up.  The last big rampage shooter who held the record of most deaths caused by an AK-47 was at Georgia Tech.  He was taking Creative Writing classes with the acclaimed poet Nikki Giovanni—the woman whose famous poem about flying was so often recited by Oprah Winfrey.

Nikki Giovanni immediately saw in his stories of violence a propensity for very real violence.  She actually reported her suspicions to the Dean.  And the Dean said that there was nothing he could do.  It was, after all, fiction and fiction is simply not fact.

2 thoughts on “Mass Shootings, AK-47’s and Pulp Fiction

  1. Khanh, you’ve raised one of the most important – and troubling – questions there are about fiction and about human nature. Why is it that people read about (actually, crave, as you say) crime fiction when most of those very same people wouldn’t dream of committing a crime? To follow on, what is it about crime fiction that drives people to write it? There is surely a dark side of our nature, and I think it’s a real tribute to human empathy and thinking that we don’t give in to it more than we do. I don’t think that writing dark fiction is necessarily a ‘red flag’ that the author is likely to commit violent crime. I know too many people who do that sort of writing and are kind, loving, decent people, not obsessed with murder – well, you know what I mean. Perhaps it’s that we are fascinated and repelled at the same time by the darkness that humans can have in them. I know – clumsy answer. But that’s the best I can do for right now.

    • I’m in agreement, Margot. I don’t think that people who write “dark” fiction are latent criminals. I do empathize with someone like Nikki Giovanni–someone who has had a lifetime of reading as well as writing–that has achieved a very refined ear. One thing I realized after reading student fiction is that students tend to write autobiography. I had one student who wrote about having unprotected anonymous sex in the bathroom with men he encountered randomly. He was one of the few African American students on my campus and I just didn’t know what to do. I knew that this was a pretty clear account of his activities, but I knew it was supposed to be fiction and I would be breaching a line of etiquette by talking to him about it. But I also feared for his safety.

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