March 15, 2006

i am done with violence

Wow, this piece by Mark Morford, called I Am Done With Violence really struck a chord.

After seeing the parade of violence of the movie Ultraviolet (visually stunning though it may be), I’m left with the same feeling. I can’t help but feel that scenes of brutality appeal to some dark part of my soul, and suck away a bit of my humanity. Of course, violence is real - it is part of our experience - but I think there’s a difference between violence perceived directly, and perceiving violence from the spectator’s seat. This spectacle is addictive on several levels: it is a surrogate for a strong spiritual connection to our body and to the earth, it is escapism, it is a narcotic. I’d like to lower the amount of violent spectacle in my life - I don’t need it like I don’t need junk food.


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posted: 6:48 am

 

2 Responses to “i am done with violence”

  1. Ryan
    March 20th, 2006 | 10:45 pm

    Well, I am in the always untenable position of having not seen this particular movie, so my comments ought not to be construed as more than general on this point. But when I watch films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon , certain scenes in The Matrix trilogy, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 , Hero , or Kung Fu Hustle , my perception is to look beyond the apparent violence (which is never real) to see the beautiful ballet behind it. Often in these contemporary films I get the feeling that "the violence" is really just an excuse to enjoy a stylized mastery of gravity, time, mind and body, and that once you look beyond the obvious (a theme of many of these films, notably), there really is a wonderful dramatic art at work. What might then be more disconcerting is how in our popular culture, the only way we can relate to such beauty is through violence. Why this must be so is a complex and multifaceted question to answer, and a great deal more troubling to my soul than the "violence" itself.

  2. Keith
    March 21st, 2006 | 12:10 am

    Maybe perceiving beauty is always violent? An attack on the senses? :)

    Agreed that the action is just a delivery mechanism for beauty in many cases. I guess it just hurts sometimes, in a viceral way, having the same gut-clenching response over and over again. And because of the narcotic effect, movies have to be made ever more intense (or be violent in new ways), to continue to engage viewers’ sympathetic nervous systems…