Graphic nature of writing
Graphic Nature of Writing
Not all entertainment is designed to make us feel good. I've found innumerable movies that end the moment the perceived protagonist is killed and then fade to black. Some books have ambiguous endings that leave us not knowing exactly what happened, similar to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian. Poems that are nothing but dread being sent home from wars that seem hopeless and nothing but bloodshed on behalf of the elite.
Entertainment through art is always up for interpretation. I find entertainment in art forms that force me to think about things that I would normally run away from and to consider things that I would usually have never considered. To be entertained is not specifically to laugh, be excited, or be thrilled with the protagonist's victory. Whole genres are dedicated to the opposite, whether it's tragedy or Shakespeare's tragic comedy.
In my writing, regardless of what book or series you start in, you'll find some rather uncomfortable circumstances and explanations—precisely the grim reality of violence. I've been told that I should let readers use their imaginations because their imaginations are often worse than the descriptions. I wholeheartedly disagree with that concept. I want to peel the readers' eyes back, hold them open, nd force them to watch as I describe the most terrifying scenes of death, pain, and atrocities. I want to force the sounds of war, slaughter, and assault into their minds while imagining the smells, looks of terror on the faces of those experiencing and witnessing it. I want the reader to see that the one partaking in the violence is often excited about doing so.
From the beginning of Around the World, Heaven to Hell, my first novel, you will find that the descriptions of death and gore are specific and leave very little room for personal interpretation. That is my goal for every scene. If the protagonist hears of the slaughter through a radio or speaker, I want the exact sounds to be explained. I detest glorifying violence. The idea that the 'good guy' can pull out a gun with almost infinite ammo and shoot a 'bad guy' in the chest and have him die immediately is a foul lie. Whether someone is seen as good or bad, death, more often than not, when at the hands of violence, does not come quickly.
Hearing stories from those who have been at war, seeing the thousand-yard stare in their eyes as they describe what it's like to use a flamethrower on someone. What it's like to see a man step on a anti-personal land mine. What it's like to shoot someone in the lung and hear the wheezing and terror in their eyes. I could go on and on, but the point is, death is not clean, it's not easy, and it's not something to glorify.
If you have ever heard someone who enjoys violence describe the gore and foul reality of it, you would know its terrifying reality. Whether it's in an unedited documentary, a personal recount, or anything similar, you will hear details that you were not prepared for. Someone simply saying something about having their limbs cut off or tongue ripped out sounds terrible. But what if every emotion, every sound, every smell, every sight were to be described in agonizing detail? I believe those who enjoy murder documentaries would be disgusted and no longer feel like cuddling up with their favorite blanket while scrolling through their phones with such a thing in the background. Or to listen to some murder podcast where the deaths are recounted or saying, "Oh my gosh, could you imagine having this happen to you?" I can. The reality is that I can also describe it. So, I'll describe it in a way that prevents you from looking away.
It's an injustice to feel any amount of glory in violence. Those who experience it and come back from it are never the same. Even if they don't have what we consider PTSD, the change still occurs. From my personal experience, I have someone close to me who went to war and killed enemy combatants. When he came home, I was much younger than I am now and significantly more immature. I excitedly asked whether he had killed anyone, and I wanted to know about it. He responded with, "I have. Do you think that's cool?" My honest answer was "yes." It's a disgusting answer and a desensitized answer from someone who had never experienced such things. I was also, at the time, drinking heavily and smoking on an hourly basis. My emotions and senses were being dulled, and I was doing so for my own reasons, which include hearing some of the most detailed and horrific acts of violence done by an individual—a first-hand recount of a terrifying evening.
Now, I write what I write to make myself squirm; I want to feel a deep discomfort when I look back at my words. When I write a torture scene, I don't want it to be easy; I don't want it to be simple. I want the emotion, the regret, every blood drop, every gurgle, every fearlaced moment to be explained in detail. I want those who are okay with it to be revealed as sociopaths or psychopaths. The only other person who can read or hear about it without reaction or with a positive reaction is someone who has never seen it, been told about it firsthand in detail, or never done it to someone.
From the first book of my five-part series to the last, I describe as much of the violence as the protagonist sees in as much detail as he can. It is his firsthand account, and he has lived a life of violence. However, the violence he experiences is different from what we can experience due to the power he has, which is revealed throughout my books. The Dark Fantasy aspect of my writing is that in the protagonist's fictional powers, he can experience more pain than anyone alive, and he can inflict pain on others in ways that none have. He is the weapon and can cause more damage than anyone else. The Science Fiction aspect is that the technology that exists is far beyond our own and often not truly capable of existing but serves the purpose to separate certain aspects of his world from ours—often giving us a way of sanitizing our thoughts when first hearing of the inventions only to lead to a horrifying reality that all inventions can lead to despair and violence.
The ideals that I am presenting, the concept of not allowing readers to imagine a less horrifying death or a less vivid scene of torture or abuse, is that the man who inevitably changes the world sees it all. He sees it in ways that many of us will never have to. He sees the horrendous assaults on those who have no power, the gruesome reality of being torn apart, and the terrifying sights of those sold as human commodities.
If this makes you feel uncomfortable or you feel that you would be alienated due to the experience, good. I desire no comfort to be given; I desire moments of reprieve to be false and to give nothing but despair. There is nothing good about violence; there is nothing glorious about large-scale battles where heroes rush in, punch, and kick their way through scores of enemies. Each enemy, each circumstance of violence is the end of someone's life, a human being, and the dearth that they face is just as gruesome and terrifying as our own.
The world surrounding the protagonist of the five-book series, the man named Nuda, is a world of darkness that has a thin film of glistening lies that allow him to feel happy. I created a world that I see outside of my window every morning. A world where good things only exist after thousands of years of bloodshed. A world where learning freely came at the cost of fighting tooth and nail to be given the opportunity to exist. A world that I see as our own with an added nature of futuristic technology and a Dark Fantasy that sends it just over the edge of our own.
