I think a lot of people get mad at Funny Games because they enjoy movies like Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween--they miss the point entirely. The trouble with violence in the media is not dream stalkers or embodiments of evil--it isn't even, say, two cute teenagers plotting the perfect murder (Murder by Numbers).

The trouble with violence in the media is the glorification of said violence, particularly within a sphere of realism, with heavy emphasis on torture. Although some elements of Nightmare and Halloween can be said to be torturous--Freddy plays with his victims frequently and Michael has no soul and doesn't particularly care for his victims' feelings either--the fantastical, totally unreal aspects of Freddy attacking in dreams and shape-shifting into monsters cancel out the more disturbing torturous aspects. No such discount exists in Saw, or in Hostel. And although Murder by Numbers can be said to be fully "realistic", whereby it contains no elements that would be impossible in reality to achieve, it does not glorify torture or the act of killing. One woman is killed through the movie, off screen. One man is killed through the movie, also off screen. No medals are handed out, no happy endings for the killers. No reward is given for the act - in fact, punishment is happily, almost mechanically doled out to characters who otherwise seem to have a lot of heart and development.

Movies like Saw and Hostel have realistic torture methods that occur frequently; they are, in fact, the heart and soul of the movies. There is no fourth-wall breaking to snap the audience into remembering they're only watching something unreal, unlike when Paul addresses them to ask if they're rooting for the family. And movies like Saw and Hostel glorify the act of torture by making the victims deserve their fate. They're "crack addicts". They're "pushers". They're "hookers". They're "pedophiles". They're "rapists". They're "murderers". They're even, what I thought was most insulting of all, "cutters" (As if that's ever on par with killing or raping someone).

They're not people; they're meat packets shoved into devices that tear them up, that burn them, that shred them to pieces, inexorably, while they're watched and laughed at. In the original Saw, Jigsaw not only got scot-free away after his mayhem, but was given a perfect excuse! Oh, he was dying of cancer! Obviously he wanted others to relish their lives! So instead of, say, volunteering at a hospice for children, he decides to torture hookers.

And people go to these movies and enjoy them.

And I won't deny it, when I was younger I read and watched these sorts of things--particularly comic books--in which people were bloodied and murdered, and transplanted my own desires onto them. I had a difficult growing up in some aspects, and it was fuel for my fire of narcissistic superiority. I was smarter than children who seemed vicious and cruel to me--I appreciated comic book characters who took vengeance on the wicked and depraved. Even Dante is said to have written Inferno and placed some of his loathed peers in various circles of Hell. But it doesn't compare to the sick sadism of Saw.

Rather than providing an excuse for what's been dubbed "torture porn," to release it from the shackles of "horror" films, the power of these movies should be carefully examined. I'm not saying these things make people more violent or directly inspire violence after watching, the way slimfast makes you lose weight after drinking it to replace a meal. That's not what I'm driving at, at all, with this. These movies don't inspire people at home to rig traps and rip up their neighbors. They're more insidious than that - more dangerous, more slow-acting, harder to see.

These movies make the enjoyment of violence socially acceptable.

Spreading the word.

Livejournal's recent censorship of interests, including 'depression', 'sex', 'fanfiction' and 'bisexuality'

Please take a quick look, and if you like, add ljcensor2008 to your friend list - you don't even have to post, all you have to do is join, and your number proves that you too are dissatisfied with thought-suppression, interest suppression, rampant homophobia and hatred towards mental illness.

If you feel it doesn't apply to you, feel free to move on, and don't bother looking. That's what I thought during the Harry Potter fiasco.

But I know a lot of people on my f-list read and write fanfiction. Some are depressed. And no one should have to suffer this kind of bullshit. Not from a nameless, faceless, scrupleless corporation.

Icon. Very. Fucking. Related.

Friend cut!

If you're off, it's likely either because a number of small annoyances built up almost to the anger that one gigantic and thoughtless insult on your part would have otherwise led to (because I do that, y'know, but if I call you out you'll more than likely have already caught on that I am dead annoyed), or because I feel we've nothing in common, don't talk, don't catch up, etc., etc., etc.

Nothing personal, cats and chicklets, nothing lost nor gained. I almost feel invasive, reading the private lives of people who never comment to my journal or who never engage in comment discussions in theirs. O.o It's weird, but whaddya gonna do.