Welcome to the first edition of “On The Soapbox” for the new
year.
I was wondering what to write about, when I came across this story: Sister accidentally runs over, kills brother via the AP and Yahoo News.
You have to forgive me for the somewhat grim subject matter, though if anyone’s to blame–for me writing this piece, not the accident–I would be amiss if I did not mention Chuck Palahniuk (pronounced Paula-Nick) whom I have met, though based upon his writing I am not entirely sure that I would want to.
He’s the writer of numerous books, one of which is “Haunted,” which is quite possibly one of the most twisted books that I have ever read.
Which reminds me: I was visiting my parents over Christmas, and we were all downstairs watching television. Soon, after some channel surfing, the waters receded on a show where the highlight was someone hurting themselves in some fashion. It may be some skateboarding who manages to somehow hit themselves in the nuts, or a little kid, in an attempt to open a gift at Christmas, overcompensating and hitting the person next to them in the face.
I had to leave the room.
My stepfather asked me why, since I enjoyed horror films that showed things significantly worse than those I saw in that little space of time.
I said something to the effect that the movies I watched weren’t real, while that show dealt with real people being hurt.
Are such shows our version of the Roman colosseums? Perhaps, though what such shows do is make violence, real violence, commonplace. It makes just just a little bit more immune to it.
Anyway, I mention that incident over Christmas because what Chuck Palahniuk does is make the mundane, the everyday, just a little bit scary.
I am sure, as tragic an event as the death of that child was, that one can see how twisted and unnecessary it was.
And there are few things scarier than that.
I was wondering what to write about, when I came across this story: Sister accidentally runs over, kills brother via the AP and Yahoo News.
You have to forgive me for the somewhat grim subject matter, though if anyone’s to blame–for me writing this piece, not the accident–I would be amiss if I did not mention Chuck Palahniuk (pronounced Paula-Nick) whom I have met, though based upon his writing I am not entirely sure that I would want to.
He’s the writer of numerous books, one of which is “Haunted,” which is quite possibly one of the most twisted books that I have ever read.
Which reminds me: I was visiting my parents over Christmas, and we were all downstairs watching television. Soon, after some channel surfing, the waters receded on a show where the highlight was someone hurting themselves in some fashion. It may be some skateboarding who manages to somehow hit themselves in the nuts, or a little kid, in an attempt to open a gift at Christmas, overcompensating and hitting the person next to them in the face.
I had to leave the room.
My stepfather asked me why, since I enjoyed horror films that showed things significantly worse than those I saw in that little space of time.
I said something to the effect that the movies I watched weren’t real, while that show dealt with real people being hurt.
Are such shows our version of the Roman colosseums? Perhaps, though what such shows do is make violence, real violence, commonplace. It makes just just a little bit more immune to it.
Anyway, I mention that incident over Christmas because what Chuck Palahniuk does is make the mundane, the everyday, just a little bit scary.
I am sure, as tragic an event as the death of that child was, that one can see how twisted and unnecessary it was.
And there are few things scarier than that.