Last night my husband and I watched an episode of Battlebox (big brother to the UK’s Robot Wars) where small robots try to annihilate each other, followed by one of the Terminator films which feature a future world where Earth’s surviving population attempt to defeat invading humanoid machines intent on taking over the planet.
‘If anyone analysed what we’ve been watching all evening, I wonder what that says about us,’ I said as the credits rolled.
He laughed and explained that the television does just that, though presumably for marketing purposes to feed us with more of the same, just as our search engines do when we log on to the internet.
As a crime writer, admittedly of gentle cozy mysteries rather than the blood, gore and violence variety, I frequently use the internet to research poisons, firearms and their effectiveness, symptoms and availability, plus a variety of other killing methods.
I also read more crime fiction than any other genre, though they tend to be at the softer end of the scale. I do read the occasional noir novel where action is brutal and bad language and sex prolific.
How does the picture of that individual with an apparent love of violence and death, match up with the kind of person that I try to be? I like to think not at all. One of the big advantages of being a crime writer, as many other writers will also tell you, is that I can take out my frustrations with people who upset me on the written page not in personal confrontation. I’ve been a committed Christian all my life and my faith is very important to me. That’s not taking a holier than thou attitude; my religious conviction is my rock of stability in a frightening world.
Every day, there are news reports on the conflicts in the Middle East and Europe that show no sign of ending soon, despite all the attempts at peace talks. Even in our own countries, we see societies being ripped apart by religious, racial, colour and sex discrimination and even violent clashes between opposing groups.
Whether we admit it or not, we are all naturally prejudiced, we are drawn to some people and not to others. It’s what we do about that natural instinct that matters – that it what makes us who we are.
One of the reasons I believe crime fiction is so popular is because of the reassurance it can offer. However bad things get along the way, at the end of the story, justice will have been done. Evil will be punished and an intolerable situation will come to an end.
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