Violence in the Narrative

Fiction, and particularly fantasy, is host to plenty of violence within its narrative. While working on my most recent project (coming soon), I wrote a scene that I found rather confronting. I regularly write violent scenes, so I am not a sensitive soul when it comes to that sort of thing, but this particular scene was actually a tad nauseating. This inspired me to think a little bit more deeply about how we, as writers, treat violence in our works. This is not going to be a 'this is right and that is wrong' discussion, but just a case of identifying some of the different forms that violence takes in writing, and why I think that certain types have the effects that they do. In short, today I will discuss various depictions of violence, and how they can impact upon the audience.

Combat

In my opinion the most common depiction of violence within fantasy novel is combat. Whether it involves fists, swords, guns, or improvised weapons, combat scenes are extremely prevalent. To be crystal clear, when I refer to 'combat' I am specifically talking about any scene involving two or more characters who are knowingly engaged in performing violent acts upon one another. In my experience, it is rare for the sorts of scene to be overly confronting or distressing in and of themselves. I have a number of thoughts on why this might be.

Fair: Combat has an air of fairness. Two armed combatants facing off against each other will almost inevitably lead to injury, and as such the reader anticipates the conclusion. Whether they are correct in their assumptions is irrelevant to a degree: They knew there would be bodily harm, and have (consciously or subconsciously) prepared themselves for that. 

Familiar: As I stated above, combat is frequent within fictional narratives, whether the narrative be written, acted on screen, or encountered in some form of interactive media. As such, the audience is likely to be both familiar with these types of scenes, and somewhat desensitized to them.

Entertaining: Well written/scripted/acted combat can be very entertaining. As such, the reader can be caught up with excitement, going along for the ride. Many combat scenes follow a predictable arc, and therefore bring the reader down with their conclusion. When engaged in this way, the reader flows with the narrative, and enjoys the highs and lows.

Not always graphic: While some narratives are famed for their gory and brutal combat scenes, I would argue that a larger number are almost sanitary in their nature. This 'clean' combat means there is little in way of horror for the reader, and so combat is not too confronting to read.

I will note here that combat can be loaded with graphic violence, but I will discuss that later.
As a whole, combat is fairly 'safe' for the reader, with low likelihood of shocks or disgust.

Beatings, Abuse, DV, Executions, and Self-harm

These sorts of scenes are confronting for a very, very obvious reason. These scenes are depicted in a variety of ways, for a variety of reasons. One author may make them very graphic in order to appal their audience, while another may leave many things tacit in a hope to allow the emotional degrees of the acts to sink in.

This form of violence is one that should always be treated with an immense level of sensitivity. For a broad swathe of reasons all the topics in this category can be extremely harmful emotionally to a reader, and as such should be treated carefully. I will not go into to much detail here, as I would hope that as educated individuals, my readers would be able to join the dots for themselves. I will, however, voice my opinions on these sorts of depictions. An author who uses these types of violence in their work purely as an emotional sledgehammer, with little attention to the sensitivity of the subject, should re-evaluate their approach to writing. There are far better ways to achieve emotional impact than flagrantly playing the rape card. I personally feel that when writing scenes that include this sort of violence, there should be a clear undertone that marks this form of violence out as horrific,  and would also encourage there to be an indication from the characters involved that they understand the level of horror that is going on. I would strongly discourage any writer who hides behind the excuse of 'it happens in real life' without offering solutions to these acts within their narrative, from doing so.
I am not saying that this sort of violence should be outright banned from narratives, I simply believe that it should be treated with a great deal of sensitivity.

It was, in fact, a scene of this nature that inspired this discussion. I was writing an execution scene (a hanging) witnessed by a child and her guardian. While it was not particularly graphic, both myself and my proofreader found the scene extremely confronting on an emotional level. Perhaps it was as confronting as it was due to the silences in the text. Never underestimate the power of suggestion. 

Graphic Violence

Some of you may cringe at that heading, and I apologise. Detailed violence has been something of a discussion point in recent years, particularly when it comes to visual mediums, and evenly more specifically when it come to video games. I have no problem with graphic violence, as an adult I can (usually) deal with it. There are some exceptions - teeth, I just cannot deal with someone's teeth being smashed out - but as a whole, the graphic depiction of violence doesn't faze me overly. 

I am sure that most of you think immediately of Game of Thrones when you read the term 'Graphic Violence', and that is fair enough. Off the top of my head I cannot think of anything more graphic in nature. Graphic violence is certainly not exclusive to that series, but Game of Thrones is (in)famous for its graphic depictions of all forms of violence.

Graphic violence requires itself to be depicted in great detail. Hearts flying one way, eyeballs the other, and viscera spilling onto the ground kind of thing. When used cleverly, graphic violence can be extremely powerful - even to the point of making the reader/viewer feel ill. When done less well, it can be detrimental to the narrative, annoying the reader, or even making a serious scene come off as 'cheesy'. Plenty of 'B' films are testaments to that. Books are protected from the dangers of low budgets, but can still suffer from this. I am sure a number of you can think of times you have read a graphic scene and skimmed over it because it was dull, or failed to hold the suspension of disbelief.

The Drama of Violence

While planning this little discussion, I started doodling with a little phrase, as is my wont. I have already covered in the above sections the drama of violence, but I will wrap up the discussion with this.

"Even in war, one should have a sense of dramr. That is why it is called the Theatre of War."

For another week, that is all. I have a rather exciting little piece in the works, and the first full draft of my next book is done, and is being edited.

Salve,

N N B Clarke