Context is everything.
Death is inarguably a bad thing… but is inspiring if someone dies heroically. Death is a good thing… if it ends suffering… or is the end of a wicked life. Death is amusing… if uneventful and inconsequential.
We dream and daydream. What we imagine is our reality on the inside. We turn it into stories with words and images.
Death is a major theme in our fiction. It is the thrill of the horror and action-adventure genres alike. It is the sadness of a drama or the tragedy of a love story.
The significance of a death is the life that is ending.
People perish in droves and their demise is but a headline or a statistic. One person dies and everyone mourns. WHO dies is most important. WHY and HOW are secondary.
If a cause of death is impersonal, then it is either a simple misfortune or the victim is a nonentity. It must be personal to be significant. It is meaningless otherwise.
The people involved are what give a situation context.
Their will and actions are the cause and effect. The situation is a
happenstance otherwise, even if death.
When someone you love is dying, the experience is very different. Fear gives way to a profound sadness. Since you cannot stop what is happening, the only thing you can do is be there for them.
ReplyDeleteYes. At that point, you suffer a real loss. You shall never see your loved on FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.
DeleteIt is surprising that something that ends so suddenly is something that is an ongoing thing in fiction. I think it has more to do with the fact that everyone faces it and so it becomes the ultimate fear. Fear is also why it is so often worshiped.
ReplyDeleteVERY interesting point that it is worshipped because it is feared. Weirdly, it is not hated.
DeleteThe reality of death is terrible but as fiction it can be thrilling. Horror is victimless indulgence, the thrill is empathizing with the victim or putting ourselves in the killer's shoes.
ReplyDeleteYes. We must value our lives and the lives of others to enjoy the deaths of fiction. If we do not love the hero, then we do not weep when he dies. If we do not hate the villain, we do not cheer when he dies. If we do not consider human life precious by default, then the deaths of unimportant characters cannot horrify us. The love or the hate or the shock of imaginary death is what makes it THRILLING.
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