[phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 483: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/bbcode.php on line 112: preg_replace(): The /e modifier is no longer supported, use preg_replace_callback instead [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 4668: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3815) [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 4670: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3815) [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 4671: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3815) [phpBB Debug] PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/includes/functions.php on line 4672: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at [ROOT]/includes/functions.php:3815) Horror World • View topic - I just can't do it...
I returned a couple books I had finished to the library yesterday, and one which I can't bring myself to read.
Only Child, by Jack Ketchum, apparently is about a husband and father who feels it is his duty to abuse and molest his wife and their son. I read Girl Next Door, and thought it was a very good, powerful novel. I also read Right to Life, which was okay, but seemed a bit much to me. However, after reading a sample chapter of Only Child, in which a lawyer interviews the little boy about what his father does to him, I couldn't take it. The book is roughly 400 pages, and I just can't convince myself it will be worth it.
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:58 pm Posts: 6411 Location: The Back of Beyond.
This is one of my favorite topics in horror fiction where I love to see people's thoughts.
For myself, I have always thought that if the book is nothing more than a documentation of something like child abuse, then why read the book? You can get the identical result from the evening news.
I always think when a good writer tackles a miserable subject like this, it ups everything else and pushes the writer even more, because he/or she has to make the writing that much more explosive to counter the disgusting subject matter.
But at the same time I can understand people not being able to take it. Especially with people out there who have kids, or who've had it done to them. I've never experienced child abuse on a personal level, but I've dealt with things like cancer with close family members who have passed away; so if I came across a book with hundreds of pages on tumors, I might not be able to stomach it either.
_________________ "There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor." ~The Ramones~
Actually, you should read it. It shows why Jack Ketchum is a true master of horror. He works best with the human monsters. The ending had me pissed off for days after, not because it was a terrible ending (like Little), but because it was a terrible ending that made sense. And toward the end of the novel I was so emotionally involved with the story that I cried. And I was drained. It's a very brutal novel. As is all of Jack Ketchum's work.
I really don't want to give too much away, but it's one of those novels that makes you want to go out and do more for your community.
_________________ The GOP doesn't trust women when it comes to vaginas any more than they trust scientists when it comes to science.
It's strange how some things stick with you. When I read this thread the first time, it brought back a memory of a news item from a couple of years ago. It seems these people had bought a wood stove and two or three guys were bringing it into a basement and they had to go down a bulkhead and over some wooden steps to get it into the basement.
Well, the couple that owned the house had a young boy who decided to hide in the bulkhead under the wooden stairs. As the men were bringing the wood stove down, it was so heavy it crashed through the stairs and landed on the young boy. He was crushed to death.
This story made me feel so bad, it was like my heart stopped when I finished and there was a terrific weight on my shoulders. I almost cried, because I couldn't imagine the pain the father was going through as it happened. I had nightmares about this, because I also brought a heavy wood stove down in my basement a few years ago, and went down a bulkhead over wooden stairs. Thank God, my son wasn't hiding in them. But I kept putting myself in that Dad's place and I couldn't imagine the horror he was going through.
There was one other news item that effected me the same way. At a sand and gravel pit, one of the managers brought his young daughter to work for some reason. As he was talking to someone, she managed to walk over to one of the conveyers that went up and emptyed into a rock crusher. She got on and started going up. Her father heard her cries, jumped on and rushed to save her. They both went over the top and into the rock crusher.
(Sorry about that, it seems that I can't type more than a few paragraphs anymore before things start getting all screwy when I post a reply).
The whole city was shocked and devestated. I had nightmares for weeks after this happened. I actually woke up screaming a few times. I could not imagine how much horror those two felt and what the poor wife and mother felt.
This morning I read a submission from a new member in my writers group about how his son died after playing in a closet. This guy put some weights on the top shelf never dreaming his son would go into the closet, they fell down, and killed his boy. I went into that numb shock all over again like the last two examples I just gave you.
So, I guess what I'm saying is that I don't have to read Ketchum's story on how some guy abuses his wife and kids to appreaciate the horror of how they feel. Enough bad stuff happens to kids in real life, and those are the things that gives me the nightmares.
Joined: Mon Mar 10, 2008 2:58 pm Posts: 6411 Location: The Back of Beyond.
Tt, wow, those are some heavy examples.
I also can't stand to see bad things happen to little kids, because when you're that age, everything is so innocent and free, you don't know yet about all the miserable things in the world, all you might care about is going out to play with your friends.
I've said it many times before on here: I can't even bring myself to watch the news on most days. Everyone is either killing each other, or people are finding dead kids that were tortured and killed. A lot of the things that happen on this planet are worse than any hell described in religions.
I thought about this before, though, and I think with me, when I read a story and the abuser gets his payback in the end, I love it. It's therapeutic, I think. You might watch a story on the news about some guy who did loads of terrible crap, and then only got sentenced to 12 years. But then you pick up a good revenge tale-maybe something by The Pic Man-and you read it, and feel better that some bad dude got what was coming to him ... even if it happened to a fictional character.
All this makes you wonder, though. Will this world ever be the way it should be? I hate to say I doubt it and be the gloom dude, but it seems people just don't want to ever mellow out in this life.
_________________ "There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor." ~The Ramones~
It's funny you bring this up. The Wall Street Journal last Friday published an article by a thriller author who discussed how readers take such ownership of a novel that they act as if the story and the characters are real. When he went to a signings, readers were scolding him on the "relationships" he would put his characters in.
He then went on to discuss the anatomy of detective/crime novels and mentioned how readers want some kind of punishment for the criminals, the more horrendous the crime, the more they want to see the bad guy get his. He actually had a formular to demonstrate what all the most popular detective/crime novels and classic detective/crime novels used. I have the article at home so I can't print it now, but it was a very basic set of rules.
And he mentioned that those that don't fit into this catagory but are still popular (Hannible Lecter say) is because the author has found a way to bond his villian with the reader.
Remember, this guy was talking about popular novels that are huge sellers.
The thing is, if the writer is really good with the characterizations then he can get the readers to really identify with the story. Case in point: Stranglehold/Only Child. Jack did so much with a story that has been done before that it was very emotionally draining. And to this day it still resonates strongly with me. Nearly all of Jack's work does.
_________________ The GOP doesn't trust women when it comes to vaginas any more than they trust scientists when it comes to science.
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