Act 3 Blog 1

The roll of graphic content in modern art is a debate that dates back to the first cult slasher horror film and the first soft core pornography from the late 1940s to the early 1950s. Conservative, family minded people would speak against it because they saw graphic content as an unnecessary evil in art, that art could be created just as easily without such content. Others thought that the content served only to heighten art and to bring forth new emotions that art had not been able to bring forth as completely as this new content. Graphic violence, as we have seen in King Lear, can certainly have a place in classic art as well. Shakespeare included an on-stage presentation of Gloucester’s eyes being gouged out because it was the only way to truly represent the extremes to which Regan and Goneril are willing to go to obtain their goals. It also lends itself to heighten the chaos and confusion that has been a constant in this play. I think that it is necessary for the meaning of the play. As I said before, graphic content is included in art because of the extreme amount of emotion and reaction from the audience it can provoke. Shakespeare knew this, and used it to his advantage. It was the only way to truly express the insanity and cruelty of Goneril and Regan. Slasher films, being a complete genre themselves, require graphic violence; else they would not be slasher films. Originally, I think that slasher films were to some degree made to instill controversy. Over the years, as they have become more acceptable, a definite art has come out of the ability to provoke fear and horror in the audience, and the ability of an actor to portray such fear, horror and death. Grand Theft Auto is another story entirely. The violence in Grand Theft Auto is completely egregious. The video game does not even have a solid plot; the draw of the game is its ability to graphically represent street crime as entertainment. What teenage boy wouldn’t want to beat a drug dealer’s face in with a baseball bat, shot down a frontline of police men with an AK-47? Or have sex with a prostitute, then beat her afterwards to get your money back? Graphic violence is not to be used as a form of interactive entertainment. In such a case, it does nothing but desensitize to an extreme degree. Graphic violence should only be used in instances when a reaction needs to be provoked in order to further the development of a character or plot.