Does violence in movies, on television and in comic strips and cartoons rot our children's brains and make zombies-or worse, criminals-of adults at the fringes? In this cogent, well-researched book, American pop-culture expert Harold Schechter argues that exactly the opposite is true: a basic human need is given an outlet through violent images in popular media.

Moving from an exploration of early broadsheet engravings showing torture and the atrocities of war, to the depictions of crime in "penny dreadfuls," to scenes of violence in today's movies and video games, Schechter not only traces the history of disturbing images but details the outrage that has inevitably accompanied them. By the twentieth century, the culture vultures were out in full force, demonizing comic books and setting up a pattern of equating testosterone-fueled entertainment with aggression. According to Schechter, nothing could be further from the truth. He also blasts those who bemoan the alleged increased violence in media today, and who conveniently scapegoat popular entertainment for a variety of cultural ills, including increased crime and real-life violence. Though American pop culture is far more technologically sophisticated today, Schechter shows that it is far less brutal than the entertainments of previous generations.

Savage Pastimes is a rich, eye-opening brief history that will make you rethink your assumptions about what we watch and how it affects us all.

"'We belong to an innately violent species,' argues Schechter. Violent entertainment is popular, he says, because it's natural to indulge in 'taboo fantasies' and 'escape into realms of forbidden experience.' Indeed, from the crucifixions of the Romans to the guillotines of the French Revolution, from wax museums' torture dioramas to P.T. Barnum's sideshows, people have flocked to spectacles of gore and suffering. Motion pictures became popular, Schechter explains, partly by delivering realistic violence (the first special effect in cinema history was the simulated beheading of Mary, Queen of Scots in an 1895 feature). Crime fiction, from the penny dreadfuls to today's bestsellers, has always sold big, but even literary classics, like Poe's stories, continue to enthrall partly because they speak to the violent imagination. As far as Schechter, a Queens College literature professor and author of several true crime books on serial killers, is concerned, today's entertainment is far less violent than yesteryear's; special effects may make films and video games more graphic, but everything's simulated. While Schechter makes an engaging argument for the bloodthirsty tastes of our ancestors, he rather quickly dismisses contemporary sociological research on the effects of media violence on youth. This entertaining, provocative, not entirely convincing work will be a treat for literate readers who can't register for the professor's classes. Illus. Agent, Loretta Barrett. (Feb.)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

True-crime author and professor Schechter (literature, Queens College, NYC) presents a cultural history of violence in popular entertainment. He examines depictions of violence in today's movies and video games, finding them relatively mild in comparison to the public beheadings and other bloody diversions of previous centuries. He also explains how the demonization of comic books by self appointed moral guardians in the 1950s established a pattern of equating action-packed entertainment with aggression.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Why violence in the media we-and our children-consume is not only good but necessary

Harold Schechter is a full professor of literature at Queens College in New York City. He is the author of The A-Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers and The Serial Killer Files as well as a variety other nonfiction books and novels. He lives in New York City.