Andrew Klavan

Andrew Klavan is the author of several novels, including the horror thriller The Uncanny and the suspense novel True Crime. In this excerpt from an article he wrote for the Boston Review, Klavan defends depictions of violence in popular entertainment. Klavan notes that violent stories strike deep emotional chords with audiences, and argues that this is because such stories tap into people's repressed or subconscious fascination with bloodshed. However, Klavan does not feel that people's enjoyment of violent entertainment is necessarily harmful. Instead, he believes that critics who try to connect media violence with real—life violence are more dangerous, because they blur the line between fiction and reality and turn society's attention away from more plausible causes of violent crime such as poverty and intrafamily abuse.

I LOVE THE SOUND OF PEOPLE...