Monday, June 30, 2003
Seriousness
A few days ago, a soccer player died in the middle of a game, which is, of course, terrible. I can't say much more than that, as I didn't know the man. Don't worry, this isn't a post about soccer. It's merely a convenient segue.
In England, everyone's favorite tabloid, The Sun, printed a picture of the player, well, dying, on its front page. The Sun came in for a lot of criticism, I am given to understand, for not respecting the dead. But it seems to me that most of the criticism comes from the fact that the picture they printed was disturbing. Other papers printed him with his eyes closed, on a stretcher, surrounded by others, looking like an injured player usually does, where the Sun's picture freaked people out. Unacceptable, they cry! No freak-out allowed! We must make death look noble and painless.
I have news for these people. Death is freaky. Death is disturbing. We don't see that in our society. I certainly don't see it. We get sanitized death. Funerals are designed to make the dead look as good as they possibly can. Supposedly gory movies still sanitize death. A hole in the forehead isn't quite the same as half a head blown off. But even something with a little bit of blood is better than what we show children. I remember when I dated someone with 6-year-old stepbrothers. The parents were letting them watch non-gory television. A western, as it happened. Some cowboys were standing in a bar having a shootout. When people got shot, nothing happened to them. They fell over. That was it. The lesson being taught was that gunshots do little. They just make people fall over. Like when they trip and fall down the stairs. Cartoons? Probably even worse. At least in the western, the dead guys don't get right back up.
My beloved video games are probably even worse. Die? Reload! Die? Reload! Fighting generic grunts is par for the course. Some games let you not kill them. Many don't. The game I'm looking forward to the most, Deus Ex: The Invisible War, has some interesting press behind it. It's a 3D shooter, you know, like Doom, but the designers are attempting to make it winnable without killing a human. More interestingly, it will be one of the first games to use one of gaming's hot new technologies, ragdoll physics. The idea of ragdoll is that when something in the game dies, it becomes as a ragdoll, and falls based on the trajectory of the attack. It creates unique death. Anyway, the game's designer tells a story about how his wife was playing the game, and accidently shot a random dog. The dog's ragdoll death creeped her out so much that she refused to continue playing the game. Basically, by portraying death as realistic , the game detered violent play!
Look at the reaction that the Sun's readers had on seeing the player's picture. Look at the reaction that the designer's wife had with the game. They both show a fear of death, a dislike of seeing it. This is not bad! This is good, this is useful! Imagine what public support for the war would have been like if the pictures people saw were not glorious US troops in their tanks, but rather a dead body. A child with its arms blown off. Someone burned to death. A soldier without legs. Whatever. It would have been disgusting. It would have made people angry. It would have been disrespectful.
War should do that to people. War does kill, and the victims don't all get to look like they're sleeping in suits in a nice wooden box.
A few days ago, a soccer player died in the middle of a game, which is, of course, terrible. I can't say much more than that, as I didn't know the man. Don't worry, this isn't a post about soccer. It's merely a convenient segue.
In England, everyone's favorite tabloid, The Sun, printed a picture of the player, well, dying, on its front page. The Sun came in for a lot of criticism, I am given to understand, for not respecting the dead. But it seems to me that most of the criticism comes from the fact that the picture they printed was disturbing. Other papers printed him with his eyes closed, on a stretcher, surrounded by others, looking like an injured player usually does, where the Sun's picture freaked people out. Unacceptable, they cry! No freak-out allowed! We must make death look noble and painless.
I have news for these people. Death is freaky. Death is disturbing. We don't see that in our society. I certainly don't see it. We get sanitized death. Funerals are designed to make the dead look as good as they possibly can. Supposedly gory movies still sanitize death. A hole in the forehead isn't quite the same as half a head blown off. But even something with a little bit of blood is better than what we show children. I remember when I dated someone with 6-year-old stepbrothers. The parents were letting them watch non-gory television. A western, as it happened. Some cowboys were standing in a bar having a shootout. When people got shot, nothing happened to them. They fell over. That was it. The lesson being taught was that gunshots do little. They just make people fall over. Like when they trip and fall down the stairs. Cartoons? Probably even worse. At least in the western, the dead guys don't get right back up.
My beloved video games are probably even worse. Die? Reload! Die? Reload! Fighting generic grunts is par for the course. Some games let you not kill them. Many don't. The game I'm looking forward to the most, Deus Ex: The Invisible War, has some interesting press behind it. It's a 3D shooter, you know, like Doom, but the designers are attempting to make it winnable without killing a human. More interestingly, it will be one of the first games to use one of gaming's hot new technologies, ragdoll physics. The idea of ragdoll is that when something in the game dies, it becomes as a ragdoll, and falls based on the trajectory of the attack. It creates unique death. Anyway, the game's designer tells a story about how his wife was playing the game, and accidently shot a random dog. The dog's ragdoll death creeped her out so much that she refused to continue playing the game. Basically, by portraying death as realistic , the game detered violent play!
Look at the reaction that the Sun's readers had on seeing the player's picture. Look at the reaction that the designer's wife had with the game. They both show a fear of death, a dislike of seeing it. This is not bad! This is good, this is useful! Imagine what public support for the war would have been like if the pictures people saw were not glorious US troops in their tanks, but rather a dead body. A child with its arms blown off. Someone burned to death. A soldier without legs. Whatever. It would have been disgusting. It would have made people angry. It would have been disrespectful.
War should do that to people. War does kill, and the victims don't all get to look like they're sleeping in suits in a nice wooden box.