Jeffrey Goldstein

I thought half of the essays in this book were really fascinating. I was impressed to see a volume addressing violence in media and entertainment without automatically taking a stance against it...some of us enjoy something about stylish bloody violence or cheesy gory horror films, and generally function as fairly normal people. This book takes that stance and tries to examine the historical and psychological reasoning behind our fascination.

My favorite essay tackled Bonnie and Clyde and the change that that movied signaled in the portrayal of violence in movies. I also enjoyed the essays on the attraction to sports and a section on gruesome children's stories. However, many of the chapters were very repetitive in their arguments and could get a little caught up in statistics examining every possible correlation. So basically, if you are interested in the subject, maybe just skip around a bit. A complete reading is unnecessary.… (meer)