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Blood and violence
14 years ago
General
I thought I'd write something here regarding one of my pictures (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5569841).
After I posted it on another site that I frequent, some of the reactions expressed in the comments I received were discomfort from some and, to at least one person, the sense of it being something sad. I'm actually glad that this is how it was received.
Graphic photographs taken in time of war show us the unmasked reality of violence. It shows us what soldiers have to do, for real. These images shock because they don't match the entertainment industry glamorization of violence in fake blood, anonymous expendable "bad guys", and clearcut moral lines.
I remember, vividly, as a kid watching something on PBS about the Vietnam war. They played the (in)famous clip of the captured VC being executed in the street by being shot in the head with a pistol. When I saw it, I was taken completely by surprise - something was glaringly different between this and the fake staged violence normally seen on TV. The difference was night and day. It made me almost sick to my stomach. This wasn't an actor "good guy" fake-killing another actor "bad guy" anymore, it was one person actually killing another, caught on video by happenstance.
There were also some things said about the "victims who deserved what was happening" premise being unappealing. I hadn't drawn this with the concept in mind of whether or not she deserved it... I don't think that a combat death (as opposed to an execution, although it may be hard to tell, outside of knowing the exact context, which is happening here in the picture I drew) is ever really a matter of what any particular person involved "deserves", only on what circumstances, often outside their control, dictate.
As was commented, it is sad. That's part of what I wanted it to be. I like this character (Mariko Setsugen, the one doing the stabbing here), enough to feel like I owe her a truthful and complete depiction, and I got tired of hinting at her violence and decided to just place it in the open. This is, honestly, more true to the vision I have of her. I wanted to draw a direct look at the reality of what she is and the things she's done.
There's a lot of glamorous "lookit me I'm so full of AWESOME because I walk around carrying weapons and looking all smug and badass!" character portraits in the furry fandom. I'm tired of hinting at a glamorized suggestion of a violent nature without ever a look at the reality of the ultimate consequences of what that's leading to. I'm tired, as strange as it may sound from someone drawing furry art, of art that's visual and conceptual fast food - looks pretty but has no underlying exploration of any meaning and no sense of reality.
So I drew a sad death, because sometimes that happens. I'm sorry for any discomfort anyone may have felt, if anyone did, but that was part of the point.
After I posted it on another site that I frequent, some of the reactions expressed in the comments I received were discomfort from some and, to at least one person, the sense of it being something sad. I'm actually glad that this is how it was received.
Graphic photographs taken in time of war show us the unmasked reality of violence. It shows us what soldiers have to do, for real. These images shock because they don't match the entertainment industry glamorization of violence in fake blood, anonymous expendable "bad guys", and clearcut moral lines.
I remember, vividly, as a kid watching something on PBS about the Vietnam war. They played the (in)famous clip of the captured VC being executed in the street by being shot in the head with a pistol. When I saw it, I was taken completely by surprise - something was glaringly different between this and the fake staged violence normally seen on TV. The difference was night and day. It made me almost sick to my stomach. This wasn't an actor "good guy" fake-killing another actor "bad guy" anymore, it was one person actually killing another, caught on video by happenstance.
There were also some things said about the "victims who deserved what was happening" premise being unappealing. I hadn't drawn this with the concept in mind of whether or not she deserved it... I don't think that a combat death (as opposed to an execution, although it may be hard to tell, outside of knowing the exact context, which is happening here in the picture I drew) is ever really a matter of what any particular person involved "deserves", only on what circumstances, often outside their control, dictate.
As was commented, it is sad. That's part of what I wanted it to be. I like this character (Mariko Setsugen, the one doing the stabbing here), enough to feel like I owe her a truthful and complete depiction, and I got tired of hinting at her violence and decided to just place it in the open. This is, honestly, more true to the vision I have of her. I wanted to draw a direct look at the reality of what she is and the things she's done.
There's a lot of glamorous "lookit me I'm so full of AWESOME because I walk around carrying weapons and looking all smug and badass!" character portraits in the furry fandom. I'm tired of hinting at a glamorized suggestion of a violent nature without ever a look at the reality of the ultimate consequences of what that's leading to. I'm tired, as strange as it may sound from someone drawing furry art, of art that's visual and conceptual fast food - looks pretty but has no underlying exploration of any meaning and no sense of reality.
So I drew a sad death, because sometimes that happens. I'm sorry for any discomfort anyone may have felt, if anyone did, but that was part of the point.
