Literature has captured many sides of society and almost every nook and corner of human psyche also. It doesn't only talks about love, tragic end of life, social issues and political agendas, but it also covers the bizarre, horrific and investigative side of crime, murder and similar darker recesses of human mind. Writers like Edgar Allan Poe, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Conan Doyle have contributed to the genre of this dark fiction.
As part of the curriculum, we have the following short stories of Edgar Allan Poe.
1. The Fall of the House of Usher
2. Cask of Amontillado
3. The Gold-Bug
4. The Purloined Letter
5. The Tell Tale Heart
Every year at the Department of English, invites many expert faculties, and students are benefitted from the knowledge of experts. Dr. Jay Mehta has an interesting way of explaining all these stories of Poe. Before attending his classes we are given the pre thinking activity task to complete. Here is the link of Jay Mehta sir's blog with questions.
Here is the pre-task about Poe's short stories.
Explore AUTHENTIC print, electronic and social media, filter through various incidents that have happened in last 06 months or so. Narrow down your focus to the news headlines of horrible, gruesome and shocking crime stories. (murder, suicide, brutal violence, perversity, terrorism, domestic conflicts, animal abuse and so on).
* Here are some of the news cuttings, screenshots from web series and films and from news video.
Example of sexual perversity and ruthless killing.
A ruthless face of Hathoda Singh, a psychopath character in a web series Paatal Lok, who kills three students.
Taufiq Hammed is unknown about the next moment of death.
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| Walid Al Abed regrets killing Taufiq Hammed |
This screenshot is from film Parasite. After a nightmarish sequence of mass killing in the mansion sympathizes to his master Mr. Park. The one who is the successful wealthy businessman and owner of mansion, in which the Kim family tries to intrude in form of servants in Mr. Park's mansion. Kim is apologizing Mr. Park after killing him.
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| Al Pacino killing the police officer in 1983 film Scarface |
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| No sign of Regret |
In March 2019, Brenton Tarrant murdered 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch. He streamed live on Facebook this 19 minutes' deadliest killing. It was the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in New Zealand’s history.
Here, I found some news videos about this from YouTube in
03. Note down your first impressions while they met your eyes. What thoughts they generated in you? What possible abyss of human mind did you observe that you can even try to fathom?
Ans. What first came to my mind by reading and watching such scenes and reading those crime stories is why can't we think about everyone equally ? This question lead me to another thought that perhaps upbringing and environment can be the possible responsible element behind all these crimes. No criminal becomes criminal by passion, or hobby. Criminals are created by the very society live in and by the mindset they forcefully imply on one another.
Another thought came about multimedia and entertainment industry. Films, TV shows and OTT platforms and video games are there, firstly to entertain the public, then, to convey the message to masses. It is the responsibility of people to learn how to read media, power, politics and other driving forces which effect us in day to day life. Events which take place in real life highlighted artistically and dramatically in films, TV shows and web series. People mistakenly inspire from the malpractices shown on the screen, and they commit similar crime.
God of War is one of the most horrible, ruthless and savage video game series I have ever played. It gives a very sharp graphical idea about Greek Mythology. Several Greek characters and gods are introduced like Kratos, Deimos, Athena, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Helios, Thera, Pandora, Thanatos, Gaia, Ares and many others. The game also cinematically narrates the connections of the Greek myths.
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| Kratos - The Marked One |
Kartos fights Hades - The God of the Underworlds
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| Intro Screen of GOW-III |
Its the game for the grown ups and adults because it contains extreme violence, blood and gore, and strong speeches. One has to be mentally balanced and aware that this is the only a video game, not a part of life. Even being an adult, if one fails to carry such mental balance, one may become paranoid or patient of hysteria.
Youth mistakenly takes wrong message from such mediums. They turn towards theft, robbery, murders and rapes also. Sometimes the reason is nothing but feeling a sense of pride only. But not all the times these media platforms are responsible. Society also plays the vital role. We have the example of Hitler. He faced much rejection in childhood.
These criminals are the result of negligence, rejection and hate. They undergo in such traumatic situation that they find a weak medium for bringing out their frustration. Psychology and Criminology studies such cases and take out the reasons why crimes take place and what are the possible reasons for the crime.
Thank You!
References:
Image of E A Poe : https://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/persons/84477/84477_v9_ba.jpg
Wikipedia contributors. "God of War (franchise)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Oct. 2020. Web. 22 Oct. 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_War_(franchise)
Editors, 2020. Adolf Hitler. [online] History.com. Available at: <https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/adolf-hitler-1>.
Excellent...!!! Very well connected... Please do try to co-relate such disturbing real life incidents with the happenings in poe's stories? Can you draw a parallel? Try to explore human psyche more and more.
ReplyDeleteKeep reading and keep writing...