People have a fascination with the macabre and the horrific. It’s obvious. If that weren’t true, gory news stories would not always be such a hot topic. If it bleeds, it leads. Still, in this society, that fascination is shunned but at the same time fostered. You see it in True Crime and the media when they quickly point out, after several hours of photographic evidence, that the madman of the week enjoyed explicit music, reading about serial killers, and writing graphic fiction (a.k.a. horror). What they don’t point out is that the same thing could be said about Stephen King, Clive Barker, or any other completely unhomicidal person who writes dark fiction professional or otherwise.

The idea of preemptively preventing acts of violence by judging the artistic interests of people minding their own business is as unfair as it is terrifying to me. I am tired of seeing this same, tired, old bullshit spewed across my TV screen or monitor.  I am also tired of hearing everyone talk of how the MENTALLY ILL need to be rounded up and sent to the nuthouse while giving us few if any clues as to what they mean by MENTALLY ILL or who’s going to be in charge of deciding if you or I are crazy enough to lose our right to be left alone and treated with respect.