The allure of violent entertainment
Chuck Palahniuk (the author of Fight Club) loves blood and guts. In an hour-long special on NPR's Studio 360 about violence and the puzzling reasons why we are entertained by it, he tells Kurt Andersen, "I want to involve the reader at an incredibly visceral level.... I don't want to just break your heart. I want to break your heart and make you laugh and make you just a little bit sick in betweeen."
This is good stuff. The program includes a fantastic segment on foley artistry–the art of making fight sounds that make you feel the violence. Sound effects artist Sue Zizza delivers the money quote: "Unfortunately humans seek a certain amount of violence in their entertainment desires and we as entertainers are needed to fulfill that role." To accomplish her job, Zizza perpetrates violence against "corned beef, roast beef, watermelon, cabbage."
Full show here (in RAM format, unfortunately).