So I guess the reason I don't like most scifi novels is due to them having what I can only describe as an immature relationship with violence - even a lot of the stuff winning Most Smartest Of The Year Award
I don't think most scifi writers realize that most people are unwilling to do violence on a dime, and also that violence gets you nowhere very fast unless you have some very narrow objectives. These aren't stories where being quick to violence is both foible and virtue: they just play it as a virtue because *everyone* wants to do violence, you see, so the quickest draw wins.
I don't think doing mma (and navigating that culture as a trans woman) has necessarily given me the clearest perspective on violence but I do think you have to have a pretty tight give-take relationship with it to start understanding what the different forms of violence are, when/why people use them, what they achieve and what their unforeseen consequences might be
@agonist I'm curious as to how you feel about stories where violence is like... Meaningless until it isn't.
Like you know the archetypal wrestling match; they do cool tricks at each other that are "violence" but none of it matters right up until it suddenly does, it's time setting until the moment where violence matters. Like killing 50 enemies right before the cutscene that is important plays
I love action movies, I've *written* action movies, if you want to write a story about the biggest badass in a world of itchy trigger fingers then you should commit to that framing instead IMO.