Joyride by Jack Ketchum - response

The latest work for my Readings in the Genre course at Seton Hill is Joyride.  Yep, nothing with joy there.  Just a psychotic, murderous, rampage for 200 pages.  I did not enjoy this at all.  I will try to focus on what I have learned as a writer and how to craft a villain.

First, an interesting quote towards the end of the novel:

"A victim will do some crazy things to stop being a victim, and maybe you did, too.  But that doesn't make you crazy, and it doesn't make you evil." (page 190 Nook version)

I'm not surprised to see this at the end of the novel given what we were discussing over this last week in class.  What is the definition of crazy or evil?  The real truth we found is that all things are in the eye of the beholder.  As a Christian, my beliefs of what is evil is defined by the doctrine of Christ as revealed through the ancient prophets, himself in the New Testament, and as revealed through his living prophets today.  But I had to step out of that for a minute to examine the villains in these stories.  There is a simple matter of perspective and upbringing.  My Christian upbringing teaches me one thing but a Muslim upbringing would teach me something different.

I did not like how nearly everyone in the novel is damaged.  I was going to say "messed up" or "evil" but stopped myself because that is my perspective.  But it did feel like every character was deeply flawed.  And not just flawed in common ways like low confidence or something like that.  It felt like everyone had a history of abuse or abuser.  Usually sexual and physical but also neglect.  Now, my undergrad was Sociology so I know that studies are showing a rise in physical and sexual abuse and I'm not downplaying the severity of those crimes and what it can do to the victim.  So, I don't really blame what Carol decides to do in the novel.  Especially to find that she had a history of this victimization since childhood.  But it got to the point in this novel where I didn't want to continue because it felt forced.  I bet that was a method for the writer to really drive home Wayne's purpose.  But he's pretty messed up as it is.  (Think of the closet).

So I didn't need to have what felt like all the other characters involved in abuse of some kind.  I think it could have been fine to give the other characters some attribute that bothered Wayne to the point of retaliation.  I have wonderful neighbors.  I trust them to babysit my girls.  But I hate their dogs.  And I'm a dog lover.  Just not theirs.  That's similar to Wayne and Roberts.  What I'm trying to say is that from my perspective, it felt like every person in the novel had a blaring streak of evil.  Even Lt. Rule.  I just don't think I needed such deep wounds in all the main characters.  I know that drew a commonality between them to tie them all together for Wayne.  But they started blending together instead of being individuals.  As the hero of the story, I'm fine with him having a flaw to make him more human.  Maybe I just read this novel at the wrong time in my life because it was really depressing.  I know we all have our past baggage.  And current baggage for that matter.  I certainly do.  But it was too depressing reading about all the abuse.  I know it's out there but I have absolutely no patience with abusers.  So I found it hard to read the novel for that alone.

Here's the other thing I've noticed over the course of these readings.  I'm fine having an uber-villain in the story.  And I thought I wanted to know more about what was going through their head and their motivations.  But I've found that for myself.  I'd rather keep them more as an enigma that the hero must conquer.  In my writing I'm all about deep loss and struggles to force out of my character the best they can be.   Because I know that life can be hard!  And I think there is more value in find the character who overcomes all odds to stand up in the end, victorious, over their trials.  I think that is what many people need.  Someone, whether real or fictional, that encourages them to greatness.  It is for that that I don't understand the people who read about killers for the sake of diving into their lives and worshiping psychos.

So, ultimately, I have found the importance of finding a balance when writing about villains and heroes.  The balance, for me, is finding just how much do you NEED to write about the villain to get across the idea that they need to be taken out by the hero? How much is too much?  I generally right dark fantasy as the darkest I go.  Not straight up horror.  So, I may be pulling back on the details of my killers so that I'm telling just enough without crossing the line into what I consider horror.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings. Now, off to my day job.