Health, Violence, and Mickey Spillane
Violence interacts with health in many ways -- bullying, assault, suicide, date rape, domestic violence, etc. Such topics often arose in Professor Metcalf’s section of GCH 332 this past semester. Since fiction writer Mickey Spillane had died earlier in 2006, Metcalf and a group of students decided to read and discuss his first novel, I, the Jury. Perhaps Spillane could tell us something of the nature of violence itself.
Student Valeed Siddiqi suggests that we suppress violent behavior and that violent literature allows catharsis. "Violence is a part of human nature and readers enjoy reading about it...since most people suppress violent tendency inside of them." Saddiqi also sees associations among masculinity, morality, and sex. "Mike [Hammer} held the view that he shouldn't have pre-marital sex with the woman who supposedly wanted to marry him. Either he has very good values, or he might have known that she was the murderer. He seemed to not want to have illicit relations with any woman, although he would go as far as kissing them." He further observes "Either Spillane made his protagonist a noble one that didn't believe in pre-marital sex, or he made his protagonist a man who thought that giving in to a woman would take away his masculinity."
Another student, Sarah Thompson, sees a romantic aspect to violence. "Even though the murders are profane and covered in dirt, they impose a certain Mafia/Dick Tracy -romantic flair that I haven't found in any other novel."
Sarah listened to two renditions of Harlem Nocturn, which became the Mike Hammer theme song. She found that “The first matched the book more. It was low, slow and thick : perfect for the era and the characters. The second was more up beat and reminded me of music that should be in a 1980's film. Too fast and clean.”
Here are the links. If anyone can identify the solo instruments (different in each clip), please let me know <jmetcalf@gmu.edu>