Why We’re Drawn to Darkness
True Detective. The Dark Knight. Anything by Cormac McCarthy. What is it about the dark, brooding tale that captivates us so intensely? I’d like to say it’s our love of seeing the hero, seemingly overpowered by his adversaries, overcome the evil of the world and prove that good triumphs. As nice as that sounds, it isn’t true. What we’re drawn to is someone dropping the act for a change and acknowledging the horrendous evil lurking in the shadows of our world. The happy endings are just the sweet chaser that makes the bitter story bearable.
I’m not trying to sound melodramatic. Of course, the Jokers and Anton Chiguhrs and the green eared, spaghetti-faced monsters are sensational fiction. At the same time, I believe strongly in our personal responsibility to “maintain our filters” at a healthy level; we can effectively choose how we perceive the world and people with a positive outlook are more likely to pay that positivity forward. There is plenty of real goodness that exists in the world and doesn’t make it into our channels of information intake (CNN, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) because it is not deemed newsworthy. Journalism’s (I guess that lightly here) business model is to get eyeballs on their content and thus, their advertisers’ content, and nothing gets clicks like death and destruction. That’s a sad indictment of journalism, but moreover, a sad indictment of what piques people’s interest and goes a long ways towards supporting my opening assumptions. We are drawn to darkness. But why?
The last few weeks (months? years?) sure feel like grave times and it’s impossible to acknowledge that there is not real fucking evil out there in the world.
Deluding ourselves and ignoring it feels naively useless. The dark novel (or series or movie) acknowledges this evil and puts a face on it. It’s cathartic to stop pretending it’s not out there and the familiar good guys vs. bad guys storyline is much easier to wrap our heads around than the ambiguous and insidious evil of the real world. In fiction, what matters is not who wins, but the admission that there’s something out there worth being afraid of.
