To think murder mysteries are compensating for easy safe lives

[BorrowedThyme]

I read a scientific article once about how the human physiology is designed to cope with multiple shocks and frights, as we would have done in prehistoric times ( 99% of our history as a species) and if we don't get those shocks and frights, we seek them out, at funfairs, and through ghost stories, etc.

Looking at that "cosy murder" discussion, it really stands out that watching and enjoying murders is a major past time in our culture - there are literally hundreds and hundreds of them in TV, films and books!

Isn't it odd that so many of us enjoy them so much, when none of us would want anything like that to touch our real lives.

Is this somehow regulating our physiological design need for fears and shocks?

So, if you don't agree with me, why do you think we watch and enjoy so many murders then?

Maybe it's the justice we seek out in these programmes.

We have a desire for justice to prevail and for explanations and answers.

I’ve read something similar about our evolution and our exposure to gore (killing animals, skinning and eating them) and so now we’re sort of tied to that need for seeing blood. I don’t know how valid that study really was though. It’s never been normal at any point in history except for soldiers in war to see that many murders in a lifetime. The number of deaths an average person sees in their lifetime nowadays far exceeds anything in our evolutionary “progress”.

I live in the US and the violence here is non-stop and affects everyone. If anything we’ve gotten used to it so our reality and our entertainment have blurred together and everyone acts like it’s normal. Personally if I see a gun or murder or even just asshole men in a movie I’m turning it off. I just can’t anymore. It’s not normal and I wish I’d never seen any of it. And I grew up hunting for our meat. I hunted, killed, field dressed, prepared and ate animals through my entire childhood, so I know what a normal amount of killing/blood is and how it affects the psyche. It wasn’t until I saw how traumatized my kids were, coming home from school after doing active shooter drills that I stopped being able to digest this thirst for violence in our culture. It’s my opinion that it’s horrendous for our mental health and should never happen.

I agree! Mystery is intriguing and challenges our intelligence. The violent aspect isn’t necessary to achieve this though. Mystery can surround any subject and it’s just as compelling.

I don't know, I kind of wonder if it is about processing and trying to understand this kind of thing or to accept it , a bit like fairy tales which i think are used to introduce the ideas of horror to children. It might be something we don't directly experience but it's a horrible part of life we have to live with or know about.

To me it is like a puzzle to solve there is a crime and it needs to be solved, either who did or how they did it or both in some cases.

Where 'chick lit' for want of a better word there is no point to it, they meet they have an issue and it all comes good at the end

I may add more later

I’ve been thinking about the popularity of murder who-done-it in books and tv/movies for awhile. Interestingly, I didn’t reach the conclusion you did, about looking for shocks!

my (current) view is that it is an easily definable issue to watch/be involved in. When you read a book or watch tv/movie, you get engaged in a storyline. Almost all have a ‘what will happen’ element. In murder mysteries, the what will happen is a clearly defined ‘who did the crime?’. In chick lit the ‘what will happen’ is will they get together etc. In medical shows it is again like detecting ‘what is the illness and will it kill them before we find it’ (Interestingly tv show House was written with the premise of House = Sherlock and Wilson = Dr Watson, and it’s really solving medical mysteries).

Murder mysteries are essentially like solving a puzzle or a game - a clue here, and clue there, can you guess. You could do the same with other crimes, but with murder the victim can’t speak, adding to the mystery and making it longer, to figure out what they saw and their hidden backstory bringing a murder in. Eg if it was just an assault and not a murder, and you
were watching “Midsomer Assaults” you’d just ask - Freddie who could have give you the black eye? “Well, I actually saw them, it was Helen down the street who I am competing with over best orchid at the fair next Monday, as unknown to you I took up orchid breeding in the garden shed and have been joining orchid societies.” If the person was murdered, they aren’t there to tell, and would have to uncover all that as part of the mystery.

Plus solving the mystery isn’t depended on good behaviour or being attractive, so you can have blunt or rude or old lady (Marple or Vera), old man (Poirot), on the spectrum (Sherlock), average bloke (Barnaby), young female, middle aged female (Agatha Raison), upper class (books of Queen solving crime), ex-military (Strike) lower class etc detectives but they get the job done so everyone forgives them all faults. I think this appeals to people reading/watching as it’s a meritocracy they can see themselves there, as opposed to say chick-lit where the people are attractive and within a certain age bracket and money bracket.

Finally, they rarely show any violence and almost no emotional repercussions, upset family, businesses closed down, children left without parent etc, so you don’t have any bad emotional
feelings to think about. They also are usually in a bit of a morality tale, where the person may have done something to deserve it, so you don’t even have to feel bad about it.

That’s my current view anyway.

I certainly have not had an easy life without 'thrills' or 'real horrors' and i absolutely love horror films.
I also love psychological dramas/thrillers etc.
I do find them calming for some reason.
I think whilst what you say CAN be true it's not the whole reason or even the majority reason. Some people find it cathartic because they actually have experienced these things or emotions and get something out of seeing the narrative displayed in that way.. whether it be the comfort of feeling less alone and more understood or the comfort of seeing a horror or murder mystery neatly wrap up or resolve in a logical way, giving them a sense of control.
There are people who have very uneventful lives who don't want to watch anything scary or harrowing ever at all and there are people whive experienced harrowing things who don't want to watch that.. but also vice versa

I see it as no matter how bad you think things are, it could always be so much worse. Which is a real kick up the arse some days. You also learn from watching what to look out for and what you could do to escape.
Also, the victims stories deserve to be heard and considered. Each and every one.

I don’t watch any of those programs or read books like that (hate that my fave author has gone down that route). I like a nice romcom! Can’t even be arsed with the News anymore.

My mum will start telling about someone who’s died / been murdered etc, and I’ll be thinking - really, that’s grizzly? Always turns out to be from a TV show about the wives that kill their husbands, or whatever. It’s the same with those magazines that feature DV, parental abuse etc… I’d prefer to read HELLO! But somebody must be buying them. Strange!

LordSalem, yes that’s what DH says about MIL / SILs watching soap operas. It’s to make their own lives seem better. I can’t think of anything more depressing than watching Eastenders.

Maybe it's the justice we seek out in these programmes.

That is exactly what happened with me. I was living in a country where the police didn't even bother to investigate murder and a couple of my neighbours had murdered relatives, so I found the lengths fictional detectives would go to to solve a murder very soothing.

Interesting question. And you could be right with the shocks and scares thing.

Or maybe because they stimulate us? Gives our brain a puzzle to solve. If it is a good murder mystery anyway. They are boring when you suss out who the murderer is in 5 minutes.

There's an intrigue aspect but ot goes further than that.

It's the same reason people stop to watch a burning house or accident. It's a reminder subconsciously that we are lucky

Tbh I used to seek out true crime shit but can't stomach it any more. Just men and their selfish self obsessed selves vom.

I can't deal with gore. It's too triggering.

I like mysteries for the puzzle of figuring it out and the humor and quirkiness of the sleuth.

I'd second that OP but from the other side. I have (c)PTSD and PTSD. Lots of trauma therapy (not related to murder). All I can see when people want to ride rollercoasters or watch scary/"thrilling" things are people with nervous systems that need challenging. In the case of movies or books I see people who don't realise it's not actually fiction. These horrible things they watch or read have all happened to people in multiple different ways.

So I just think they people who can control when their nervous system gets the challenge and who can do that for fun/leisure are lucky.

However, I can read/hear the most gruesome of cases in detail, if described by the victim or a professional, without any issue at all. It just can't be entertainment.

For me, I enjoy the whodunnit mystery of a fictional murder story. I don't seek out shocks for kicks. I do watch true crime but that is because I am interested in the human story element and the forensics of it. I find that science interesting. I certainly don't use these things for entertainment per se.

I like a tv murder mystery but I find it weird when real life cases are pored over, discussed & guilt or not is assigned to X person. I found some of the Nicola Bully threads strange particularly the desire by some who could only consider she was murdered. Is it because they forget it's not TV & real people are involved? Is it boredom? I suppose in the old days some people watched hangings & their is a need to see retribution.

I do feel like films are very violent & it often turns my stomach & in real life people who witness stuff like that often need therapy.

You also learn from watching what to look out for and what you could do to escape.

From a tv drama?

I think that "cosy" murder mysteries are pretty much the opposite of that. They are about order being restored after terrifying violence. I don't think it's a coincidence that the golden age of detective fiction followed WW1. It's probably addressed most directly by Dorothy L Sayers whose detective takes up sleuthing partly as a way of dealing with his trauma and survivor's guilt, but whose PTSD is also triggered by the execution of the murderers he catches and who also talks about the morality of detective fiction with one of the other characters who is a detective novelist.

I wonder that too - about people getting overly invested in discussions about unsolved, active cases. The Nicola Bully case being a good example.

I think it may be people not liking the uncertainty, wanting to feel in control and believing in/wanting confirmation of the just world theory. While it being a murder would be awful, it would also mean there's someone to blame. Having someone to blame would then mean a) it wasn't a freak accident (something we can have no control over) and b) that the person who is guilty could then he caught and imprisoned, giving a sense of control and fairness back. While a senseless murder isn't fair, locking someone up for the death of an innocent person brings a sense of just-ness to it. As a freak accident there's none if that.

For me it’s making order out of chaos.
Putting everything right after this monstrous act has happened.
Previous pp hit in something too, anyone can be a private detective.
Old, young, fat,man, woman. Me perhaps?

I agreee with you. I’m into true crime and I’m always reading about murders or disasters. My friends are too. We all talk about Netflix shows etc with true crime. I think it must stimulate our survival instinct.

I also feel hyper aware of how I would act in a survival situation. As if I could call on these actions when I most need them. I think it’s good to be prepared ultimately, one day something could happen to us that threatens our lives.

I read a book about how humans have overridden their survival instinct with the whole “do not panic” rhetoric we’re trained in school. There are countless true examples in the book of people in emergency situations who try to rationalise their experience and tell themselves it’s not a life or death thing. Which comforts them- That they will be ok. But that ultimately prevents them surviving. The book trains you how to quickly decide you’re in an emergency, think through your options and take decisive action. The book is called how to survive disaster if anyone is interested.