It was not my intention to sidetrack the issue into the world of domestic animals. My apologies. I was using a personal example of how the act of killing will have different interpretations according to the individual involved.

Perhaps I should stick to the human species, as that is germane to the discussion.

Quote:
Now for the big question... Can anyone see here a comparable need in humans?


There are countless examples of people killing others and deriving sexual gratification. One only needs to look at some of the serial killers who have stalked society: Charles (?) Ng, who had a torture chamber and videotaped the murders; Ted Bundy; the Green River killer; the pig farmers in Vancouver who may be responsible for as many as 50 deaths; Gacy in Chicago who got off on murdering little boys, to name just a few. Did you know that law enforcement estimates at least 35 serial killers are active in North America today? (My apologies if I have the number wrong, I’m writing from memory sans current research.)

I’m blabbering, but I am sure you get the drift.

We are mammals. Like other mammalian predators, we have canine teeth designed to tear flesh. We have evolved into omnivores because of phycial attributes that would have resulted in our extinction otherwise - soft flesh, poor eyesite, poor sense of smell, etc.. We hunt and have always done so, for survival. Sexual selection was based on survival of the gene pool – the best hunters got laid the most because they provided. There is a very real, basic connection between sexual gratification and death in our species. We have “evolved” so that in our “civilized” state, we do not accept this connection as being “the norm”. Yet we are drawn to it nevertheless.

Popular media, especially American media, thrives on the association between death and sex. CSI Miami – hot young bodies murdered, the forensic team is … young, beautiful, intelligent, and not afraid of the autopsy room - they are, in fact, drawn to and fascinated by it CSI Las Vegas, the same except the cast is a few years older, but they play with S & M and fetishes. The Terminator and Matrix movies – leather and latex fashions, stylish wardrobes, sexy stars, lots of blood and gore and random violence. A Clockwork Orange by Kubrick blatantly connects sex and violence and death in a way the novel only hints at.

I’m going to stick my neck out here, and suggest that a great deal of the appeal to leather – treated animal hide – derives from this basic instinct. Certainly a great deal of the extreme S&M play is connected to the power play and control – to the point of life and death and the derived sexual appeal – over another.

As has been observed already, Nikka presents the case from the submissive perspective. The dominant – the one who is doing the killing – has an entirely different motivation, and I suggest that there is a tremendous erotic appeal to the power of taking someone’s life. Civilized people hunt for sport … we accept hunting certain species as “normal” – who’s to say that to a fan of snuff, hunting humans is not perfectly acceptable?

I would like to point out, by the way, that I am not a fan of snuff stories. I do not read them, and in general, do not like them. I accept that death is part of the natural order of things, and that violent death is also part of how life unfolds. Hence I have written and will continue to write death into my stories. I do not approve of the taking of a human life or an animal life for pleasure.

But I am very certain that it happens.


Ps. Alex, an intelligent thread. Thank you.

Pps. If memory serves me well, the French slang for orgasm is “la petite mort” – the little death.