<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Congratulations, Greg! It sounds provocative.</div><div><br></div><div>Clarke<br><br>Sent from my iPhone</div><div>
<br>On Mar 3, 2014, at 7:21 PM, Gregory Desilet <<a href="mailto:info@gregorydesilet.com">info@gregorydesilet.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">New
Book on screen violence relevant to Burke-ophiles</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Screens of Blood: A
Critical Approach to Film and Television Violence</span></i><i><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">By
Gregory Desilet</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Published
by McFarland Press (Feb. 2014)</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">The
question of the relationship between screen violence and real world violence
has been long debated. The net result of this continuous debate, thus far, has
been confusion and issue stagnation. Few are clear on what is happening and,
consequently, most are hesitant to propose any general response. This book
changes the game. It provides insight on how to evaluate violent entertainment
in relation to its potential to inspire real violence and thereby opens a path
for understanding the appropriate nature of cultural and collective response.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Intense
periodic waves of popular and political concern regarding the issue of screen
violence in relation to real violence are repeatedly renewed and amplified by
each cruel incident of random or not-so-random gun or bomb violence. We have
all seen concern over this issue spike many times over the last decade.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">In
the wake of nearly every deadly incident, evidence surfaces to suggest possible
unhealthy influence derived from violent screen entertainments through film,
television, internet, or video games. The possibility of such influence then
sets off a round of opinion pieces in newspapers and blogs and a series of
political posturings in relation to popular pressure to do something about the
prevalence and intensity of screen entertainment violence. Popular outrage then
meets political stalemate as lobbyists in the entertainment industry push back
by pointing to the lack of hard evidence—the contradictory or inconclusive
results of empirical studies. Unable to persuade through hard evidence and
unable to marshal any other form of persuasive line of argument, popular
outrage readily deflects toward focus on gun and mental health regulation. But
focus on the latter two issues, while admirable and important, should not come
at the expense of focus on the issue of screen violence.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Much
more can and ought to be said and done about screen violence and these
discussions and actions need to derive from more nuanced and critically
reflective understandings. All screen entertainments with portrayed violence do
not belong in the same category of concern with regard to potential for real
world aggression and violence effects. “Screens of Blood” borrows from one of
America’s foremost literary critics and communication theorists, Kenneth Burke,
and re-imagines and expands his Poetic Categories. These categories provide a
foundation for prying more deeply into the relation between the structure of
dramatic narratives and the potential effects of portrayed violence.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">This
approach is thoroughly developed in the Introduction and the remainder of the
book is devoted to applying these insights in the analysis of particular cases.
Half of the book examines examples in film and the other half focuses on
examples drawn from popular television dramatic series. Some examples in each
section illustrate praiseworthy dramas containing violence and others illustrate
what not to do in portraying violence with regard to effects. These evaluations
turn as much on criteria for creating dramatic conflict as they do criteria for
reduced potential for violent real world effects. In sum, the book makes a
persuasive case in providing an explanation for the confusing results of
empirical studies while enlisting an alternative critical/rhetorical/poetic
methodology as the primary engine in gaining needed clarity on the question of
screen violence effects. </span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">For
further information follow these links:</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Table
of contents: <a href="http://www.gregorydesilet.com/code/Table_of_Contents_for_Screens_of_Blood.html"><span style="color:#386eff">http://www.gregorydesilet.com/code/Table_of_Contents_for_Screens_of_Blood.html</span></a></span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Additional
reasons to read: <a href="http://www.gregorydesilet.com/code/Message_to_Potential_Readers_of_Screens_of_Blood.html"><span style="color:#386eff">http://www.gregorydesilet.com/code/Message_to_Potential_Readers_of_Screens_of_Blood.html</span></a></span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Available
from the publisher here: <a href="http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7791-3"><span style="color:#386eff">http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-7791-3</span></a></span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">And
available from all other online booksellers.</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none">
<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Gregory
Desilet</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman"">Independent
Scholar</span><span style="font-size:14pt"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:14pt"><a href="http://www.gregorydesilet.com/"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";color:#386eff">www.gregorydesilet.com</span></a></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:14.0pt;text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Gregory Desilet</span></b><span style="font-size:14pt">
has spent more than two decades researching and writing on communication and
rhetorical theory, language philosophy, and various media and cultural
phenomena as these relate to conflict, violence, and community formation. He
holds degrees in communication and media studies from the University of
California at Santa Barbara and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He lives
in Longmont, Colorado. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14pt">
</span></p>
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