Murder and why we like it

When I was younger I wanted to write stories about detectives and privet investigators like Sherlock Holmes solving crimes. My most elaborate effort in this direction was a story about some Siamese twins where one brother was a genius detective and the other a bumbling idiot. This shows the great lengths that one must go to these days to be creative in this genre. Over time I have become increasingly discouraged when it comes to the dream of writing detective stories. There seems to be an overwhelming glut of these stories in literature and TV that I feel I have nothing to offer to this tide of crime solving. The other difficulty is that I really hate killing people, especially in fiction. (Hmmm)


I have a feeling that I should change the name of my blog to "I wonder why?" for that is how I seem to be starting my sentences these days. But, I wonder why we are so fascinated by crimes, murders and the solving thereof. Over and over TV shows, movies and books try to delve into the killers mind to figure out what sick idea has driven him to kill.

 On TV I think there are three main murdering types. There is the person who murders out of rage but later regrets the action. There is the person who kills because they believe they are dealing out justice. And then there is the person who commonly refereed to as a psychopath who in my assessment kills for sport. These three plots have been done over and over to the extent that I am sick and tired.
However, in the end detective stories are usually character driven rather than plot driven, which is why I guess I keep watching and reading. Of course the truly interesting crime stories are a combination of both.

Still the question remains of why so many people like to read about or watch murders happen and get solved. For me reading Sherlock Holmes it was always about the powers of observation. How the smallest detail could unravel the biggest mystery. Maybe there is the answer, I think that we as humans like mystery and a murder seems to us a monstrous mystery indeed.

I started with the intention of writing one thing and ended up with another.  I guess I will have to write again another day to see if I end up with what I intended to write this time. Tune in next time for "In defense of super evilness"