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I have been exchanging PM's with another author who thinks that expressed Rage can have a strong role in stories. His assertions have caused me to be quite thoughtful about the concept.
I've been thinking about how Rage could have been a useful feature in my own stories. I believe the only story that I have written that had substantial rage in it was "Katia in Afghanistan", and then the rage was expressed in her actions against assailants who were attacking others. She did not attack the Taliban as having personally attacked her but they were simply the bad guys.
Hollywood has a sickening abundance of movies where the good guys finally get mad and vanquish the bad guys. After a while the formula gets boring.
I recently heard about a movie being contemplated called, "The good dinosaur", that will not be coming out because of insufficient viewer interest.
So, I am hacking away on a new story and debating making my heroine a more rageful character. Hmmm.
So, in your personal experience does rage play a role in your recovery from traumatic incidents?
For years, yes years, my shrink has insisted that I am angry, but I have not felt it. Recently, I felt I was feeling somewhat indignant, but very quietly, and told my counselor that I could feel the anger now.
It's worrisome, because other than a couple sighs, it never manifested. Perhaps, some of those who have experienced truly extreme violation, simply find any expression of anger to be repugnant?
Comments
Everybody is different
In how they deal with things. Quite apart from my own experiences as a child, I've all too often seen the results of Man's inhumanity to Man. I've grown to expect very little from people, and very-very seldom am I surprised. I've got a lot of anger inside, and if you won't help yourself, and just let the evil roll over you without fighting, I've got no sympathy for you. (Disclaimer here, I don't mean you personally Gwen, nor do I mean children.) I really don't know what I would do if I were a parent, but I've bucked authority several times in order to try and help a child. People that won't stick their neck out to help a child in need are beneath contempt. So yeah, in my case I don't always tightly reign in my anger.
I don't know if I said anything that will help you. I'm not even sure if I answered the question the way you meant. It is what it is. It's the way I write my characters - suck it up, face the world, and for god's sake make a positive difference!
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Rage
As far as defending a child, certainly, everything and at all costs.
The rest of it, not so much.
G
Rage
Having finally been diagnosed with PTSD and being treated for it, I've realized that the rage I displayed didn't play any role in my recovery. It was a result of NOT having an outlet for recovery. Talking to my psychiatrist and facing that rage allows me to see where it was coming from and my gradual recovery has allowed me to deal with that rage.
Rage is actually abnormal. Displaying anger, just showing upset or frustration are "safe" outlets for feelings. Rage is uncontrolled anger and only results in pain, whether physical or psychological.
Rage is not the cure. Rage is the result of the traumatic incident(s). The rage must be redirected or understood before the actual cause of the rage is cured.
Hope this helps, if but a bit.
Hugs,
Erica
Rage
Oh, I can get angry and even um flippant, but I tend to use my tongue. However if there is a child involved, all bets are off; I might just kill a perpetrator, and that gives me pause. Would I really? Right now, I am going to say, "You Bet".
The Rage side of things, well I have seen so much of it directed at me, that I'm just repulsed at it.
G
Anger or Rage?
Hi,
Good questions. I don't know about rage as a causal nexus in story. I'm well aware of revenge as a plot device, and could well argue that it is a manifestation of anger and determination. But, to me, rage is blind anger, without thought, instantaneous and an expression of a primal emotion. Therefore, rage could be used in a murder mystery or some similar story. But, the moment it becomes a considered action or results in a planned action, I think it fails to be rage.
Regardless, good question.
Red MacDonald
Rage in a story
No one plans on raging against anything. You plan revenge, you plan to get even. Rage is nothing more than an emotional release when the water boiling in a pot boils over. When someone deliberately takes an anction against another person and does something to them without their consent, without their knowledge completely. This action causes them to loose everything they believe, know, all the dreams and goals they have worked for have been taken away from them is where RAGE will enter in. Everyone has heard of the example, be aware of the quite ones if they blow up they blow up big. Even in the most calm, mature individuals, when something is done on this magnitude, the emotions are going to boil over. Once they do the person normally according to the so call experts they are able to deal wiht the changes. You can also tell a lot about a person in how they release their pent up emotions and how they go forward. If there is LOVE invovled then TRUST must be rebuilt before any true relationship can even be thought to be rekindled. This is my problems with the great authors that write our stories here and at other sites. It makes writing the stories so much harder to describe that moment of rage and then bring back the person who did the force change and the person being changed back into a relationship to get the ending you want. Great authors are like any other great people, they shouldnt take the easy way out and use RATIONAL as a way the victim overcomes their force change.
This is just my opinion. I have told many of you how much I respect your talent to write. I have given constructive critisism to a few hopefully it was taken as such. In real life people dont rage everyday. In 95% of people today I would bet the farm they have never had an event that would come close to the water boiling over and rage would happen. But it does happen and when it is needed it can clean the souls and allow the person to move on.
Just my opinion
SDom
Men should be Men and the rest should be as feminine as they can be
Rage
I have expressed anger at what happened to me except when disciplining my children at first. When I saw what was happening, that stopped really fast. Oddly, whilst going through all the sickening lurches that a trans-person goes through, there was never rage, only sorrow. Of course, I had an orchectomy and got on estrogen really fast when I started to understand what was happening, so perhaps that muted my response to the losses.
I will say that there is a vulnerable place for me, and that is if I witnessed a rape, or abuse of a child, I would kill the perpetrator if at all possible. I will freely admit that those situations trigger the horror of my own past abuse.
It is hard for me to write about situations where a protagonist is experiencing rage, and would likely be much harder if an enraged man attacked one of my protagonists. I have not tried it and likely will not try it unless there is someone close to me that can pick up the pieces.
I tried my hardest to write the sort of thing into "Katia in Afghanistan", and feel that I did not do it justice, and that did experience a sort of "melt down" while writing it.
Personal Rage
Gwendolyn, when a person as yourself has experienced such tramadic experiences it makes them appreciate what life is about. Especially when suicide is such option as you said it was for you. Once a person has such events and has come that close to ending everything it is very understandable that it stills has an affect on your ability to do what you love. I do not know what the authors have experienced and have not experienced in their lives. But reading your explaination has made me take a look of what I have said about writers/authors taking an easy way out. That was toally unfair and outright stupid. I hate stupidity, I hate it with a passion. I do not know what makes an author a great author nor more than I know what makes an athlete a great athlete. It is what it is, but I do know this, when a person experiences such a loss, has something taken away from them that is essential to who they are at some point that person's emotions will overbroil. How this release/blowup whatever you want to call happens is different from person to person. But in order to move on to get on wiht your life as it happens to be from that time on you must release those negetive feelings to have room for positive ones. Gwendolyn you are person who has been through a lot and has come out on the other side. You know what it means to cherish what life is and I hope you have many more days to give those around you your love and happiness.
Best wishes and I have truly enjoyed our chats since we started.
Hugs Karl
Men should be Men and the rest should be as feminine as they can be
Ummm...just a thought...
Rage plays a crucial role in recovering from any sort of trauma. It is the victim's discovery of how that trauma has shaped their life until the time the rage surfaces. I never considered myself to be an angry person who was capable of rage and acting on it, but I was and still am. The rage we feel is like the vent on a pressure cooker. When the pressure builds up to a great level, if we don't vent it, we explode into psychosis.
I find any manifestation of rage that takes the form of violence to be horrid even though I am guilty of just that. Fortunately my dishes are plastic and my 'pitching arm' not very powerful. The real question is how to vent that rage in a meaningful and purposeful manner where the result is positive. Some people vent it through physical activities. Others write tales. I am quite blessed to have found writing. The tales themselves don't necessarily need to be violent. The mere stating of what the problem might be and how a solution is reached could be enough. I write to vent my rage. I have quite a bit of it so even my 'short' tales tend to be long.
We each need to find our own way of venting our rage; something that makes us utter 'whoof...that was intense' and gives us that feeling of relief if only for a short period of time.
A Thousand Blessings...
Kelly
Dealing with our own baggage
First, my disclaimer: I am not a mental health provider and the only thing I know about psychology I learned while dealing with my own baggage.
Years ago, I used to have these little rages, that were totally off the wall, and would upset everyone around me. I would yell and swear and stomp off. After I cooled down, I felt humiliation because I was trying so hard to be a good person.
I hated my stepfather, the sexual perpetrators who attacked me, and the Evangelical Church. The fact that I could not get rid of that hate constantly accused me because Jesus Christ said to love our neighbors as ourselves. Religion is not a force for good in many people's lives but it is for me, so I am writing about my reality.
I am greatly astonished by the fact that since becoming Mormon, those hatreds that so accused me for so long are now gone. I do not expect some to believe that, but I do.
You are...beyond any reasonable doubt...
...one of my favorite people. You simply never give up and you never quit!!! Those are the two cardinal rules to not simply surviving a traumatic experience, but thriving in spite of it. Appealing to one's 'higher power' is always the first, and biggest step.
May You Have Strength Always...
Kelly
In 2008 I was a pain in the Ass.
Thank you for the kind words. I had two people in my life that kept getting me picked up by the police and taken off to the psych ward in 2008. The stubbornly loved me and supported me while I was being a complete drama queen. I was reading some old Facebook entries from that time, and find them quite embarrassing now.
I'm not even close to being a popular author. I have around 400 kudos, and it seems great when I get 30 votes on a story. I write what I feel, and I'm completely ignorant of D&D, or witchcraft. I love Sci Fi and have used some fictional Physics. Perhaps that does not appeal to everyone.