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Blogs by Joel Arnold
Control - and a little more about Northwoods Deep
12/13/2010 2:32:34 PM
Regimes/governments throughout history have exerted control over the populace through coercion and fear. This is reflected in literature/movies quite often; 1984, A Handmaid's Tale, The Killing Fields, pretty much anything to do with the Nazis - you get the picture.
So at one point a while back, I wondered about controlling a populace by giving them what they want - or at least what they think they want. This culminated in my short story 'Mr. Blue' (available in Bedtime Stories for the Apocalypse, plug, plug, plug) in which a population has access to all the 'happy' drugs and sex they wanted. This keeps them docile for the most part, keeps them from noticing or caring that they were basically prisoners in their apartment complexes.
I also used this idea for the evil entity in my novel Northwoods Deep. It keeps its 'guardian' loyal by exploiting its innermost wants and desires, giving it mind-blowing, and very addictive hallucinations; dreams, really, but extremely vivid and realistic, so they feel as if they're actually living them. This keeps the guardian (in this case, an old man named Augustus Meyer) willing to do whatever it takes to keep this entity alive and well fed - even if its food includes a variety of people.
I suppose this isn't much different than the ancient Romans, for example, giving their population the Colosseum - controlling the population's blood-lust by letting them live vicariously through the savage tournaments that took place there. (Which of course has its modern day equivalents, too.)
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More Blogs by Joel Arnold
• The Sucking Suckathon of Suckiness - Monday, May 21, 2012
• Mississippi Pearls and a Car Biding Its Time on the Ice 'til Spring - Thursday, December 29, 2011
• One Decade, One Story - or how One Thing Leads to Another - Wednesday, December 28, 2011
• Racing Minnesota-style! - Wednesday, December 28, 2011
• This Here Minnesota Horror Author was a Big Old Scaredy-Cat - Thursday, December 22, 2011
• Jack the Blob Killer - Monday, December 19, 2011
• Death Rhythm - Tuesday, September 20, 2011
• More Writing What You Know - Monday, September 19, 2011
• How I Interpret 'Write What You Know' - Wednesday, August 03, 2011
• Blessings - or - What I write after having one too many... - Wednesday, August 03, 2011
• 120 Miles in a Canoe - Monday, June 27, 2011
• On Stephen King - Thursday, June 23, 2011
• Why Horror? - Wednesday, June 22, 2011
• Zen & the Art of Swearing - Friday, June 10, 2011
• If Coffee Shops were Run by Airlines - Thursday, May 12, 2011
• Trying to Figure Out What Scares Me - Monday, March 21, 2011
• My Confession - Tuesday, March 08, 2011
• Going Indie with my novel Northwoods Deep - Friday, March 04, 2011
• How I Envision Conflict When Writing - Thursday, March 03, 2011
• Wall Drug - why it's one of my favorite places - Wednesday, February 02, 2011
• Jonesing for a Road Trip - Wednesday, February 02, 2011
• Snowmapocalyptopalooza - Tuesday, February 01, 2011
• How Do You Remember? - Thursday, January 20, 2011
• When your parents are librarians... - Tuesday, January 18, 2011
• The genesis of a novel - the first 6 days - Tuesday, January 04, 2011
• Searching for Truth - Characterization - Thursday, December 16, 2010
• Control - and a little more about Northwoods Deep - Monday, December 13, 2010
• Bukowski - Wednesday, December 08, 2010
• Flies, Flies, Spam, and Flies - Friday, December 03, 2010
• Naivete and the Young Writer - Thursday, December 02, 2010
• For Writers looking for some Adventure - Wednesday, December 01, 2010
• My usual rider for family/friend appearances - Tuesday, November 23, 2010
• Writing and Me - a dramatization - Wednesday, November 17, 2010
• Writing Tip o' the Day (now with vitamin C!) - Tuesday, November 16, 2010
• The Power of Music - Tuesday, November 16, 2010
• To All the Bookstores I've Loved Before - Monday, November 15, 2010
• The Care and Feeding of Writers - Sunday, November 14, 2010
• Rudiments - Thursday, November 11, 2010
• Writing Tip o' the Day - Wednesday, November 10, 2010
• Tragedy - now with 50% more pathos! - Tuesday, November 09, 2010
• Perspective - Monday, November 08, 2010
• The Daunting Dauntiness of Tweeting on Twitter - Saturday, November 06, 2010
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