Am I Desensitized?

"Revenge is a dish best served cold." - Old Klingon Proverb

About a year or so ago, I went to a book club discussion about Hunger Games. Everyone's heard of it. Kids fight to the death for entertainment, winner promised riches forever, gore, gore, gore, tough decisions, an inkling of romance, the end. I LOVED it. I loved the description of the bloody battles, the fight or flight situations, all of it. At the meeting many were saying, "I don't know what I would do if I had to send my kids to fight," and "I had to put the book down because it was so brutal." RBP and I were confused. We thought the violence was great. I mean, it says in the book jacket it's about kids fighting to the death right? You should expect some gore.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2. It's about a woman who left her job as an assassin behind because she was going to be a mother. Her boss didn't like that idea very much and calls on his other assassin employees to assassinate her. The very first shot in the movie is of a brutally beaten, very pregnant woman, also known as "The Bride," getting shot in the head. The killers leave her for dead but she survives. She wakes up after a four year coma, realizes she has lost her baby and is out for revenge!

I don't know why I love this movie so much. The Bride is amazing! Unfortunately there is a ton of foul language (it's a Quentin Tarantino flick) and GORE! Lots and lots of gore! The violence doesn't bother me and I have no idea why. Even through all the gore, there are some touching moments; hard to believe, I know. It's been years since I've watched it but it'll always have a place in the black parts of my tender dripping bleeding heart.