A spectacle of reality in the context of mass media resonance (on the example of Chuck Palaniuk’s “Snuff”)

Abstract

The article deals with a spectacle as an integral part of the modern mediatized world. The features of coverage of spectacles with mass media are analysed. It is noted that the most popular are spectacles, based on real events, because the effect of a reality enhances the emotion of the perception of the material.

Real spectacles transmitted through the mass media acquire a remarkable resonance. Thus, the coverage of terrorist acts, mass and individual brutal killings in media news unintentionally advertises a spectacle of “terrible” in its real size.

Such spectacles include news, extreme events, and snuff. In the modern interpretation “snuff-movie” — these are short films, videos, most often pornographic, depicting murders in real life. The author focuses on snuff films because they combine the main characteristics for attracting viewers: the spectacle, the real foundation and basic emotions — the combination of porn and horror.

The novel “Snuff” by Palaniuk demonstrates the main features of snuffs. According to the laws of the genre, in “Snuff”, there is a woman — Cassie Wright as the main character of the event, and sex as the organizing element of the book’s plot, and rape as the reason for the selection of the Cassie Wright’s profession, as well as the death of the main character as foreseen result of pornoorgia.

The spectacle of the real in the novel is intensified through the mediation of the publicity announcement and coverage of the resonance pornography in the media.

The construction of a reality in the novel is based on numerous historical facts or facts from the lives of prominent people which are told about by Cassie Wright during conversations. In addition, all of them is accompanied by a phrase-refrain “true fact” to underline the reality of the course of events.