Reader: Midnight Cowboy qualifies as true tragedy porn

"Commercial media looks at things in terms of heroes and villains," Sapphire said before she came to town this week to tout to tout her new novel, The Kid (a semi-sequel to Precious -- the Hollywood adaptation of her '96 novel, Push). "And we all know that the psychological reality...

By Patricia Calhoun

June 28, 2012

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"Commercial media looks at things in terms of heroes and villains," Sapphire said before she came to town this week to tout to tout her new novel, The Kid (a semi-sequel to Precious -- the Hollywood adaptation of her '96 novel, Push). "And we all know that the psychological reality of people is much more complex than that."

And never more complex than in the five "tragedy porn" books and the films they inspired that Josiah Hesse listed in his "From Cujo to Precious" post.

But some readers weren't sure that all the books fit the tragedy-porn profile. Says atomicvixen65:

By your own definition Last Exit with its humorous element doesn't fit. Precious has a bit of a hopeful ending, and Cujo is totally over the top fantastic.

Requiem fits better I think although it does have some very dark humor elements. But I think the dark humor ads to the tragedy element. It's the nervous pause before the big smack. Cuz non-stop smacking just creates tolerance to the pain.

I was surprised to not see Midnight Cowboy or In Cold Blood. Native Son.

What other tragedy-porn books/films did we miss? See the original post here.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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