The Whimper Genre, aka "Psychological Suspense"

In My Humble Opinion
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In a long-ago posting lost in the mists of time*, I posted a rant about the movie “Contact” (Jodie Foster) and railed about having been led on by advertisements & interviews portraying it as a “female hero” movie, only to find myself watching a woman looking like a deer caught in the headlights as everything (good or bad, as the plot twists) happens to her under the control of other people.

Today I am 2/3 through a paperback mystery someone discarded at work and the emotional structure is identical. Woman is haunted and horrified by Bad Things that have happened to her in her past. Overprotective male person who is supposed to be on her side does other (minor) Bad Things in the process of protecting her, frustrating her with the sense of powelessness and of not being understood & heard. Other characters appear bent on destroying her by any means possible. The Overprotective Guy says some things and the main character accidentally comes across some items she presumably isn’t intended to see and is haunted and horrified by the possibility that he isn’t on her side at all and is helping to destroy her. After many chapters of agonizing and worrying and being haunted and horrified, she finally decides to take action, and gets nowhere and needs rescuing from some mess she got herself into in the process of trying to take action, and the rescuer is, of course, the Overprotective Guy, who subsequently restricts her freedom yet more, treating her attempt to take action as a clear sign of the necessity of her childlike status. And so on.

What’s WITH this genre? I can see the attraction to readers of ambivalence about a powerful ally with overprotective overtones (“Is this person good for me or is this person smothering me and stealing away my freedom?”), but how can anyone sit through so much passivity and nail-biting on the part of the main character with whom one is encouraged to identify? Am I the only one who reads or watches these and ends up feeling like slapping the main character across the face and screaming, “You are NOT in a good place! Bad things are happening! Quit being ambivalent and get the fuck out of this situation by any means necessary!” --??
*(perhaps pruned? search engine don’t find…)

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Well, THAT sure generated a lot of thoughtful discussion!

::pout pout::

::stomps off::

::slams door::

3

Well, it’s easy to loftily say, “I would do such-and-such…”, but IRL you don’t know, at first, if creepy occurrences are random. When you’re reading a book/seeing a film, you know that the story wouldn’t be told if Bad Things weren’t happening, and you know that they must all tie together and lead to some kind of showdown. But when they’re happening to you, you deal with them one by one.

Plus, IRL, you have to deal with day-to-day things that novels and films don’t discuss. Someone once asked me, “What would you do if you went into the parking garage at work and someone jumped you?”

“How would I know? First of all, what someone? Bigger than average, or just average? Do they have a weapon? Did I see them first? How close am I to my car, or to the entrance? Is security around, that I can call for help? What mood am I in: tired and slow to respond? Cranky and ready to go off on anyone? Exuberant and less suspicious than normal? Do my feet hurt? Is my stomach upset? What do I have in my hands? Is it dark?”

I feel frustrated too, when I read such things, but it may partly be frustration with myself, knowing that I might not handle such a situation properly.

[hijack]A few weeks ago, I was leaving Albertson’s and heading for my car. Some guy leaning up against his car called “Hi beautiful” and I didn’t respond, nor look at him. (I’d seen him when he was in my line of vision, so I figured that was who it was.) After checking my back seat, which one must always do and getting in, it occurred to me that he might have been saying the same thing to every unaccompanied female, waiting for one to finally respond. I should have told store security. I hope there’s no one out there who wishes I had.

Anyway, I always look in my back seat, and I look around me, but apart from that, there’s not much I can do as a precaution. If anything does happen, I’ll just have to deal with that particular situation as and when it happens.[/hijack]

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I don’t know what is with the genre either. My personal movie pet peeve is the woman who whimpers in the corner while two big guys fight. Personally, I wouldn’t bet my life on the good guy winning, and would be searching for a heavy object to use as a weapon.

Rilchiam has some good points about how you never quite know how you’re going to respond to any given situation. Generally speaking, I know that I’m a bit of a fighter, however, if I’m almost doubled over with stomach cramps and a migraine, it’s unlikely I would be at the top of my game.

AHunter3, I’ve read similar books, and I’m at the point where I just put them down, or skip to the end as soon as I realize that the main character is a complete wimp. For better or worse, I’m a person of action, and it irritates me to read about someone who just lies there and waits.

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As in Highlander 1!