Skip to content
Opens in a new window
In Defense of Gratuitous Violence
25 August 2026

In Defense of Gratuitous Violence

Marlon and Jake Read Dead People

About

Marlon and Jake take on violence in fiction: what makes it effective, what makes it gratuitous, and whether “gratuitous violence” is even a useful distinction. Tune in as they discuss the difference between violence on the page and on screen and why extended cruelty can be harder to stomach than violence itself.


Subscribe to our River-herd digital newsletter and our print newspaper, The Eddy, for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content: https://sites.prh.com/the-eddy-newspaper.



    Lord of the Flies by William Golding
    All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
    Cities of the Red Night by William S. Burroughs
    Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs
    Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
    The Godfather by Mario Puzo
    The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
    A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
    2666 by Roberto Bolaño
    Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
    Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare
    The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
    Hamlet by William Shakespeare
    King Lear by William Shakespeare
    Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
    A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman
    Frankenstein by Mary Shelley