the fossil record
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3 Questions About Anger
1. What sort of muse is anger---any good?
Tom Perrotta: In a sense, anger is the opposite of empathy. When we're pissed off, it's almost impossible to see anyone's point of view but our own. This could be a problem for a writer, especially a fiction writer who's committed to exploring the inner lives of multiple characters. On the other hand, anger is a form of passion, and that's fuel for writing. My guess is that it's good to get angry, and good to have some distance on that anger when we use it to try and create something.
2. If you were injured by a reckless driver and lost your capacity for anger,
what might you demand as compensation?
Tom Perrotta: Ha--this is a trick question. If I lost my capacity for anger, all my litigious impulses would vanish along with it. You've come up with a high concept for a movie, though. Adam Sandler is..."The Man Who Can't Get Angry."
3. If the Incredible Hulk is not a great
work of art about anger, what is?
Tom Perrotta: You're right about this. The Hulk is a beautiful, elemental myth, one of those stories that seems to belong not to an individual writer or artist, but to the collective mind of a culture. The Hulk is the dream of every little kid who's ever been bullied by a bigger one.
Interestingly, the Hulk feels timeless in a way that some of the other iconic works about anger from my childhood no longer do. Does anybody remember "Billy Jack" or "Walking Tall" anymore? Both are stories about violent revenge on bullies that are firmly rooted in the politics of the 60s and 70s and feel quite dated right now. But they made a huge, exhilarating impact on me back when I was growing up.
I would also say that our persistent need to assuage our anger through stories-- to represent the revenge of the weak and humiliated against the strong and arrogant--works as a kind of counterforce to the Christian message of forgiveness and turning the other cheek. Go ahead, Jesus, tell that to the Hulk.
Tom Perrotta is the author of Election, Joe College, Little Children, and The Abstinence Teacher. (www.tomperrotta.net)