Violence. How much is not enough?

Like George Carlin said "I don't know why torture gets such a bad rap, it seems like a pretty good way of getting information out of someone who doesn't want to give it to you."

I feel similarly towards violence in the written word, if only because near everything I enjoy reading has action and ipso-facto violence. Whether it is the newest fantasy book or the scriptures. We all know Jesus wailed on people, when they deserved it. So maybe that's how I like my violence, somebody deserved it, possibly because they did violence earlier to an innocent.

One of my favorite Porter Rockwell quotes is, "I never killed anyone who didn't need killing." Sounds like something from a Schwarzenegger movie doesn't it? That brings me to my other thought. Violence isn't in movies or books to just titillate or thrill, its there in the first place because it is a reality of life and we all know it. You can turn the other cheek and be the better man but violence will still exist outside of you, watching and waiting to do harm to innocents and those you care about.

Tying this all together, I have warriors in my book discuss why they train for war, and I will paraphrase it because I cant reproduce my book here yet.
We master violence to defeat it. It is the only sane and even righteous reason. So in my mind, we train and learn, preparing to take care of the inevitable, that when it comes you can do whatever is necessary.

Violence is prevalent in my book 'Heroes of the Fallen' but it is not gory. It is simply the reality of the era of swords and sandals and ours too.