A Groundbreaking New Thriller Delving Deep into the World of Movie Violence
The young teenager pointed the large caliber automatic weapon at the airport security guards standing in his way, firmly squeezed the trigger and blasted them all into several pieces. The polished marble flooring soon turned red and body parts were spread over several square meters; some still sizzling from the heat of the armour-piercing rounds that tore through them. Collateral damage lost him a few points but the dozens of dead terrorists littering terminal three won him the contest. The elated boy punched his fist into the air and yelled out to his mother in the kitchen that he'd just got top score that morning. ‘Well done’, she replied. ‘Now finish your game, turn off the TV and come and have lunch with me and your sister’.
The transition is complete. Violence is now mainstream viewing. If what you want isn’t yet to be found on national television then you can simply buy it in a store or download it. No more ‘watersheds’, ‘parental guidance’ or ‘unsuitable for minors’. Such material in the previous generation was considered ‘gratuitous violence’. It has now evolved into ‘home entertainment’. The beast is out, the lid of Pandora’s Box permanently open, slowly and silently with our full approval and blessing. But where did it start and why didn’t we see it coming?
‘Blinkers – The Birth of Interactive Violence’, is a fictional novel. It tells the tragic story of Abbot Southgate, a 15 year-old killer hung out to dry by a British media frenzy against young offenders in the 1990’s. The Crown Prosecution Service dealt with the effect of the fast-food murder by caging Southgate for life, but everybody, including the police, ignored the most important factor of all…the cause.
Abbot Southgate was a copycat killer; he didn’t even realize it himself; brought up by an alcoholic mother content to let him feed himself an unsupervised diet of violent entertainment from an early age; he started with violent cartoons and ended with Peak Productions’ ‘Born to Slaughter’ at the age of 14. By the age of 15, Abbot Southgate had watched his favourite violent fantasy 43 times and was obsessed by the central characters that killed with style.
In prison, Abbott is more or less adopted by a prison uncle in the shape of long term inmate Jonathan De’Angelo, who becomes fixated by the injustice of his cell-mate’s incarceration. Immediately upon his own release, De’Angelo sets about the enormous task of winning a groundbreaking re-trial for the confused teenager.
A whole conundrum of twists and events set in mid-90s London leads to an ending you’ll never predict, but not before you realize the significant moral tale that affects us all. Featuring prison and courtroom drama this book takes us back to 1995 at the dawn of the digital media revolution and provides a valuable insight of how violence dominates the entertainment world today.
In ‘Blinkers’, a film maker is put in the dock and exposed as an arrogant profiteer, remorseless to the effects his violent films are having on society. As far as C.J. Pringle is concerned, any publicity is good publicity.
Abbott is a testimony to the failure of society to responsibly educate the young, through the most powerful medium of all…entertainment.
‘Blinkers’ is brilliantly written and admirably paced by its author, John Kean. His soft wit, delicate perception and scintillating narrative combine with Basil Simon’s morally stimulating framework to create what may become one of the most awakening novels of modern times.
If you have children of your own it will concentrate your thinking; if you fear for the world it will be a true hope; if you don’t understand it at all, then you are truly going through life wearing… Blinkers.
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