The Theatre of Cruelty is a concept in Antonin Artaud’s book The Theatre and its Double. “Without an element of cruelty at the root of every spectacle, the theater is not possible. In our present state of degeneration it is through the skin that metaphysics must be made to re-enter our minds” (Artaud, The Theatre and its Double). By cruelty, he meant not sadism or causing pain, but rather a violent, physical determination to shatter the false reality which, he said, “lies like a shroud over our perceptions.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Cruelty

I sometimes think thats what i want my art to do. To shatter the false reality. To unsettle, expand, awaken the viewer. My own awakening has been in fits and starts often prompted by art most often by the written word. Something about the slow intake of information with the ability to pause, rewind, fast forward at any time with ease makes the written word more potent in the long run. Sure an image can shock and unsteady me but in all honesty books have had a longer lasting effect on my perceptions.

So what?

I dunno

Theatre of Cruelty
A Discworld short story
By Terry Pratchett

Copyright © Terry Pratchett 1993