Surely the important distinction is not the text itself but which character a reader empathises with — the monster or the victim.
(Personally I don’t understand why violent horror as a genre exists, and literally cannot empathise with people who enjoy it. Nonetheless I recognise that enjoyment of horror does not make one a monster).
There's a bunch of other stuff about The Nightmare of Consciousness and so on in his book The Conspiracy Against the Human Race.
What's wrong with it as entertainment?
"""You’re entertained by torture and murder of characters who had done nothing deserving of such suffering."""
That part of me wants to continue with a long rant, but by this point my rational self can sit my emotional self down with a nice cup of tea and a biscuit.
Golf stimulates some brains and understimulates others.
Sympathy, humility against my own feelings, sure. Not empathy.