Subjects that automatically cause reader discomfort

[BWFoster78]

Speculative fiction is a great way to explore difficult concepts while escaping at least some of the emotional context that makes the issues thorny. The first example that comes to mind is Alien Nation.

The story is about racism, but, because the racism is directed at an imaginary alien race, it was able to reach an audience that wouldn't have been interested if it were about a story in a real setting.

Not saying that someone reacting in an "ick" way to a fictional portrayal is wrong as much as just pointing out the power of the genre. I'd hate for an author to stifle his creativity over concerns like those expressed in this thread.

I'm off to write my next story about an alien race that rapes its slaves... Ah, maybe not.

 

[Kit]

Yet it's a strange thing, though: that moment in George R R Martin's series when we start feeling for Jaime, the one who threw a child out a window.

Oh, me too. I find myself swinging from hating him to kinda liking him..... but no matter what he does, he just can't come back from tossing a little kid out of a tower window.

I have the same problem with Tyrion, whom I liked a lot (despite his killing of a musician) right up until....






spoiler ahead!























....he killed Shae. I certainly get why he did it, and there's an argument that she had it coming, but I still wonder if that was going a bit too far. Now I likewise swing between "he's cool/he's a jerk".

 

[SeverinR]

A while back, children killing and killing of children was disturbing.
Compare the first Conan with the remake. It was basically unthinkable to have Conan as a kid fight back or kill someone with the first, the second it was fine.
also it allowed for Conan to have sword experience rather then just build his muscles for years with no fighting.

"Hunger games", I didn't think I would like seeing kids killing each other, the movie portrayed it well.
"Kick ass"-tween or young teen gets shot a couple times and kills many violently.

I think many uncomfortable "obstacles" are coming down, good or not? I don't know.

 

[Jamber]

Kit: Yes, and Cersei, when she reveals a tiny thread of what makes her human. It's not that she's any less terrible, but it's a bit harder to want her to suffer unimaginably for what she's done.

In response to BWFoster78's fair point, if discussing the 'ick' factor stifles someone's creativity, I'd think they weren't all that sure of their ideas in the first place. Perhaps it's good for them to feel challenged to work around what readers prefer, e.g. learn to write extremely compellingly (as I feel Martin does).

cheers
Jennie

 

[WyrdMystic]

I don't think the concern is stifling creativity - I think the concern is adding the 'ick' for the hell of it and not for a specific reason (as with Alien Nation). Adding it just because is not creative. Adding it to give power to the story is.

 

[Steerpike]

I agree with Severin, and as best I can tell from what is out there in teen/YA fiction, there is no subject matter that's off the table. I haven't seen one about intimate relations with farm animals yet, but that's about the only thing I haven't seen.

 

[T.Allen.Smith]

I don't think the concern is stifling creativity - I think the concern is adding the 'ick' for the hell of it and not for a specific reason (as with Alien Nation). Adding it just because is not creative. Adding it to give power to the story is.

Concern can stifle. If the concern is over how something is portrayed, that's one thing. If the concern is over how readers may feel towards the subject, that's another.

"Some people--and I am one of them--hate happy ends. We feel cheated. Harm is the norm. Doom should not jam. The avalanche stopping in its tracks a few feet above the cowering village behaves not only unnaturally but unethically."
- Vladimir Nabokov

I'm taking this quote on a tangent away from dealing with happy endings but I feel this sentiment also deals with how characters behave. If rape or murder or being a slave trader is in a character's nature, we should not shy away from it as long as that character and their actions are relevant & necessary to the story.

 

[Steerpike]

Nice quote. That used to be my forum quote, which I've since exchanged for another one by Nabokov.

 

[WyrdMystic]

Completely agree and very well put. I meant the 'concern' of the people on the forum in this context, rather than specifically the 'concern' of the author.

 

[Jamber]

I don't think the concern is stifling creativity - I think the concern is adding the 'ick' for the hell of it and not for a specific reason (as with Alien Nation). Adding it just because is not creative. Adding it to give power to the story is.

Yes, that's the way I feel. It should be there for a reason, or I don't want to invest in it. The reason can be pretty 'out there'—it doesn't have to be there to prove that good can challenge bad. At least that's my feeling.

 

[Jess A]

I agree with Severin, and as best I can tell from what is out there in teen/YA fiction, there is no subject matter that's off the table. I haven't seen one about intimate relations with farm animals yet, but that's about the only thing I haven't seen.

A way of hinting that this is your next project?

 

[Steerpike]

A way of hinting that this is your next project?

Yep. My working title is Reindeer Games.

 

[Jess A]

Yep. My working title is Reindeer Games.

Haha. Does it involve Santa?

 

[Steerpike]

Haha. Does it involve Santa?

Yeah. Santa, Rudolf, three elves, a bit of string, and a bottle of ordinary household dish soap. I can't really say more than that without giving it away.

 

[Jess A]

Yeah. Santa, Rudolf, three elves, a bit of string, and a bottle of ordinary household dish soap. I can't really say more than that without giving it away.

At risk of going way off topic: Have you heard of a play called The Reindeer Monologues? Very funny.

 

[Jabrosky]

I care less about the presence of "uncomfortable" subject matter in a book than I do about how it portrays that subject. If a book features rape for example, that wouldn't necessarily turn me off. If, on the other hand, the book somehow argues that rape is justified or condonable, that would outrage me. I'm much more interested in what positions a book takes on the issues than whether it mentions those issues at all.

My own novel, which I have finally returned to writing after yet another re-outline, does feature the notoriously controversial problem of racism. By that I don't mean allegorical "fantasy racism" with orcs or aliens as the targets, but rather old-fashioned white-on-black human racism. This familiar brand of racism plays such a prominent role in my story that it motivates the main villain more than anything else. My villain, the ruler of a white supremacist apartheid state, wants to keep her son away from the black female protagonist. At first she will wear a veneer of politeness about it (in fact, her true agenda becomes apparent only late in the story), but trust me that once the climactic battle commences, she will shower the most revolting taunts I can conjure onto the heroine.

Would that discomfort some readers? No doubt it will, but all that would do is make the villain's defeat all the more satisfying.

 

[RDelaval]

I write historical fantasy, so I have to take into consideration the uncomfortable notions that were once considered cultural norms. To ignore them would be historical fallacy. One such topic is slavery.

I know I can't stop readers from seeing the word "slave" and thinking of the 18th century American south, but slavery in ancient Greece (the setting for my WIP) was a bit different. One of my characters is very callous about his slaves, but I want you to be a little uncomfortable about him and his motives so I feel this can add to that overall perception. Another topic is that my MC is under the threat of incestuous rape. Again, I want you to squirm a bit, to feel the ominous threat she lives with every day. There's a political reason for that threat, however, that drives the main plot; it's not simply thrown in to make the antagonist look like like a mean old man.

Will that get readers to put my book down? I honestly don't know. What I do know is that to be true to my story, my characters, and my setting, I can't gloss over these issues or make them perfectly palatable to modern sensibilities.