Duties Owed by a Writer

[FifthView]

This ignores what else I said in my post you're referring to...



I wasn't saying that the reader has no responsibility in the matter. I was saying that we as authors owe the reader the truth up front about the story content, so the reader can best make up her own mind. Effectively, the reader must define for herself what is "trash" and decide what to bring into her personal "campsite." But an author who lies to or misleads her about the content of a book is being irresponsible. Yes, she can put it down after she determines it is not for her, but if she was lied to or misled so the author could make a sale, tick a download counter, or just get someone to try their book, that's wrong.

An author can write whatever. But if I'm going to be asked to spend my time or money on their book, I as a reader ask that the author be upfront with me as to what the book is about and not try to manipulate me into reading even the first sentence on pretense.

Fair enough. The metaphor as written was not a great metaphor to use, I think, for the reasons I gave earlier.

Your concern seems to center on the marketing rather than the writing of a novel, so I wonder if a better metaphor might be a property owner (reader) renting out an apartment (his mind) who should be able to expect honest and true information from the would-be tenant (novel) on the rental application.

Maybe the applicant has two dogs (vivid sex scenes) but tells the property owner, who does not allow pets, that he has none.

Well, that would be an outright lie, and I suspect that lies by omission are also a concern—author doesn't have the trigger warning, Trigger Warning: Dragons Doing What Dragons Do!—so maybe the applicant fails to tell the property owner that he's a serial killer and plans to chop up bodies in the apartment and feed the parts to his pet komodo dragon. This would leave a horrible mess.

This is an interesting consideration. With respect to commerce, I do have an interest in preventing false advertisements. I'm not a parent, but I do believe in a parent's right to shield young children from scenes of explicit sex and violence.

I think the problem with trigger warnings and genre labels for novels would lie in the great number of potential triggers and the fluid, non-specific nature of both triggers and genres.

I mean, if I had dragons doing what dragons do, should I have a warning about violence, bestiality (dragon who takes a human form and has a romantic liaison with a human-born prince), animal cruelty (said dragon's evil plans are stopped when that prince's mother slays it), and magic use (how the prince's mother accomplishes her animal cruelty; a problem for some of the faithful in our world.)

Genre labels (or category labels on Amazon) can also be a problem due to the fact that these aren't clearly defined and novels may fit into multiple categories. If I have a romantic subplot, can I list it in the romance category as well as the epic fantasy category? Must I also list it in the LGBT category if that romance is between same-sex individuals? What if I have it in both romance and LGBT categories because it has both, a romantic subplot and LGBT characters—but the romantic subplot is a single romance between two of the heterosexual characters; will LGBT buyers feel as if I've lied to them?

 

[Devor]

@FifthView, you're just making it worse on yourself because all of that suggests a need for a legal "ratings" system like we have with movies and video games and television. Regulations such as these are known in business circles to be a "barrier to entry," and while it's a hurdle that movie and TV makers are fully capable of jumping, I doubt most authors would fancy to pay to have their books rated, or to revise their story for a better rating.

The only other remedy is to have Amazon (and others) manage it through a reactive complaints system (which I suppose they probably do already).

^Both of those create obligations through a third party that can enforce them that I think are probably outside the range of what Steerpike asks in the question.

((edit))

As for trigger warnings, the only one I've personally come to accept a need for is regarding the R-word.

 

[FifthView]

Ah, yes, maybe I wasn't clear. I'm highly skeptical of the idea of inherent duties with respect to marketing of a novel, particularly through the use of trigger warnings and some program of lock-tight genre/category descriptions.

I thought this skepticism would show in the post. It's not an idea I would refuse to contemplate (purely mentally), because I think it's interesting; but, as with other types of universal duty for authors, I think any practical application would cause more harm than good.

The issue of marketing does seem to lie beyond the scope of the OP, but it popped up so...

@FifthView, you're just making it worse on yourself because all of that suggests a need for a legal "ratings" system like we have with movies and video games and television. Regulations such as these are known in business circles to be a "barrier to entry," and while it's a hurdle that movie and TV makers are fully capable of jumping, I doubt most authors would fancy to pay to have their books rated, or to revise their story for a better rating.

The only other remedy is to have Amazon (and others) manage it through a reactive complaints system (which I suppose they probably do already).

^Both of those create obligations through a third party that can enforce them that I think are probably outside the range of what Steerpike asks in the question.

 

[Michael K. Eidson]

@ FifthView, I like your metaphor, for the restricted viewpoint that you thought my metaphor was intended. I'll drop my metaphor. Done. Moving on.

The OP put forth the following:

Whether and to what extent the author owes any duty to society, the art form, or any other party.

That's a large scope. It's good to break it down further and examine the pieces.

If the author lets no one else read her writing, then she has no duty to anyone. Or is that not true? What if someone in the future finds her writing? Is there any duty to them?

If we limit our discussion to the present and agree that the author has no duty to anyone for writing that she shows to no one, then the question of duty is not one of what the author does during the act of writing. So the author's duty, if any exists, must be concerned with what she does in distributing her writing, which in effect is the marketing aspect of writing. The author can write all the propaganda and inflammatory speech she wants, and if no one else reads it, is it worth considering what duty the author had in putting her thoughts down?

If the author hands her writing to someone else and asks them to read it, and the potential reader agrees to read it with no questions asked, is there any duty placed on the author then?

If the author hands her writing to someone else and asks them to read it, but the potential reader asks what the book is about, I think the author has an obligation not to lie or purposely mislead.

If the author makes a book available for the public to access/acquire/buy/download/whatever on her site, doesn't allow reviews on her site, and says nothing about the book at all, doesn't even show some cover art or tell the title of the book, just puts a Download/Buy button on a page that says "Please read my book," does the author have a duty to do more? This is much like handing the book to someone who doesn't ask any questions. Does it make a difference whether the author asked for money in return for the download?

Suppose the author writes a romantic comedy set in modern America and makes the story available for download for free on their web site. They claim the story is a romantic comedy set in modern America. They don't say anything else. The main character and her love interest are lesbians. Is the author under any duty to have divulged that? Some people might think so. Others might not. Some might say it depends on other factors.

Suppose the same scenario as above, but the author asks for $2.99 to download the story. Has the author's duties changed because she is now asking for money?

Suppose the same scenario as above, but the story is KKK propaganda that the author claims is a romantic comedy set in modern America. She still charges $2.99 for it. She doesn't reveal that the book has anything to do with the KKK. That probably violates some truth-in-advertising law. We're disregarding laws in this discussion.

There are other scenarios with more gray areas. For some scenarios, there will likely be disagreements as to whether the author owes some duty to the potential reader.

I once posted a tweet about a certain subject and an author told me their book dealt with that subject. It didn't, except to use some of the same words as my tweet, as I found out by reading the whole damn thing. I was not happy afterwards and my review of their book mentioned how they manipulated me into reading their book. Did that author have a duty to me? Obviously they didn't think so. They seemed willing to use any tactic to get people to read their book. Was that a criminal act? It felt like it, but it wasn't one that legal authorities would pursue.

The OP also asks about duties owed to society. If any duties owed to the reader (which may be zero) are met, does the author have a duty to the rest of society in how their words may impact the reader's interactions with the rest of society, disregarding any legal complications? Some here say yes, some say no.

As for duties owed to the art form, as the OP inquired, perhaps that depends on whether you view art as something that exists separate from the artists. Is it what the artist does that defines the art form, or does the art form define the artist? Without the artist's expression, the art does not exist. Once the art exists, we can put a label to it and we can compare it to what other artists have done, and throw artworks of what we consider a similar nature into the same categories. But should the artist have a duty to restrict herself to only creating artworks that are easily categorized? If not, is there some other duty to abide by some definition regarding what is art and what is not art?

My answers to all the above is "don't lie or intentionally mislead about the content of your book." You might not consider that a duty, but I consider it an imperative if you don't want me to give you a bad review and you do want me to read anything else you write. It's better if you tell me nothing at all. If I pick up your book for whatever reason and decide to read it, that's on me, as long as you didn't say something to misrepresent your work. If the next person decides to read your book and you didn't misrepresent it to them, and if they subsequently do harm to a member of society and blame it on the influence of your work, then as long as you didn't do anything deemed illegal, I will not hold you responsible for the actions of your reader. Lastly, if you write something that doesn't fit existing categorizations / genres but categorize it the best you can under existing categories / genres, I won't hold that against you and say you're wreaking havoc with the art form, as long as the book blurb helps me understand that the genre is bent.