I debated putting this here, because I thought it might spark a tangent. Politics is verboten, and I won't feel bad about having stray posts deleted, which I am generally loathe to do.
I have short stories set in a persistent fantasy world, mostly in one large city which is at the heart of much that is going on in the world. I have a rough outline of a timeline that I started years ago, when I first began thinking of stories in this setting.
The event that is coming up quickly in my stories is that the government of the city, in response to rumors of unrest, possibly stoked by outside interests, is going to institute a weapons ban and make the attempt to go throughout the city and collect whatever weapons they can, with the idea that a disarmed populace is less of a civil threat.
You can see where my problem comes in. The protagonists in my story are not going to favor this idea; in fact, as it works out, the act is a prelude to increased oppression by the city. Given news events of late, I can't help but think the story will be viewed by some as a commentary on real-world political subjects, when in fact it wasn't intended to be and the general timeline has been in place for quite a while.
So the question, simply, is this: without tossing out the entire idea, what are some steps that could be taken to minimize a reader's assumption that the author is commenting on real-world policies rather than just having some fun with a fantasy setting?
I have short stories set in a persistent fantasy world, mostly in one large city which is at the heart of much that is going on in the world. I have a rough outline of a timeline that I started years ago, when I first began thinking of stories in this setting.
The event that is coming up quickly in my stories is that the government of the city, in response to rumors of unrest, possibly stoked by outside interests, is going to institute a weapons ban and make the attempt to go throughout the city and collect whatever weapons they can, with the idea that a disarmed populace is less of a civil threat.
You can see where my problem comes in. The protagonists in my story are not going to favor this idea; in fact, as it works out, the act is a prelude to increased oppression by the city. Given news events of late, I can't help but think the story will be viewed by some as a commentary on real-world political subjects, when in fact it wasn't intended to be and the general timeline has been in place for quite a while.
So the question, simply, is this: without tossing out the entire idea, what are some steps that could be taken to minimize a reader's assumption that the author is commenting on real-world policies rather than just having some fun with a fantasy setting?