As a writer, are there any topics or types of conflict that you avoid in your writing? Tell us why.
13 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Are There Any Taboos Left?”
Don’t kill the cat. Or the dog.
I dunno. In The Executioners (Cape Fear) John D. MacDonald had Max Cady poison the Bowden’s dog, and it is chilling.
In Little Dorrit, the evil Frenchman named Rigaud poisons Henry Gowan’s St. Bernard because the dog had lunged at him earlier (the faithful pet sensed Rigaud’s evil and tried to protect his master, who of course didn’t know how bad the Frenchman was and so he beat the dog with a boot). It’s an effective foreshadowing of even worse deeds to come.
As a writer, I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t tackle if I had the right story idea….although I’d probably use a pseudonym. 😀
Graphic torture of a child. I sure hope I’m not the only one who’d stop short of this.
I’m with Joe on the personal taboo of killing a dog/cat. I can imagine the trusting eyes of my two rescue dogs and wouldn’t fathom it.
For me there are plenty of things I wouldn’t write about, but I’m all for the freedom of others to be able to write what they want to write about.
Good point, Diane–I should have made it clear that these are self-imposed taboos only, not inhibiting freedom of expression!
Never say never but for now I’m with Jordan – no torture or abuse of children or dogs (cats I’m on the fence about:)). Otherwise, I’m probably not going to write anything involving bestiality either…
Bestiality. Yeah, that. *snort*
Or horses please Clare!
Perfect timing with the Game of Thrones kerfuffle. Are there any taboos to writers? Only the ones we impose on ourselves. I had someone tell me in no uncertain terms that nothing bad had better happen to Simon the Chihuahua in my series. Well, that tells me it is a perfect time to put him in danger, with a positive resolution (my outline calls for a big fire.) I still get a gut check if the corkscrew scene in King’s Needful Things flits through my mind. Powerful storytelling that has stuck with me for years.
About rape and sexual violence.
Devil’s Deal has a scene where sexual violence is threatened. The bad guy makes it real clear, through inference, how he is going to kill her and that the male lead is going to watch. I’ve been told it is hard to read and their loathing of the bad guy and cheering when he ends badly. Good. The reality for female characters, especially in mysteries and thrillers, is that the threat of sexual violence lurks around every corner.
I tried to think of places where it was handled well.
G.I. Jane, when she is in SEAL training and the asshat trainer is in her face about what’s going to happen to her if she is captured.
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels. A writer captures a Greek muse and rapes her. Just one panel of her wrist being held down by his hand.
The incomparable Firefly/Serenity when Zoe talks about the Reavers, “then they rape you to death.”
In the movie Blindness where a group of women march out to trade themselves for food for their men.
In Stephen King’s The Stand where it is made real clear that the bad guys want Fran for their harem and the whole undercurrent between The Walking Dude and his mate.
In The Tudors, King Henry VIII pretty much sells his sister to a nasty old nobleman. In order for the marriage to be legal, it must be consummated, with legal officials present to document it. It was well handled and uncomfortable to watch.
Wil Wheaton’s madman character in Criminal Minds was terrifying. All he had to do was trail that baseball bat down her thigh to convey more horror than a graphic rape scene.
In none of these is the sexual violence cheap or gratuitous. It is gutting and tense and ups the stakes to infinity and beyond. Now, we move to Game of Thrones. I don’t watch regularly, but evidently whenever they reach an impasse, somebody gets raped or sexually mutilated. It’s become a plot trope. The fact that everybody is talking about it shows that instead of advancing the story, the rape of Sansa became the story. Another bad guy strutting his stuff by abusing his unwilling virgin bride setting up some sort of comeuppance down the road.
Wow, that’s never been done before . . .
So really to me, it’s not so much the subject is taboo, it’s how it is used. Whether it’s animal abuse, child abuse (which Criminal Minds has also used in horrific detail,) sexual violence (those are the big 3,) to me it’s only taboo if is it used as a lazy cheap thrill to artificially inflate the stakes.
Terri
Within the context of the story:
“To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.”
― Akira Kurosawa
but, to use something creepy, taboo,as a prop, isn’t very bright.
I steer clear of graphic sex or violence as they’re inappropriate to my genre, as is killing the family pet. I also don’t like to read about, or write, rape scenes or children in jeopardy.
As a writer, are there any topics or types of conflict that you avoid in your writing? Tell us why.
Don’t kill the cat. Or the dog.
I dunno. In The Executioners (Cape Fear) John D. MacDonald had Max Cady poison the Bowden’s dog, and it is chilling.
In Little Dorrit, the evil Frenchman named Rigaud poisons Henry Gowan’s St. Bernard because the dog had lunged at him earlier (the faithful pet sensed Rigaud’s evil and tried to protect his master, who of course didn’t know how bad the Frenchman was and so he beat the dog with a boot). It’s an effective foreshadowing of even worse deeds to come.
As a writer, I can’t think of anything I wouldn’t tackle if I had the right story idea….although I’d probably use a pseudonym. 😀
Graphic torture of a child. I sure hope I’m not the only one who’d stop short of this.
I’m with Joe on the personal taboo of killing a dog/cat. I can imagine the trusting eyes of my two rescue dogs and wouldn’t fathom it.
For me there are plenty of things I wouldn’t write about, but I’m all for the freedom of others to be able to write what they want to write about.
Good point, Diane–I should have made it clear that these are self-imposed taboos only, not inhibiting freedom of expression!
Never say never but for now I’m with Jordan – no torture or abuse of children or dogs (cats I’m on the fence about:)). Otherwise, I’m probably not going to write anything involving bestiality either…
Bestiality. Yeah, that. *snort*
Or horses please Clare!
Perfect timing with the Game of Thrones kerfuffle. Are there any taboos to writers? Only the ones we impose on ourselves. I had someone tell me in no uncertain terms that nothing bad had better happen to Simon the Chihuahua in my series. Well, that tells me it is a perfect time to put him in danger, with a positive resolution (my outline calls for a big fire.) I still get a gut check if the corkscrew scene in King’s Needful Things flits through my mind. Powerful storytelling that has stuck with me for years.
About rape and sexual violence.
Devil’s Deal has a scene where sexual violence is threatened. The bad guy makes it real clear, through inference, how he is going to kill her and that the male lead is going to watch. I’ve been told it is hard to read and their loathing of the bad guy and cheering when he ends badly. Good. The reality for female characters, especially in mysteries and thrillers, is that the threat of sexual violence lurks around every corner.
I tried to think of places where it was handled well.
G.I. Jane, when she is in SEAL training and the asshat trainer is in her face about what’s going to happen to her if she is captured.
Neil Gaiman’s Sandman graphic novels. A writer captures a Greek muse and rapes her. Just one panel of her wrist being held down by his hand.
The incomparable Firefly/Serenity when Zoe talks about the Reavers, “then they rape you to death.”
In the movie Blindness where a group of women march out to trade themselves for food for their men.
In Stephen King’s The Stand where it is made real clear that the bad guys want Fran for their harem and the whole undercurrent between The Walking Dude and his mate.
In The Tudors, King Henry VIII pretty much sells his sister to a nasty old nobleman. In order for the marriage to be legal, it must be consummated, with legal officials present to document it. It was well handled and uncomfortable to watch.
Wil Wheaton’s madman character in Criminal Minds was terrifying. All he had to do was trail that baseball bat down her thigh to convey more horror than a graphic rape scene.
In none of these is the sexual violence cheap or gratuitous. It is gutting and tense and ups the stakes to infinity and beyond. Now, we move to Game of Thrones. I don’t watch regularly, but evidently whenever they reach an impasse, somebody gets raped or sexually mutilated. It’s become a plot trope. The fact that everybody is talking about it shows that instead of advancing the story, the rape of Sansa became the story. Another bad guy strutting his stuff by abusing his unwilling virgin bride setting up some sort of comeuppance down the road.
Wow, that’s never been done before . . .
So really to me, it’s not so much the subject is taboo, it’s how it is used. Whether it’s animal abuse, child abuse (which Criminal Minds has also used in horrific detail,) sexual violence (those are the big 3,) to me it’s only taboo if is it used as a lazy cheap thrill to artificially inflate the stakes.
Terri
Within the context of the story:
“To be an artist means never to avert one’s eyes.”
― Akira Kurosawa
but, to use something creepy, taboo,as a prop, isn’t very bright.
I steer clear of graphic sex or violence as they’re inappropriate to my genre, as is killing the family pet. I also don’t like to read about, or write, rape scenes or children in jeopardy.