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An open plea about author and story ideologies
9 years ago
General
Good morning, afternoon, or evening, ladies, gentlefurs, all. It's been a while since I felt strongly enough to journal about something, as I luckily live a quiet, uneventful life with little to journal about. However, this one, this one touches on a topic that may very well be hair-trigger, and most assuredly is flame-bait and troll food. This matter is character/story ideology vs. author ideology.
Very recently, friends of mine, several, who write various stories; some contemporary, some science fiction, some fantasy, and some mixes of these, have come under some heated, vicious, nasty fire. And this fire pertains to them creating, using, and displaying groups, individuals, or governments who make use of reprehensible, nasty, vicious methods. Some of these are simply authoritarianism, others full-out fascism (not necessarily Nazism, note!), whilst some others are simply groups whose methodologies we find amoral, vicious, nasty, contrary, or reprehensible.
In literature, this is called making your antagonists interesting, giving them a REASON for those of us with conventional, generally Western/European morals, to be hated, to be enemies, to give us a reason to dislike them. In some cases, the story's PROtagonist is part of these regimes, making them have conflicts, issues, or indeed even making them genuinely unlikeable.
However, the flame part that creeps in here has been accusations flying fast and furious like swarms of nuclear-rocket-propelled bats is that by portraying these groups, somehow, illogically, the author must themselves somehow subscribe to and indeed support, maybe even enthusiastically, these ideals and methods. That, in order to portray fascists, one must somehow illogically agree with, even support fascism in the real world. Same for any of the other less than pleasant venues mentioned above. Sometimes, recently, I've seen this extend to specific practices, where for example an individual resorts to horrific torture, and somehow this is being equated that the author / writer somehow agrees and supports this use of force.
Authors, like artists, are often the makers of fragile dreams: houses of cards that rise at an inspiration and fall at a strong breath. They fly or sink with the author's confidence. Being compared to or accused of believing in these controversial, negative beliefs has two effects: one - it erodes and destroys the author's confidence in their decisions and themselves, and in their story, and two - it removes from an author the power to use these as contrasts: to criticize the pitfalls of an individual, government, group, or society. It puts an iceberg firmly in the path of the ability to criticize, and yes, like the Titanic, the iceberg WILL sink that ship.
Ladies and gentlefurs, friends and watchers all, while most if not all of you are firm rationalists, folk who can separate the author from their work, I am decently sure you know or have run into individuals, perhaps friends, relatives, or closer acquaintances, all of whom may share this view: that somehow the author is accountable and responsible and indeed CONNECTED to the story in such a way that they must, somehow, contradictorily, believe in these things, and that they need to be brought to heel and to task for daring the heinous act of writing about it and thus supporting and espousing this view, indeed even reveling in it. I've seen this mindset cause untold pain amongst several friends of mine recently, and indeed, I've watched these friends taken to task, screamed at, railed at, cursed at, called horrible names about it, and the hits sometimes keep on coming. I urge you all to please, if you believe at all that you can do so, to spread the word on how the reality works: that author and story are NOT one and the same, and that the author may have to use horrible, painful things as contrasts to make the good look all the better, or to draw the attention to some real-world ongoing issue.
This lone Kitsune, and undoubtedly a fair few friends, thank you for hearing me out on this matter, and, hopefully, slowing the spread of this horrible behavior.
With ultimate and heartfelt thanks to you all,
Mika Kyubi
Kitsune-at-Large
Very recently, friends of mine, several, who write various stories; some contemporary, some science fiction, some fantasy, and some mixes of these, have come under some heated, vicious, nasty fire. And this fire pertains to them creating, using, and displaying groups, individuals, or governments who make use of reprehensible, nasty, vicious methods. Some of these are simply authoritarianism, others full-out fascism (not necessarily Nazism, note!), whilst some others are simply groups whose methodologies we find amoral, vicious, nasty, contrary, or reprehensible.
In literature, this is called making your antagonists interesting, giving them a REASON for those of us with conventional, generally Western/European morals, to be hated, to be enemies, to give us a reason to dislike them. In some cases, the story's PROtagonist is part of these regimes, making them have conflicts, issues, or indeed even making them genuinely unlikeable.
However, the flame part that creeps in here has been accusations flying fast and furious like swarms of nuclear-rocket-propelled bats is that by portraying these groups, somehow, illogically, the author must themselves somehow subscribe to and indeed support, maybe even enthusiastically, these ideals and methods. That, in order to portray fascists, one must somehow illogically agree with, even support fascism in the real world. Same for any of the other less than pleasant venues mentioned above. Sometimes, recently, I've seen this extend to specific practices, where for example an individual resorts to horrific torture, and somehow this is being equated that the author / writer somehow agrees and supports this use of force.
Authors, like artists, are often the makers of fragile dreams: houses of cards that rise at an inspiration and fall at a strong breath. They fly or sink with the author's confidence. Being compared to or accused of believing in these controversial, negative beliefs has two effects: one - it erodes and destroys the author's confidence in their decisions and themselves, and in their story, and two - it removes from an author the power to use these as contrasts: to criticize the pitfalls of an individual, government, group, or society. It puts an iceberg firmly in the path of the ability to criticize, and yes, like the Titanic, the iceberg WILL sink that ship.
Ladies and gentlefurs, friends and watchers all, while most if not all of you are firm rationalists, folk who can separate the author from their work, I am decently sure you know or have run into individuals, perhaps friends, relatives, or closer acquaintances, all of whom may share this view: that somehow the author is accountable and responsible and indeed CONNECTED to the story in such a way that they must, somehow, contradictorily, believe in these things, and that they need to be brought to heel and to task for daring the heinous act of writing about it and thus supporting and espousing this view, indeed even reveling in it. I've seen this mindset cause untold pain amongst several friends of mine recently, and indeed, I've watched these friends taken to task, screamed at, railed at, cursed at, called horrible names about it, and the hits sometimes keep on coming. I urge you all to please, if you believe at all that you can do so, to spread the word on how the reality works: that author and story are NOT one and the same, and that the author may have to use horrible, painful things as contrasts to make the good look all the better, or to draw the attention to some real-world ongoing issue.
This lone Kitsune, and undoubtedly a fair few friends, thank you for hearing me out on this matter, and, hopefully, slowing the spread of this horrible behavior.
With ultimate and heartfelt thanks to you all,
Mika Kyubi
Kitsune-at-Large
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