Disturbing Article - Is Fantasy Really Becoming Offensive?

[L.L.Lotte]

It is easier to voice complaints of offense now than it ever was though. The internet provides an anonymous platform. You can hide your identity and then say the most hurtful of things, and nothing will come back on you.

But yes, attention seeking at the core of it all -- after all, that is the very basis that social media exists. People trying to get other's attention. "Trolls" exist on the internet because they are entertained by reading people's reactions to the drama they cause.

 

[Cathbad]

I'm afraid I don't see what is to be gained by making offensiveness a goal. Nobody ever opened somebody else's mind to new ideas by first pi**ing them off.

Not what I meant.

If you're not offended by what happens to his mother at the beginning of my Darganau novel, you ain't human. If all you mean by "offended" is racism, my bad... I'll back out.

But frankly, I don't think there's ever been a novel on a best seller list that didn't have something "offensive" in it.

Without a drop of controversy, what is it? Not real; at best, boring fiction.

 

[Cathbad]

Fiction is often a mirror of the realities that exist at the time it is written. How could someone write about today's world, and not show the racism that has bubbled over? An author who changes his/her work for the sake of being PC loses my respect.

 

[Danny McG]

It's a book, big deal, there's loads of others.
I think there should be a new genre in amongst crime/thriller/science fiction/ espionage etc etc

'non-offensive' so those of hyper attuned sensibilities could happily purchase them only.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Typing faster than what you could be thinking has always been a situation with online technology. If one now writes a story where all the characters are described by their hair color and clothing, socially that can be considered poor writing simply because the writing does not specify every physical feature and their personal aspirations and so the assumption is made that all the characters look like themselves.

 

[HareBrain]

But yes, attention seeking at the core of it all -- after all, that is the very basis that social media exists. People trying to get other's attention. "Trolls" exist on the internet because they are entertained by reading people's reactions to the drama they cause.

Yup. And as people invest more of themselves on the internet, their self-images become increasingly dependent on it, until you end up with a load of fragile egos thrashing around like rats in a sack, in my opinion. Even from my fairly limited exposure to Twitter, it seems to me that a lot of people on both political wings are like hungry hawks waiting to spot prey and then be cheered for it.

(Not sure what you get when you cross a rat with a hawk ...)

 

[Brian G Turner]

Oh, look, another outsider article trying to stoke up bad feeling, and an author who says their novel is so controversial you'll have to buy it to make up your own mind.

Rather than let it stoke up bad feeling here while achieving marketing goals, I'll close the thread and let us move on from it as we're already moving into discussion of social politics.