Symptom of Rape Culture?

[akashathekitty]

I'd really like as many as possible to comment on this, if you have the time/inclinations/a lot of feelings, okay?

It's about this story of mine. It's also available here if you aren't a member of H&V. In the Darkness, All Cats are Grey.

I just received a PM about that fic. Rather than summarize it, I will copy it in its entirety, leaving out who

Comments

[margotlefaye]

Well, now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that art should not be teaching moral lessons: quite the opposite, actually. One of the functions of art is to hold up a mirror to the real world, and sometimes, that's a funhouse mirror. What I mean is, that the image in the art exaggerates some aspect of what you're seeing in the real world, that is, distorting it a bit, twisting it a bit out of reality. But in the end, that distortion allows you to see the real world more clearly, rather than less so. So, you get things like "La Cage Aux Folles" which gives you a very exaggerated gay couple as a way of pleading for tolerance. The original Star Trek's multi-racial, multi-cultural crew was a real eye opener for American audiences in the mid-1960's, at the height of the America Civil Rights movement, and this is why Martin Luther King encouraged Nichelle Nichols (Uhuru) to stay in her minor role on the show when she was considering leaving.

And those are two minor examples of why art should not be safe, why it should question the status quo, rattle some cages and make people uncomfortable. Some of the great books of Western literature were banned, or the authors charged with obscenity. Great art has been desecrated, destroyed, burned for being immoral, blasphemous, not politically correct (whatever the current politcs of the time). As an example, a trove of sculptures and other artworks confiscated by the Nazis as being "degenerate" and long thought destroyed has recently been uncovered.

So, yes, art *can* teach great moral lessons. But that's not the only purpose of art, and trying to straight-jacket artists into only delivering sanitized "moral" messages duly approved by whatever folks think they have the right to approve or disapprove of such things is antithetical to what art should be and must be to succeed: a free and uncoerced, unfettered expression of the artist's vision, whether that vision be dark or light, comedic or tragic, safe or dangerous.

And, ITDACAG is still a great fic. *G*

[akashathekitty]

Well, now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that art should not be teaching moral lessons: quite the opposite, actually.

My apologies, I actually meant it more in the sense that it shouldn't be expected to or required teach moral lessons, like you said. Of course, it can.

One of the functions of art is to hold up a mirror to the real world, and sometimes, that's a funhouse mirror. What I mean is, that the image in the art exaggerates some aspect of what you're seeing in the real world, that is, distorting it a bit, twisting it a bit out of reality. But in the end, that distortion allows you to see the real world more clearly, rather than less so.

And as much as I HATE the concept of any of my fics supposedly being all about teaching the readers a lesson, when I look at e.g. COCK there's definitely a lot of commentary on things like sexuality / sexual equality / feminism etc. I'm trying to use the opposing views to keep a status quo so people don't attribute views to me than I actually have. Editing Hermione in that one so she doesn't preach the story to death (with views I don't always share!) is a pain. But if it can make people see other points of view and/or question why they have their own specific points of views, that would be swell. Thinking is always good.

[margotlefaye]

But if it can make people see other points of view and/or question why they have their own specific points of views, that would be swell.

This. Exactly. *G*