I've been thinking a lot about incest fics for a while now, but especially since I read this Stuck on You fic, in my endless search for decent Matt and/or Ben fic
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My first knee-jerk reaction was just the same as yours (*wrong* *wrong* *wrong*), which is why I stopped to examine it. It just appalled me that such a broad range of fandoms exist in which incest fics are a large sub-group. It made me wonder *why* people wanted to read and write these stories, and whether my reaction was all social programming, or whether there was something more hiding underneath.
I still tend to think *wrong* *wrong* *wrong* when it comes to glorified incest stories. I think that about glorified rape stories, and child porn too. These are really dark sexual waters, and I don't really want to play in them. But, on the other hand, I am interested in psychology and what makes people tick, and why they do the things they do, including the dark, dangerous, ethically dubious things, as well as the heroic, brave and selfless things (which I think are every bit as aberrant, actually--ask me to tell you about the time I saved someone's life, and I mean literally saved their life. It was one of the weirdest things that has *ever* happened in my entire life, so much so that I've only just begun recently to write about it in my fiction).
Dark aspects of sexuality are, for me, an important part of what fiction is about: I need to know how to make a villainous act... not acceptable, but *understandable*. Cardboard cutout evil is not as interesting to me as the evil committed by people who don't realise they are evil (which is, I think, nearly all people who do evil).
I just want some understanding of why these dark topics appeal to people, and the only way I know how to do that is map my own reactions and try to understand why I have them. My reactions to fictional incest are all over the place. I find that disturbing.
The discussion zebra363 linked to two comments down is fascinating, because it covers many of the different ethical issues I'd been mulling over, but in much greater breadth and depth.
I still tend to think *wrong* *wrong* *wrong* when it comes to glorified incest stories. I think that about glorified rape stories, and child porn too. These are really dark sexual waters, and I don't really want to play in them. But, on the other hand, I am interested in psychology and what makes people tick, and why they do the things they do, including the dark, dangerous, ethically dubious things, as well as the heroic, brave and selfless things (which I think are every bit as aberrant, actually--ask me to tell you about the time I saved someone's life, and I mean literally saved their life. It was one of the weirdest things that has *ever* happened in my entire life, so much so that I've only just begun recently to write about it in my fiction).
Dark aspects of sexuality are, for me, an important part of what fiction is about: I need to know how to make a villainous act... not acceptable, but *understandable*. Cardboard cutout evil is not as interesting to me as the evil committed by people who don't realise they are evil (which is, I think, nearly all people who do evil).
I just want some understanding of why these dark topics appeal to people, and the only way I know how to do that is map my own reactions and try to understand why I have them. My reactions to fictional incest are all over the place. I find that disturbing.
The discussion zebra363 linked to two comments down is fascinating, because it covers many of the different ethical issues I'd been mulling over, but in much greater breadth and depth.
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