Map, Meet Territory

[eddvick]

Dave Langford reports on one of the worst things that can happen to a writer.
PETER ATTAWAY withdrew his horror story `The Hunting Ground' from the Infinity Plus website owing to rumours in his local community that the content -- vampires posing as children to entrap child molesters -- showed him to be a paedophile. Therefore he is unfit to coach

Comments

[feetup]

I read this in the latest Ansible (which I just retrieved today after it was automatically marked as "junk" by Thunderbird for some reason).

I haven't read the story, sadly, but the present outcome is rather chilling. I'm guessing Mr. Attaway isn't a child molester, and faulty, panicked, poorly-thought-out reactions win. Again.

(I cruised in to your LJ after searching for more on this issue. Cheers from Tampa!)

the hunting ground

[feetup]

This story was written from the viewpoint of a pedophile oggling children inthe showers and imagining what he could do to them and what they would 'taste' like. I guess this didn't sit well with the parents of the children he coached, regardless of when it was written. After all people are always saying that you should write what you know. How did he know this and where did he do his research?

Re: the hunting ground

[eddvick]

How did he know this? I can't speak for his specific case, not being a mindreader, but the usual way writers do this is research and imagination. If we didn't use our imaginations, there would be no mythology, no religion, no fantasy, no science fiction.

Do you think every SF writer has been to space? "Write what you know" can include "Write what you can deeply imagine."