Fiction That Offends
So I'm doing a bad job of staying away from this one particular fanfiction community because I have this crazy idea that maybe someday all the rants will be about genuine problems and not "I didn't like what you wrote and you're a bad writer!" It's too much to hope for, but I'm sometimes ridiculously optimistic. This brings me to the newest thing to make me angry.
Someone ranted. The specific rant was about how their friend was all upset because something they read in a piece of fanfiction offended them on a personal level. The ranter sent an email/review to the fanfic author telling them that they made their friend cry because of something their characters said. The author told her to butt out. Personally, the whole mess was just that, a mess, and neither side handled it well. That's not what made me mad. So then in the comments to the rant, you had the majority of people saying "Poor ranter's friend! Bad fanfic author!" That's just standard comments for the community, so whatever.
Here's what made me want to smash someone's face in. One commenter said something like, "God forbid you sterilize what your characters are saying because it might offend someone in real life." Then you have a string of replies. The next commenter says "The fanfic author is a bad person for making the ranter's friend cry! And you should never write anything that could be offensive because you have a responsibility to your readers."
Excuse me? I write original fiction, but it's the same deal. I don't believe that I should sterilize anything (unless I want to) just because oh noes, someone might be too sensitive or offended by everything that isn't bunnies and rainbows. I mean, I tend to sterilize stuff anyway because I'm not skilled at writing it well the way I want to (the things I see in my mind are not the things I know how to write on paper), but I am not going to bend over backwards because there might be one person who thinks I should. And if it bothers someone so much, they have the freedom to take the book and chunk it through the nearest wall. I've wanted to do that myself, so yeah, I'm in support of that.
But nobody has a right to say "You should think about what you write and write it so it doesn't offend anyone." It makes them come across as entitled and controlling. Look, if you think it's so bad, do what I suggested above or hit the back button or whatever. But do not be trying to tell someone that they're writing it wrong because you think it's offensive.
Someone ranted. The specific rant was about how their friend was all upset because something they read in a piece of fanfiction offended them on a personal level. The ranter sent an email/review to the fanfic author telling them that they made their friend cry because of something their characters said. The author told her to butt out. Personally, the whole mess was just that, a mess, and neither side handled it well. That's not what made me mad. So then in the comments to the rant, you had the majority of people saying "Poor ranter's friend! Bad fanfic author!" That's just standard comments for the community, so whatever.
Here's what made me want to smash someone's face in. One commenter said something like, "God forbid you sterilize what your characters are saying because it might offend someone in real life." Then you have a string of replies. The next commenter says "The fanfic author is a bad person for making the ranter's friend cry! And you should never write anything that could be offensive because you have a responsibility to your readers."
Excuse me? I write original fiction, but it's the same deal. I don't believe that I should sterilize anything (unless I want to) just because oh noes, someone might be too sensitive or offended by everything that isn't bunnies and rainbows. I mean, I tend to sterilize stuff anyway because I'm not skilled at writing it well the way I want to (the things I see in my mind are not the things I know how to write on paper), but I am not going to bend over backwards because there might be one person who thinks I should. And if it bothers someone so much, they have the freedom to take the book and chunk it through the nearest wall. I've wanted to do that myself, so yeah, I'm in support of that.
But nobody has a right to say "You should think about what you write and write it so it doesn't offend anyone." It makes them come across as entitled and controlling. Look, if you think it's so bad, do what I suggested above or hit the back button or whatever. But do not be trying to tell someone that they're writing it wrong because you think it's offensive.