Weeping Willa

[peppermintyrose]

This is the post that I referenced in the comments concerning the likeness to Scarlett O'Hara here. When I started this post, it was with a phrase as the title from Dead to the World. It lead me on an interesting little tour. Now, the requisite quote - where "Weeping Willa" appears is here:

I sighed, and my eyes watered, as they so often did
when I

Comments

[elbly]

I absolutely love it when you post things like this... I find the comparison of Char does this, Reader seems to expect this... GRRRRR! really fascinating.

It seems that our culture of fascination with morbid details plays a big part in this - the reader wanting to be entertained by the minutiae of the horrific situations. Part of it is probably linked to a complete lack of understanding... How can a person who's never experienced rape/racism/extreme poverty/fear/etc. Or who's not got anything to compare it to really going to appreciate the horror of "and then he raped me"?

I am fully aware that the imperfection of my inexperience is mine - it is not up to the victim to explain their traumatic experience to me, it's up to me to go and find the information for myself, but unless there are survivors who are willing to lay out the details at some point down the line, those of us fortunate enough to make it to this point in our lives without the horror will forever remain ignorant.

Sookie is awesome, no doubt about it, but far too many readers (and fanfic writers) have never had cause to look further than their own little bubbles, and with too many things in our society perpetuating the concept that selfishness and ignorance are fine, and fuelling our neverending desire for gory details, these bubbles will remain un-popped :-(

[peppermintyrose]

See, that makes up for TB postage. :D :D

I think that part of the problem is the bloody talk show phenomenon. Everybody wants to talk about their experiences, and go over them. I watched one one night where the host sprang on a guest and revealed her rape and such. OMG - it was disgusting.

There are survivors who lay it out on the line - but I think often times it can be a bit of an exclusive club. Like you say - it's something that informs the rest of the world, and builds empathy (in an optimistic kind of way - obviously not in reality). I think though that expecting every single victim to lay themselves bare just gets to be too much sometimes. Too much burden to put on people. And CH isn't sharing the books with close friends she feels safe with, so I figure that's not the sort of thing she wants to go into.

I really do doubt there's anything to penetrate some of those bubbles. I think for some people, they will never see their own selfishness, and revel in ignorance. After all, if you have a clear picture, you can't demand from others without feeling like shit. Hence why I think there would be no situation which would make some people happy - Sookie would never be free of judgement. At all.