This post is dedicated to you, you wonderful darling God's child...
Just as journalists have a duty to report facts honestly, creative writers have a duty to report emotions and feelings with integrity. Put simply, things that are truly horrible should turn the stomach not invite excitement.
If as writers we make horror and death exciting instead of painful to witness, we do society an enormous disservice. Violence of every kind should never be sugar coated or glamourized. As clever as we humans are, we fail to comprehend the full terror and anguish of war and tragedy when we consume it like candy in our various media. Perhaps you don't agree, maybe you feel it's harmless. I recently witnesses a cooking show (cue Hetal) where one contestant was a life long vegetarian and the others consumed meat on a regular basis. When confronted with the skinned heads of decapitated mammals all except the vegetarian laughed or showed amusement; she was the only one in the room with a proper reaction - she cried and showed visible trauma. Here in the west, what most families do (mine included) is to show children humanized animals in cartoons and them feed them ham for lunch. It's no wonder our reactions aren't as wonderful as Hetal's (the vegetarian). What we are exposed to on a daily basis, no matter how benign it appears, has a real effect on the way we view our world, humanity and our fellow creatures.
If as writers we write about violence and abuse in any form it should shake the reader up, wake them up to the real and long lasting consequences of such actions. What writers do really matters. All societies are more educated by their cultural stories than their schools and we are no different. If I read about a rape I should want to vomit, if it's murder I should feel wounded inside. Pain isn't fun. Death isn't glamour. Let's get it right.
Just as journalists have a duty to report facts honestly, creative writers have a duty to report emotions and feelings with integrity. Put simply, things that are truly horrible should turn the stomach not invite excitement.
If as writers we make horror and death exciting instead of painful to witness, we do society an enormous disservice. Violence of every kind should never be sugar coated or glamourized. As clever as we humans are, we fail to comprehend the full terror and anguish of war and tragedy when we consume it like candy in our various media. Perhaps you don't agree, maybe you feel it's harmless. I recently witnesses a cooking show (cue Hetal) where one contestant was a life long vegetarian and the others consumed meat on a regular basis. When confronted with the skinned heads of decapitated mammals all except the vegetarian laughed or showed amusement; she was the only one in the room with a proper reaction - she cried and showed visible trauma. Here in the west, what most families do (mine included) is to show children humanized animals in cartoons and them feed them ham for lunch. It's no wonder our reactions aren't as wonderful as Hetal's (the vegetarian). What we are exposed to on a daily basis, no matter how benign it appears, has a real effect on the way we view our world, humanity and our fellow creatures.
If as writers we write about violence and abuse in any form it should shake the reader up, wake them up to the real and long lasting consequences of such actions. What writers do really matters. All societies are more educated by their cultural stories than their schools and we are no different. If I read about a rape I should want to vomit, if it's murder I should feel wounded inside. Pain isn't fun. Death isn't glamour. Let's get it right.
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