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Jun. 6th, 2017 04:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
violsvaThe problem with the worst forms of prescriptivism applied to media is that they are trying to find a way to make people write media that absolutely no one will be offended or upset by.
Problem one: This is impossible. There is nothing that anyone finds appealing that someone else won’t really really dislike. And I don’t mean “be indifferent to”, I mean “be actively repulsed by”. And yes, I’m including fluffy happy fantasies of people taking care of each other: some people cannot read those without going into depressive spirals. Some people just get so bored they can’t finish them.
Problem two: No one ever loved a book just because it didn’t offend them.
No one ever loved a book just because it wasn’t terrible. It has to actually be good - by their definition of good. And that’s where Problem One comes in - as soon as a book is doing something a reader will love, it’s doing something that another reader will hate.
Some people want ass-kicking female characters who will protect their friends and conquer their enemies. Some people hate violence.
Some people want to read about gay male couples getting together and living happily ever after. Some people hate romance. Some people don’t want to read about men.
Some people love complicated deep beautiful prose and pages of exposition about a character’s inner state; some people want to get to the fucking point.
And all of this gets intensified when it comes to sex. Anything that anyone finds hot - urophilia, say, or anal play, or penises - someone else is going to find absolutely disgusting and an immediate turnoff.
The solution is insight, and self awareness. The solution is the ability to recognize that your own upset, or your own joy, is not universal.
Nothing is universal. Nothing will apply to everyone. That is the fundamental point of diversity - people are different. People want different things, and that’s good.
If you write something that makes at least one person happy, it will make someone else furious. Someone else will be bored. Someone else will be grossed out. Someone else will think it was okay but forgettable. Someone else will think it was lifesaving.
If you want to write something good, you need to be prepared to write something upsetting.
Problem one: This is impossible. There is nothing that anyone finds appealing that someone else won’t really really dislike. And I don’t mean “be indifferent to”, I mean “be actively repulsed by”. And yes, I’m including fluffy happy fantasies of people taking care of each other: some people cannot read those without going into depressive spirals. Some people just get so bored they can’t finish them.
Problem two: No one ever loved a book just because it didn’t offend them.
No one ever loved a book just because it wasn’t terrible. It has to actually be good - by their definition of good. And that’s where Problem One comes in - as soon as a book is doing something a reader will love, it’s doing something that another reader will hate.
Some people want ass-kicking female characters who will protect their friends and conquer their enemies. Some people hate violence.
Some people want to read about gay male couples getting together and living happily ever after. Some people hate romance. Some people don’t want to read about men.
Some people love complicated deep beautiful prose and pages of exposition about a character’s inner state; some people want to get to the fucking point.
And all of this gets intensified when it comes to sex. Anything that anyone finds hot - urophilia, say, or anal play, or penises - someone else is going to find absolutely disgusting and an immediate turnoff.
The solution is insight, and self awareness. The solution is the ability to recognize that your own upset, or your own joy, is not universal.
Nothing is universal. Nothing will apply to everyone. That is the fundamental point of diversity - people are different. People want different things, and that’s good.
If you write something that makes at least one person happy, it will make someone else furious. Someone else will be bored. Someone else will be grossed out. Someone else will think it was okay but forgettable. Someone else will think it was lifesaving.
If you want to write something good, you need to be prepared to write something upsetting.
no subject
Date: 2017-06-07 02:41 am (UTC)Also, and slightly tangential to this, I'm pretty sure if I tried, I could probably figure out a way to assign sinister motives to the writer of every book I've ever read, but... why would I do that?