Sometime reasonable wins...

[maygra]

If you have not tripped over heatherly's essay elsewhere, I encourage you to read it.

You know, if that's the sort of thing you like to read.

I say this in full admission of fact that I disagree, or rather, approach differently a couple of points in the second half of her essay -- primarily from a ideological and practical POV as opposed to disagreeing with her en toto of a writer's responsibility. I'm pretty sure I'll have additional thoughts on that in a bit, if I can get my thoughts organized in such a way as to present them as less contention than perspective.

Comments

[adonnchaid.livejournal.com]

Robert Heinlein wrote incest in at least one of his novels (brother/sister). As others have said, fandom isn't the first place these ... uncomfortable ... themes have been used. And it won't be the last.

As far as "responsible" writing goes, I'm not sure it's up to the writer to warn or research or include the impact on victims. I know Heinlein's book didn't have an incest warning on the back cover.

In a way, this is just another version of the "condoms, yes or no, are we being responsible?" discussion. All the choices we make in writing our stories have the potential for both positive or negative impact on a reader, and there comes a point where it's up to the reader to be responsible for their own choices.

[maygra.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. And yes, also, fandom (especially a specific fandom where incest is the prime pairing) is it's own echo chamber *and* circular firing squad. So, if one fan represents a hundred thousand non-fans (or more), and on fan who treats incest as a lark or however it is objected to represents a hundred other fans that treat the topic in the manner which is acceptable, I think our actual impact on the world at large is pretty damn negligent.

[adonnchaid.livejournal.com]

::nods:: In the greater scheme of things, much less fanfiction is read than, say, gay porn/erotica/sexual writing. And in the gay porn/etc. community of professional writers, even they can't agree on what's "responsible" writing, and I'd wager they have more influence on a wider range of readers than we do with fanfiction. Or maybe it's not so much influence as entertainment. It's not like we or they are writing philosophical essays or non-fiction tomes. We're writing to entertain and titillate, and that can include responsible themes or it can push the envelope, and neither one is "right" or "wrong".