On Cannibalism and People Mistaking Authorial Intent for Just Being IC

[said_scarlett]

I've been having trouble sleeping again. My damn legs have been acting up like sons of bitches all week, and I don't know why.

Last night, I actually sat down and watched all of Soylent Green, from start to finish. I'd never actually seen the movie in its entirety before. I'd seen every part of it, just not altogether and in order.

One of the things I love about that movie is the fact that even now, it still sends a shiver down my spine. cannibalism is one of the few things in fiction that still bothers me, and unwitting cannibalism even moreso. I don't even know why, there's just something about it that never fails to disturb me. To the point where it is, I believe, the only thing I've ever flat out refused to write.

I've written guro, I've written snuff, I've written all manner of intensely wrong situations...but cannibalism I shy away from. The closest I've come, I believe, is 'Now, At The Hour of Our Deaths', but I don't know if that counts as cannibalism, since it was technically a zombie/demon sort of thing. Who just happened to look human. I'll write it in original fiction, because I push a lot more of my own boundaries in original fiction.

Anyway! Picked nijawial up! We're now bemoaning the heat and humidity together, because it's crazily humid. Which is probably why my legs have been such a mess. And! Those boxes we ordered like three weeks ago finally showed up. O.o I'd given them up for gone!

And what I was fearing actually happened. I posted 'Don't Think Vice' on FF.net, since there was nothing graphic depicted in it, and someone PMed me to rip me a new one over having Jonas Venture use the term 'oriental'.

*headdesks*

I know it's not a PC term. Jonas? Not so much, no. This fic takes place in the 60s, these characters are canonically racist and sexist, and it'd be ridiculously OOC to have them using modern day PC terminology in dialogue. I tried to capture the way in which Jonas was presented in canon - as a golden god to the other characters, but not so great a guy to the audience. That includes his less than stellar attributes. I politely responded, explaining my reasoning, and pointing out the canon instances of the original Team Venture's racism - the two most glaring examples being the flashback in 'Now Museum, Now You Don't' with Jonas' 'disguise', and the comments Horace made regarding Kano's ethnicity in 'Past Tense'.

I am not the characters I write. Their words are not my words. When characters talk, they talk as themselves. Using their words. I don't see why people can't understand this.

Comments

[zinjadu.livejournal.com]

Because it is totally the responsibility of the fic author to make everything squeaky clean, and no no no no! Racism never existed! If we ignore that it happened, it'll go away right?

>_>

Also, re: cannibalism. Its just morbid enough that I think its funny. XD As long as it doesn't happen to me.

[rosehiptea.livejournal.com]

Cannibalism is one of the few things that still bothers me in fiction too. (And the last fic I finished had necrophilia...) It even bothers me with zombies. Somehow I'm glad I'm not alone.

I hope the person responds to your comments. I'm not familiar with the fandom but your reasoning sounds very sound to me.

[chaoticchicken.livejournal.com]

I think playing Heat has totally turned me off to how terrible cannibalism is. Whoops. 8(

[13thleprechaun.livejournal.com]

If you write a fic OOC, you get flamed. If you write a fic IC, you get flamed D: There's just no winning.

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

Here. A quote for your situation, if you ever need it:

"There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot.'"
-S.M. Stirling