Good point. And, ultimately, words are just symbols we use to try to express concepts and ideas to one another as concretely as we can.
It sounds like she's as much a victim of the lie ("LGBT is evil") as a lot of actual LGBT people are. I'm not sure how much you can help her personally, but going along with the lie in general is only going to make it harder for the next person in her same position.
We may just be arguing semantics. I tend to think of a responsibility or duty as something imposed (ideally as a result of one's own actions; not always, I suppose). What a person should do if they want to be a decent person is different from a responsibility, to me.
Sure, but that's a side issue. The question is whether I have a responsibility to avoid harming her or others like her should they come across my writing. The answer, to me, is clearly no.
I think we are arguing semantics with the "responsibility" bit, but I think a closer understanding of the word "consider" is going to iron out some other difficulties. Writers have a responsibility to think things through and be aware. They don't have a responsibility to change their writing if they don't think it's justified, or to embark on the hopeless task of trying to write something that will be perfect for every single reader. We should consider what we're writing and what messages we send. The outcome of our considerations is not pre-determined.
Yes, I think this makes sense. Good writers are aware of all of this and have thought it through. The ultimate determination on what message they want to send is up to the writer, who shouldn't be compelled to change it whether I or the majority of people agree with her. But the awareness is important.
I think it depends on what you mean when you ask this? Are you concerned for the welfare of the reader if you impart a certain idea that you fear may be damaging ? Be this the case, then the only answer I can give is that this answers completely to subjectivity. Ayn Rand most certainly set out to impact her readers in a particular school of thought that some people worship and others think of as nonsense and still others think of as flat out dangerous. You won't get a single answer for how her work has impacted or the appropriateness of that impact. It all depends. In Octavia Butler's work, the impact she most often strives to achieve is to get the reader to question "What is this thing that I am, this thing I call a human being? What does that even mean?" and again, one can take this as either profound introspection or as a dangerous attack on cherished orthodoxy, dogma and rhetoric. There is no one single answer. Other writers like Robert Heinlein and David Gerrold (the latter admitting to being heavily influenced by the former) set out to include concepts of social responsibility and service in their respective works that some find intuitively correct and others find dangerously oppressive and authoritarian. It all depends. And again, it also depends on what you mean with the question since it's a little vague. Sure, of course, but don't be upset when your intent is opaque to the reader or misunderstood. That's par for the course. I have a pet theory that all the women in Alice Walker's The Color Purple are actually different facets of Miss Celie. I don't have any idea of Ms. Walker intended this or not, but having formed the idea in my mind, I can no longer read that book and not see that layer of symbolism. Again, it will depend heavily on what battery of filters the reader is bringing to the read, and how heavy-handed you've been in the expression of the things you want to say with your work. Too much and enter into the land of polemics, too little and you risk dilution of the original intent. Ride the line and you'll get a little of both. As in the prior answer, a little of both.
As the son of painter and illustrator, who grew up with his own artistic passion in photography I was around the art scene quite a bit. A friend of my mothers once started painting this set of quick musician paintings just as something quick to make and was easy to sell. He ended up submitting one of them to this show the judge was a real hard ass, and turned away a lot of work but he let that one in. Why? Because as the judge put it it was a perfect charicture of his favorite musician who the painter had never actually heard of. I bring this up because I think it`s a good example of art is in the eye of the beholder. The artist or writer may have a certain vision but there is never any real guarantee that everyone will see it the same way. As writers should we let our voice, values, and world view come through in our work? Yes, by all means, yes. Are we responsible if those views don`t line up with other`s views or offend them? It`s one thing if you write a purposefully offensive or highly stereotypical character but what if someone with opposing views to mine take offense? I`m I responsible for are difference, in opinion?
If someone's "opposing views to yours" are falsehoods that hurt the real people in the real world, and if he is offended at you for having the moral conscience to stand up for his victims by telling the truth, then you are the one in the right, not him
I have my own responsibility on what I want to answer for. I don't want to feed some damaged person by creating something exploitative that can be used for the wrong purposes. Key word - exploitative. It's one thing to be controversial, it's another to be exploitative and pulpy. Being controversial - stirs up the reader to examine their own beliefs. Being exploitative - stirs up copycats and that - depending on what you're writing - is extremely dangerous.
I have an opinion about this topic but I haven't had nearly enough coffee to dive into it right now. That being said, the very reason this topic even exists cements my thoughts and feelings about writing to begin with. Such an extraordinary gift....
My two cents... Obviously, books have influenced thinking way more than we realize. Yes, other things go into the mix for molding minds and the way we think, but there are some ideas that definitely changed the world through books. Through literature and fiction in general? That's a harder influence to trace, but I believe it is no less real or powerful. Just observing the perspective on opinions and morality, and then comparing it with different peoples across times gives you some idea of how much we think we have changed. Writing does have impact, and if you're aware of your power, then yes, some awareness of your responsibility would go hand in hand with that. However, we do well to remember that point that we affect people in plenty of other ways besides our writing anyhow. Will your writing change lives more than any other aspect of your life? Only if writing is the most important part of your life. If your role as a spouse, a parent, a friend, a teacher, or what have you, is more important in your life, it is likely to leave a greater impact on certain people (maybe a smaller circle, but a more concentrated one); and those people will produce a ripple effect on the world in turn. Interesting to ponder these things, but, there's just so much we don't see from our limited perspectives. I'm just going to focus on writing the best quality I can, seeing as I can't really fathom all that readers could do with my words.
I think writers do, but I believe anyone has a responsibility for how we impact others regardless. The thing of it is that stories are so powerful we writers can give very lasting impressions on our readers. With great power comes great responsibility right? A noble calling!
Your writing will impact different people in different ways. Which ones do you have the responsibility to?
Is it right to say that because your writing is open to interpretation, and that each and every reader will interpret your writing in their own way, that you can absolve yourself of responsibility for the way you represent race, religion and gender? It's true that you cannot possibly account for the wild interpretations of random individuals, but I maintain that the writer must be conscious of how their work might be received or at the very least have a clear idea of how you mean it to be received. This does venture into author intention versus reader interpretation. Popular belief is that the work no longer belongs to the author once it is read by another. But by that logic you could say that I am no longer responsible for the bullet I just released into my victim's skull. That bullet belongs to the victim. He just happened to take it badly.
