In my scene. A man gets a disease that's slowly killing his body. In order to save himself, he steps into a tank that transports his mind to a female android body. So he is in that body now. His brother comes up and kisses him (her). And also has sex with him (her) later. Is it technically incest since it's the man is controlling another body?
If I have sex with my brother via remote control, that's incest in my mind. The same thing is happening in this scenario. The fact that I'm currently inhabiting a different body to the one I was born in doesn't make my brother any less my brother.
I'm also going to say yes. Not for the non-android brother as long as he's not in on the arrangement, but definitely for the android she-brother.
All I know is I wrote a story about a man that fell in love with his half-sister (they did not grow up together) and my sister said that it was okay because "they're just halves, she is not really his sister". I wanted to hit my "real" sister upside her head with a frying pan. "Of course they are siblings, crazy". (My sister doesn't mind me talking to her like that).
Yeah, incest for sure. Corollary question: is it gay sex if the android is female but the soul is male?
Yeah, "What? Why?" was pretty much my first thought too. The turning into a female android part I get. Messing with identity like that has obvious interesting thematic and plot implications including real world parallels. But then having sex with your brother is just pushing the line from weird and awkward but interesting to just fucking weird. Yes that is incest enough for me. In a way, the female android transition thing actually makes it more disturbed, especially if- as it sounds like- this proceeds rather quickly.
@disasterspark - How are you approaching this issue in your story? Is incest part of what the story is dealing with (are these people doing forbidden things?), or were you assuming nobody else would notice or mind the connection? I'm with the majority on this thread, that yes, this is incest—from our own perspective in the world we live in here. However, if your story takes place in a world where incest isn't an issue, or has a different definition, then you can play it that way—providing you set it up so readers 'know' this is not forbidden in the context of the story. It will probably help if children will never be the result of the couple's sexual activity.
Whichever way he wrote it, I think he'd turn off a number of readers with this scene. Speaking for myself, I know I'd quit reading right then and there. Incest is one of those things I just don't want to read about.
But I just bet you're okay with murder, slaughter, war, and other such things in the stories you read. What exactly is so exceptional about incest, especially between consenting adults that has you squirming so? My goodness, I'd expect writers of Fantasy and SF to be a bit more adventurous in their reading habits.
Obviously it's incest. I think you know that, or you wouldn't have brought it up. The relevant question is, do you care? If that's the story you want to tell, tell it. It never did Shakespeare any harm. And forget the "What!? Why!?" stuff. (No disrespect, guys.) It's going to upset some people no matter which side of the issue the narration is on, but if writers avoided all controversy, nothing would be worth reading. Granted, this is a bigger issue than most books tackle, but what's wrong with that? At some point, Nabokov, no doubt, was asked, "Your book is going to be about a middle-aged man who has sex with a twelve-year-old. What!? Why!?" Who cares why? Sure, it upsets people; it's an upsetting topic, but it's also one of the greatest books of the twentieth century. His original reasons for wanting to write it are completely superfluous. Oh, and by the way, one of his other books, almost as highly regarded if far less famous, is entirely about incest, no-robots-or-mistaken-identities-necessary brother-sister incest. Yep. I haven't read that one though. All that really matters here is how you deal with it, and how well it's written. It might be worth checking into some of these books to see what you like and don't like about how other authors have tackled the subject, but either way, I say go for it. ETA: To speak more directly to your question of whether or not it's "technically" incest, it doesn't matter. People will see it as incest.
He is entitled to his opinion, and doesn't need to defend himself for having it. We are all entitled to our opinions. It would make a more constructive thread if we could say why we don't like—or do like—an idea—and employ persuasion rather than confrontation. And maybe stop making assumptions about what other opinions a person might hold? Word to the wise? Play the ball, not the person. It keeps threads in 'civil mode,' and allows us to discuss ideas without having fights, which is to everybody's benefit.
I don't disagree with anything you just said, but I don't think any more harm or judgement was intended by that than the comments he was answering that seemed to imply there was something wrong with wanting to write a story like that in the first place. Maybe everyone could take this same "play the ball" advice.
Hello, friend! Yes, it is considered incest. Now with this answer, you have to ask, is a crime be in an incest relationship? Or not? If it is or the opposite, why it is considered a crime? Why is it not a crime? What laws and mentality does the society in your story have to back up their beliefs? I hope this helps. Keep on good work and have fun.
The question is worth asking. Something like this is not something you should do lightly. If disasterspark really wants to do this, then sure, he should tells us why he wants to do this. He should have a good reason. It's worth noting that on balance it's safer to not do something like this. How you deal with it is what is being addressed with the question of "What? Why?". Nobody is saying "Incest? Not on my good Christian writing forums!". But I am saying this is a very questionable plot include, and needs serious justification. Classic works that have addressed such topics did so with such justifications, not just because they could. Some things you can just throw in with little regard, but this is most definitely not one of those things.
From a practical point of view - i suspect it might give you some issues with some publishers/agents. If you were to self publish it definitely would give you problems with Amazon and Amazon advertising - Incest is specifically mentioned on the latter's list of forbidden topics. That said I'm not saying don't write it - I fall into the school of thought of write what you want to write, rather than write to market. But it is worth bearing in mind that topics like incest do have the potential to limit the saleability of your work. Also on the direct point - given that hes now a man in a female (android) body, why does he permit his brother to kiss him, or do othe things with him? - if they are both straight you'd expect him to be like "whoa hang on bruv it's me in here"
May be I wasn't clear its Amazon Advertising who ban incest - not amazon themselves (although they may dungeon it if it gets too explicit) That means as a self publisher you can publish it onto amazon but you can't advertise it on the platform (FB ads have similar rules) - which essentially means you won't sell much unless you have another means of sending people to your book page
Ah, I don't know the rules, but my point was that there's nothing on the Amazon page for the novel to indicate that the major theme is a whole lotta incest. However, I'm guessing that if OP wrote a scene in their story that had incestuous overtones/content it would go over (or under the wire) much better than if it was the story itself. Or if, as mentioned upthread, it could get sufficient literary cred to be Banned in Peoria and thus a Free Speech Issue. Good luck with that one though.
To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of incest and if I read a book with some random incestuous scenes in it, I would probably not recommend it to my friends. There would definitely have to be some well thought out reasoning and themes being explored as well as some really solid writing just to get me past the icky factor.
Is everyone forgetting in that Game of Thrones the whole royal line is based on a brother-sister relationship that produced kids? Just saying.
