I'm currently writing a chapter about suicide, and my character intends to go ahead with it in a church. Having mentioned this to a couple of people as I'm writing, they have both said it's a little taboo, and pushing the limits on what should be acceptable. As it happens, he doesn't go ahead with it and 'sees the light' for want of a better phrase, but it got me thinking. Is there anything you wouldn't write about, or wouldn't be comfortable reading about?
'Pushing the limits' is often part of literature (or art in general) in my opinion. Some of those 'Best novels of all time' lists have books in them which were considered obscene at the time of publishing. Today nobody would even notice those sections of the novels as anything out of the ordinary. There's that quote 'Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable' which is pretty on point as far as I'm concerned. I've played with the idea of writing a story from the POV of a pedophile (I know, 'Make the protagonist likeable') but after a few pages of writing I noticed I don't know enough about the subject matter. Not for shock-value but rather a serious novel. I think there's some potential in the idea but it would probably not be acceptable by most readers (although 'Lolita' is considered a classic these days I guess...).
I think it depends on how you approach it. I dealt with subjects that might be considered child sexual and physical abuse, in which a twelve year old girl was given to much older man as concubine and treated pretty horribly, but it certainly was not described in any sort of approving manner. Also 2000 years ago, it was also not unusual. It was part of her character arc to become the powerful character she was at the end. My wife @K McIntyre dealt with the kidnapping and rape of a twenty year old depression-era girl, and enforced prostitution/human trafficking in Ruby. Difficult subjects, but again if they fit into the person's character arc, it can be done. Again, part of Ruby's character arc, which was much improved at the end of the book, but still incomplete. The sequel to that is in work, but focuses on her friend, a VA doctor, who joins the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1939 and serves with the 51st Highland Division throughout WWII, with a little intervention from his skipper to keep him from being recalled in 1942 after the US joined the war. Much less controversial! Approach them carefully, and if they serve a purpose, you can write about them.
Remember that the sentiments expressed by the people to whom you spoke are subjective opinions, not to be confused with objective facts. I do not participate in the epistemology of religion in any form, thus the scene you mention doesn't raise a single hair on my arm and is light-years inland from anything I may personally find to be at the shore of good taste. To answer your question, no, I do not have a writing or reading file labeled "Off Limits". I do have a file labeled "Clumsily Handled", which is filled with books that I stopped reading, but the initial subject matter wasn't the reason for not reading.
I don't read about animal abuse. If the whole book was about that I wouldn't pick it up, but if I'm reading and there's a scene with an animal being harmed, I'll skip it. I can't think of anything else that I wouldn't read about for reasons of taste. It'd all depend how it was handled.
Racism! Universally despised. Folks run from that subject like the plague. I haven't even come up with a definition for the word because no two people seem to agree.
I think a common mistake is to assume that being offensive inherently makes something cooler or more "serious". It can do that, but it can also make your work look like it's just going for tacky shock value. Yes, you can "freak the mundanes" or whatever, but consider if it actually needs to be in the story.
Would telling your grandmother to go F*** herself be considered taboo? I'd be wiling to give that one a shot.
I wouldn't write about homosexuality or similar themes, not because it's uncomfortable but because I don't know anything about it nor do I care to do so. As for reading... I'd like to say that the same applies but as far as I know the books where these kind of themes are a major focus tend to be romance novels and I find romance novels to be boring so... yeah. But answering your actual question, I can't think of anything that I would steer from writing because it has the potential to make me uncomfortable (let alone other people), you want to write about racism? go ahead, I don't care, maybe you want to write about slavery, torture or abuse, do it I say, in my mind as long as it serves the story and it makes sense internally anything goes. How about this one? Judging an individual by the color of his skin instead of the content of his character.
"Judging an individual by the color of his skin instead of the content of his character." Won't work, race is more than skin color. That's all I have to say on the subject. Not another flaming match, no sir, not me!
Not trying to create a flaming match but, what else is there to race? Feel free to answer via private message.
Is there anything you wouldn't write about, or wouldn't be comfortable reading about? I try to steer clear of anything involving rape. I'm too clumsy to put it to ANY meaningful use in my writing that couldn't be better served by the much-less-offensive act of murder, and I get too upset by its existence to read about it without getting into a bitter, sour mood. I can't think of a single scenario where its purpose isn't accomplished equally well by something less terrible, and the whole miserable thing is too taboo for me. I avoid it whenever possible.
I thought I'd be squicked by graphic descriptions of child sexual abuse, but I read Lolita and enjoyed it. To be sure, it wasn't as graphic as it could have been, and I knew what I was getting into when I picked the book up, but I still surprised myself by taking it in stride. I think I'd be most put off by cannibalism, if the cannibal was presented in a heroic role. I don't mind Hannibal Lecter because he's presented as the most evil monster there is, and the good guys are trying to stop him. But if you wrote a story about a good guy who eats people on the side, so to speak, I'd probably put your book down and not pick it up again.
Back in the day I read Alive, the book about the downed plane in The Andes, and I honestly had far less of a problem with it than I thought I would. Mind you, it wasn't really heroic in the 'John Wayne swaggers into town, eats a Brazilian Footballer and rides off into the sunset,' kind of heroism, but it was kind of 'these people were prepared to do anything to stay alive,' type heroism. I've never written about cannibalism before, though my current WIP is set in The Arctic, so maybe I could a morsel in there somewhere.
Suicide in a church? Sure, why not? There are a lot worse things in mainstream popular culture, thanks to George RR Martin and whoever's (allegedly, I've neither read the books nor seen the show) turning every sexual encounter that't not incestuous into a forcible rape. I hear they kill kids too. My stories deal with serial murder, child abuse, and the Holocaust, and sometimes the MC is the victimizer. MC, not hero. The one thing I cannot, will not read is stories written by, for, and about mommies... I forget what I got stuck with, years ago, but it was all from the viewpoint of some sleep-deprived woman with aching tits who was just going on and on about how little Andie was the greatest gift evah and I had to go watch a couple hours of ISIS execution videos and train suicides to get my head back on straight. It all depends on your market though, some people appear to have different entertainment windows than I do
Well probably the obvious stuff no sane person would touch. Other than that nope. Written about decapitation, evisceration, gore, flaying, live dissection, and all manner of horrible things that squeamish people don't like.
I won't touch things involving kids in sexual situations. Nor will I ever tackle the subject of child abuse, even though I did manage to read A Child Called It. Nor will I touch Bestiality, even though Chuck Tingle (AKA Dr. Chuck Tingle) has done just that and beyond, with quite a career made out of it. And have only lightly scraped the surface on rape, since it isn't something that really needs to be droned on about, but that it happens and is wrong. I tend to sit in the range of Clive Barker and the Warhammer 40K type places for the extreme end of what I will write about.
Yeah, all of that is heavy stuff, I can see why you wouldn't write about it... probably I would only steer away from bestiality tho so, apparently, I'm crazy (as if I didn't know that already)... but I guess now we have one topic I wouldn't be willing to touch.
