As a little request, if possible, may we not discuss much of the controversies surrounding Onison's personal life? Admittedly though, that might be a tad difficult considering that Onision is notorious for intertwining much of his life into his works. However, I don't want to turn this thread into another Onision bashing session. As its' true purpose is asking how to properly cover themes of extreme violence. Anyways, why is the likes of Onision lambasted for his handling of extreme violence in his works, while someone like Cormac McCarthy has been mostly they touch upon it? What mistakes does Onision types make while McCarthy types avoid? Again, how does one cover horrific and extremely themes and/or unscrupulous and hyper violent characters without coming across as an attention seeking "tryhard"?
I’ve read exactly one book by each of them, so my thoughts will be based on ‘The Road’ by McCarthy and ‘This is why I hate you’ by Onision. I wasn’t a huge fan of ‘The Road as a personal preference, but didn’t find the violence gratuitous. This is why I hate you… I’ll admit I skimmed much of it because it was so unpleasant to read but I wanted to know what all the fuss was about. -Theme: The violence in The Road is deeply interwoven with its themes and motifs. They must ‘keep the fire alive’, keep their humanity on a world where most people have lost theirs. If This is why I hate you had any themes other ‘than life is suffering and no one understands me’ I couldn’t find them. - Meta narrative: In The Road the story unambiguously shows that the extreme violence is bad. In Onision’s book, the violence is glorified not just by the protagonist, but by the surrounding narrative. The protagonists violence is treated as reasonable, justified, and results in largely good things for him. Anyone in the novel who even suggests that the protagonist is not justified is clearly evil or a moron with no understanding of the world. At one point the protagonist (who is serving in the US Airforce) gouges a fellow airman’s eyes out and faces zero consequences. No trial, so discharge, no arrest, The Road is at its core about humanity and morality. This is why I hate you is a disturbed power fantasy. -Sensitivity. The road is heavily focused on two characters, the man and the boy, so I can’t say much on his treatment of female characters, but what we do get of ‘The woman’ paints her as just as nuanced as the man. Onisions female characters are power fantasy props. They exist to reward the main character (a lesbian makes an exception for him because he’s just such an alpha male) and experience or are threatened with horrific violence and rape just so the male character can save them. Sexual abuse is tacked on as an afterthought at the end to explain the MCs actions and behaviors. Writers like McCormac treat sensitive topics like rape and abuse with nuance and respect, treat women like actual people with goals and inner lives, and don’t treat lgbt characters as sex objects.
I had heard of Onision only as a YouTuber, didn't even know he was a writer. And I only knew he had a reputation for being—I don't know—vulgar and tasteless? Something like that. But immediately on seeing just the titles of the two books, I could already feel it. "This is why I hate you"—really??! Sounds like an entitled teenager swimming in self-importance.
An editor? I think I tried to read one of Onision's books once - couldn't be bothered with it. All of his books are self published, right? Reading it you really got the impression he didn't bother to proofread it and didn't even try to have someone else look over the manuscript. There was a typo on the first page - and I understand typos. You always seem to do your best proofreading after the thing is published, and so I was willing to forgive. Then I saw typos on the next two pages and stopped.
