I just write for a hobby so I'm not bothered, but I did find this amusing. I got a one star review for a novella based on the absurd notion of aliens invading earth, in order to harvest human semen. The whole thing is ludicrous, right from the blurb. The reviewer commented that they thought it was "a bit rapey" LOL No shit! lesson - not so much for writers, but for readers. Read what it says on the tin, before opening.
I'm all for listening to other people's thoughts on my stuff, but something like that would have me scratching my head and saying that was the point.
There are some things that some readers just don't get. If you try to write so that everybody understands every single allusion or reference, you will fail. It's like a comedian explaining every joke she tells. "You didn't laugh? Well, it's funny because..." On the other hand, if nobody gets your references or allusions, then you've also failed. Your goal is to target your writing as much as possible to readers who will get it and appreciate the fact that you're talking to them and them alone. Don't ask me how to tread this fine line, because I don't know.
Or maybe they 100% got it, but, you know, it's their "turn" to be offended and let you know about it. I belong to another group where the "it's my turn" dynamic is very strong. At least three times a week, people post what the anthropologist in me feels has become a ritualized post. I call it "victim spam". It's just spam. Clearly spam. Obviously fuq'n spam. And yet, the post is always to the tune of: I just got this message and I don't know what to do! Do I respond to this person? [it's not a person] What do they want? [for you to click the button] Why is this person stalking me? [algorithms are incapable of stalking] What did I do? [nothing, you are the opposite of special] Why do people do this? [again, it's a fuq'n algorithm spitting out spam at the rate of a million an hour, there is no one at the helm] And yet the ritual goes on, week after week, post after post, and everyone treats it like it's real. Sociologically speaking - fascinating. As a group participant - annoying as all get out.
Yes, social networking as reduced a lot of people's capacity for critical thinking. Or maybe they didn't have it in the first place. This seeming desire to be a victim. (like people who buy houses near airports and then complain about the noise) There's also this self-indulgent paranoia that I think stems from people thinking they are way more important than they actually are. No, the government doesn't give a crap where you are driving each day, apart from the need to plan for traffic patterns. Where you go and what you do and think....just isn't that important to anyone else! I watched a preppers documentary in bemusement the other day. Dudes talking about the government putting chips in everyone. Really? to what end exactly? so they can track you to within one metre precision when you're counting your cans of baked beans and scanning the horizon for the North Koreans.....fark. We know where you are anyway, you just invited a BBC camera crew into your bunker. Too funny... sorry for the tangent.
I had a short story I posted here described as rapey in one of the critiques I received. I had to clarify that it was actually necrophilia, not rape.
I'm careful not to "go there", after being told that subject is particularly triggering for some reason. I had to remove a short story from a collection before it was allowed on Amazon. The story stayed in the collection on other platforms. So if people buy the book from Amazon they get one less story :-( I don't want to risk being told off for starting a discussion on it - but I've always thought it strange. It seems you can write about all sorts of 'orrible stuff being done to living people....but not dead bodies? okaaayy.... My story was tongue in cheek....or should I say tongue in dead cheek! lol - but yeah, it was meant to be funny. Shrug. What was yours like?
Ah I see. That might evoke different responses, for sure. I'll try and check it out. Just bashing words into keyboard at the moment, latest story is taking shape (a rather mutated shape, but at least the screen isn't blank)
I did have a reader once leave a scathing review. They were complaining about concepts I made clear in the book description but that wasn't what really bothered me. What got me was they said they didn't finish the book and then complained about aspects that get resolved later in the book. The reviewer complained about character flaws that, within the course of the story, improve. They also complained about a misconception they had, also because they didn't finish the book. I found that really annoying. I think a reader has the right to review a book they couldn't finish... but perhaps not all the time.
I've written a lot of stories that people didn't "get." Sometimes it bothers me, others it doesn't. To tell the truth, I've found a couple of files tucked away that left me wondering what I'd been smoking when I wrote them, but since I don't smoke anything other than bacon and turkey, they remain a mystery to me as well as everyone else. There are others though that I thought were just oh-so-subtle and brilliant only to get a chorus of in response. One was for a short story contest here, I thought the prompt was glaringly obvious but no one seemed to catch my take on it. One person even commented that had they understood what I thought the meaning of the prompt was they'd have voted for my story. But as I've said elsewhere, if people don't understand your story, you can just scream "Kafkaesque!" at them and stomp off in a literary huff
