[stylist] Reading scary/disturbing material

[Donna Hill]

Bridgit and all,
I don't draw a distinction between disturbing stuff in literature and
disturbing stuff in real life. For instance, NPR did a story about France
this morning mentioning Joan of Arc. There was only one fleeting mention of
her being burned at the stake, but it's always bothered me. I agree that we
need to know what goes on in the world, that trying to pretend human beings
aren't capable of the most outrageous cruelties leaves us unacquainted with
the truth and unprepared for life, but sometimes you just need an escape,
which you certainly don't get from the evening news and most of what's on
the tube. That said, fiction is a powerful tool for acquainting the reader
with the realities of the world, and sometimes the writer draws things
together with a happy or at least just outcome, which would probably not
happen in real life. 

Each writer has to work through these issues, and having once decided upon a
path, the writer may not hold to it forever. Over the years, it seems that
John Grisham, for instance, has become more jaded and less inclined to give
the reader that happy but unrealistic ending.

In my novel, "The Heart of Applebutter Hill," I tried to split the
difference in terms of rectifying injustice. Without giving away the plot,
I'll say that I provide the reader with some satisfaction that the bad guys
have been found out and put in their place, but that because of power and
wealth, penalties are not distributed even-handedly.
Donna
 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 6:15 PM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Reading scary/disturbing material

Chris and others,

Here, here, smile! I completely agree with what you're saying. And
psychologically disturbing doesn't equate to horror, and novels using
historical, biographical/autobiographical and any other information
based on real life events and situations, though perhaps scary and
disturbing, don't really fit into the horror genre, though you can't say
this across the board. Like A Boy Called It is definitely disturbing,
but it is about a real situation, and though the circumstances may be
horrific, it's not horror genre. Now American Psycho, which is fiction,
though allegedly based on a real life person, would be classified as
psychological horror and probably just plain horror too since it's
extremely violent, graphic and about a serial killer. But I don't
believe in always censoring what we read; though I do make this comment
within reason since as established, some of us, yours truly included,
can only handle so much disturbing material, but nonetheless, reading
should entertain but also enlighten us. Many here are Christians, and
the Bible is chalk full of violent material. In fact, in terms of
literary considerations, it's been classified as one of the most violent
and graphic books ever written. And yet, many Christians argue this
enlightens and helps people better understand their faith. I'm not
addressing doctrine here, but trying to make a point that certain kinds
of "disturbing" material can enlighten and open us to other
possibilities, other ways of thinking. I think the seemingly senseless
murdering of women and children after the Israelites defeated their foes
is disturbing, or a man inviting a mob to rape his daughters just so two
guest were not sodomized is a pretty horrific scene to me, and yet these
two stories are in the Old Testament. Anyway, we all have our thresholds
for how much violence and graphic material we can handle, but I also
think we can't automatically write a novel off because of its genre
label.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/
 
"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 24
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 06:57:52 -0500
From: "Chris Kuell" <ckuell at comcast.net>
To: "Writer's Division Mailing List" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [stylist] disturbing, entertaining and illuminating
Message-ID: <4DD5C4A277554DED8B9772473E1F5C50 at ChrisPC>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=response

Vejas,

I actually think 'Snow Flower and the Secret Fan' was a great book, and 
would classify it as literary fiction--not horror or any other label you
can 
think of. Yes, the tying of the womens feet in China in the 1800s was 
horrible, but it was also real. That was a cultural thing they really 
did--even into the early 20th century. Class differences and seperation 
existed then, just as they do today, and in my view it was and still is 
tragic. The fact that the story stuck with you is a sign of great
writing, 
in my opinion. It made you think, made you feel, touched you emotionally
and 
stayed with you. In fact, it may even have changed you in some way--and 
isn't that the goal of our art form?
To me, the goal of writing is to entertain, and to illuminate. 'Snow
Flower and the Secret Fan' did both very well.

chris


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