| One of the things I love writing about urban fantasy is there aren't many rules. Happy endings aren't required, violence is expected, and sex is encouraged. Basically, the loyal readership isn't easily shocked, which leaves a lot of room for us writers to let our deranged imaginations play. For example, here at the League, we have authors writing about zombies snacking on appendages, gratuitous demon sexoring, graphic descriptions of blood-letting, characters killing without remorse, and any number of other things that might get us kicked out of polite cocktail parties if we brought them up. Which is why we aren't invited to many polite cocktail parties--or parties in general. But what do you think? Are there sacred cows in urban fantasy? Aside from the normal taboos--harming children, for example--is there any subject that would turn you off of an author's books? *Edited for wonky html issues. |
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Graphic descriptions of weird sex. We are talking the type with family or cannablism. Ugh! I still get nightmares from that one X-file episode.
Anything with hurting kids or babies. I am also the type that I prefer some sort of HEA or "good wins over evil". Otherwise, what's the point? Depressing a person? I also prefer an ENDING of some sort to each book. Biggest complaint I had with Stephen King's THE CELL is that it doesn't really end. Just sort of stops mid-story. I hate books like that and will avoid an author who does it frequently. I want some sort of resolution to each story.
Also, I am not fond of the use of "rape" as character building. I won't name the author who did it, but I avoid it like books that use rape so easily without real consquences for either character.
That's all I can think of at the moment, but I am sure there is more.
For Fluffy, the rules are she won't read a book where they hurt a child or an animal (specially dogs) or rape. For me... really boring prose. Can't stand it, but then again, I like everything.
Now, what I would like to see is the occasional bad guy wins ending just to keep people on their literary toes. :)
Well, it seems kids and dogs are off limits for harm.. dammit, there goes book three!
I'm gonna jump out of books for a second to another form of entertainment- video games. I've been a long time supporter of the increasing level of good storytelling in video games, but I know many people who had trouble playing the original Castle Wolfenstein and the more recent Wolfenstin 3-D. Why?
Because as you go through the castle destroying these Nazi fucks, you are occasionally confronted by German Shepards coming after you. And although it's a game and they're pixels, they simply can't do it. Nazis? Absolutely. Dogs? Not so much.
I never really thought about it, since I always just thought about those particular dogs in game as being a special evil breed through and through, but I guess that's how I compensated for taking em down.
I can't wait til the Dead To Me video game comes out and you get to take Simon's retractable bat to all the kids at P.S. 126!
I am a complex man.
I didn't say they were off limits to me. :P Actually, Fluffy asks me to turn down the sound when I'm playing games where dogs are killed a lot (Final Fantasy 12 has the wolves making a whining noise when you put them down). She also refuses to watch Payback (the dog gets shot, I almost have a broken hand) or any of the Resident Evil movies. Or that M. Shay-something alien movie. Or the Breed. So, my job is to prewatch some movies to make sure the those same topics aren't there.
Games are strange. In some ways, the opponents are just mobs to me, bundles of statistics with different faces or animations and nothing else.
Interestingly, I don't like games where you slaughter Nazis. I don't know why.
If there is a Dead to Me video games, I'm going to enjoy the fully-breakable antique/resale area. And, I'm going to touch every bloody thing I can find until the character dies or I find the easter eggs. :)
I fed your facebok dog yesterday, Anton. He was pissed and growling at me. ;-)
Taboo?
When there is too much of anything and not enough UF. When I start wondering if I'm actually reading a UF. Does that make sense?
Heather-
Poor Zombie.. I maxed her stats, but now I forget to feed her.. sigh...you don't know how bad I feel about that. It's unreal...
Makes sense to me.
I don't mind the occasional villian winning as long as it makes sense to the story. I just read a novel that had the "villian" as the lead "heroine". It was an interesting twist. For "her" it ended correctly, but when you getdown to it, it is still a HEA ending. Just from the villian side. I don't mind that. I think my pet peeve on endings is that I am not so depressed at the end of the book because of the way it ends. I like to be satisfied by the ending if that makes any sense. That is why some books that DON'T end are so annying to me. They just stop mid-story. Weird.
It's strange, I don't usually mind adults getting killed, but animals and kids I draw the line. Though I have to admit that I get disturbed at seeing most movies that are getting too gory or realistic in the portrayls of it. I watched a flick called The Condemned with Stone Cold Steve Austin where a prisoner got raped and it disturbed both me and my husband. They didn't show the rape itself, but you heard the screams while it happened and it was too realistic for us to handle. The rest of the film didn't bother us as much despite the violence. Just that one scene with rape did. It was too brutal while the rest looked too "hollywood" violence to take seriously. Strange on what things bothers a person more compared to others in Hollywood movies or books.
Shartyrant, you bring up an interesting point. Are some things more palatable in books than in movies?
I would say yes. The writer can really change how something is presented in words that you fill in the blanks. Those who like the details can imagine the slurping and gore while those who don't just read the sentence. Movies, on the other hand, e3nd up usually showing you for the most shock/entertainment value.
A good example is Alan Dean Foster's novelization of Aliens 3. Fairly obscure movie for some, anathema to others. In the movie, there is a scene where a guy is doing a speech, and the alien pops out of the ceiling vent, grabs the guy and rips him off the ground, kicking and screaming.
In the book, ADF basically just said, "And then an alien grabbed him and disappeared." No extra details, no blood dripping from the vent, no screams echoing down, but I could still imagine it.
I have issues with the animals getting hurt too.
As for other things that bother me, I have to say it takes a good bit to gross me out or give me a good case of the heebie jeebies. (Only one had managed the heebies thus far and that honor goes to Linda Ladd. I still shudder thinking of that specific scene.)
There was one book I tried to read in which the writer seemed to have this strange fascination with menstruation. The second time she had her vampire feeding on her heroine down there like it was a slurpie or something I had to call it quits on that book. I was afraid the next step would be for the writer to have him start pulling used tampons out of the garbage as vampire lollipops. Yuck, yuck, yuck!
Also clowns bother me.
Vampire children clowns in mah next book for the win!
Daelith: Which book? I'm curious now.
Of course, given what I write, I have yet to encounter any content that really bothered me. :)
Voice of the Blood by Jemiah Jefferson
I'm with the majority, hurting children and animals is bad and not something I want to read about. Nor a story containing more sex than plot (or no plot but lots of sex) or a vampire sucking on menstration. That alone doesn't make me want to read it.
But I've noticed when it comes to movies, horror in particular, I can be more forgiving with certain broken taboos dependent upon the situation presented.
In book or movies, do people notice when reading/watching a different genre (horror, sci-fi, romance, drama etc) or a cross genre (horror/urban fantasy, horror/comedy, etc), the breaking of taboos is okay if the situation is presented in a manner showing the reaction and/or logic of the hero/heroine/villian behind the actions (ie: not mindless)?
Hopefully my question makes sense and sorry if it's off topic.
for me anything I don't like animals hurt. Unless its like a food source..no torture..Kids too,that is pretty taboo.
Here's my thing: violence against animals or children is not necessarily a guarantee I'll put down the book--if it's handled well. It has to be part of the story, and be dealt with as part of the story, not like a "woo, shocker, look I just kicked a dog!" The same is true with rape. It's usually handled badly--as a device--, which means I'm going to put the book down. But if it's handled well, if it's natural to the story and treated as a serious issue, it doesn't strike me as taboo. (Not that I like to see it "on screen," as it were.)
I also like to feel that some sort of progress has been made by the end of the book. It doesn't have to be HEA, but if everything returns to status quo by the end, I guess I feel like I'm reading something picaresque, not series fiction. (Not that series fiction can't be picaresque and good, but I haven't seen that in UF.)
I have no problem with violence against sacred cows. I love steaks and hamburgers. Violence against children bothers me. Strangly, I don't care if someone (or 100 someones) over 18 are killed, mutilated or taunted by cheerleaders. In fact, I thing the protag should be killed, tortured or taunted by cheerleaders. If bad things don't happen to the main characters, I can lose interest. Why should I care if he/she will get through unscathed? Though, to be honest and serious, I really don't care for mutilation of any kind either. Is Anita Blake just one big walking scar by now? Ewww.
Kids and animals getting hurt do make me want to puke but if the story REALLY needs it to make a point...make a plot work etc then ok but don't make it too graphic.
Sex is ok for me but lets keep it to the point and not make it anymore than it has to be. Leave something up to the imagination and don't waste 10 pages of a good book on some long drawn out sex.
If you can manage to get the readers horny enough to do it for real and to stop reading about it then you have the right balance. ;)