posted
I started writing my novels based on recurring dreams. Now that I delve more into what I've written,it seems that I am combining several things on a highly religious and controversial level. I am afraid that things will be taken in a context other than I intended. I have had this worry throughout, and have had other pieces of evidence presented to me stating that in the genre these things are accepted. But now I'm afraid that I have gone just a bit beyond the norm and I don't know what to do. Does anyone else have this issue?
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posted
Are you trying to present them as fact ala Hubbard or just trying to establish the reality in which your story takes place...If the latter is the case, take all the liberty you want.
Your spiritual message will be taken by the people who care as they like, some will like it, some will hate it. The closer it is to an existing specific contemporary religion the more people will care. The more it could be any one of many religions, the less they will be offended.
But, do not write with a goal not to offend. Write to tell your story. If telling your story requires offending someone, so be it. If your story can tell the same story with less offense, well, clean that up in a later draft.
posted
In my writing universe I can tell you why a soul is created, how it is created, developed and what the purpose of life is in relation to the soul. In some of my stories, I do all of that.
Do I assert that my way is the way that it is in reality? No. Will some readers assume that I do? Yes. Should I care? No. Should you? No.
posted
Thank you for that. And it's a world I created. DOes it have ties to this reality, yes. But what doesn't?
Posts: 341 | Registered: Jan 2006
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posted
Many's the time I've taken ideas for stories from dreams I've had. But that doesn't seem to be the thrust of this problem.
I'd say push ahead with what you've written, and if somebody's sensibilities are offended, you can make appropriate responses when it happens. Either apologies or toughing it out, depending on your choice. There sure are a lot of works around that've offended *somebody*...most of them will have to learn to live with their offended selves.
(Unless it's Islamic sensibilties that are offended. Then they'll burn your country's embassies and kidnap and kill your fellow citizens. At least that's what's been happening this week over cartoons.)
quote:Unless it's Islamic sensibilties that are offended. Then they'll burn your country's embassies and kidnap and kill your fellow citizens.
Are the bigoted generalizations really necessary?
quote:I am afraid that things will be taken in a context other than I intended.
Then work on writing in a way that your intended context is clear.
Or, like others are saying, just don't worry about offending people. Some (actually, a lot) of the world's great literature has offended people. It's the nature of literature that it is sometimes going to be misunderstood and people will sometimes find it offensive.
I mean HARRY POTTER offended people. Seriously, HARRY POTTER.
posted
Susanna, I just couldn't comment without knowing what happens in your writing.
I think there really are some things that should be written differently. But it's almost never the content. I'd draw the line at glorifying the Holocaust or promoting child abuse, but usually, the content isn't a problem. It may be the delivery. A story that ridicules a group, or uses them as villains, can still work, as long as the villains aren't cardboard and as long as we can sympathize while laughing -- and it will deepen the story.
Seems to me that if your characterization is working, you can make a story good enough that both sides of an issue will like it, even if you take sides.
posted
Pretty much every science fiction story set in a far future milieu is founded on directly contradicting events that many people believe are prophesied in the Bible (whether or not the bible predicts what people believe it predicts is another matter).
Every picture of a living being is an unforgivable offense against traditional Islam. You will definitely go to hell. Idolatry is way bad, like, if you revere the image of the prophet above all else, then that's...not the right direction.
Of course, if you're deliberately being offensive, then that's different. If you actually know that something will be offensive, take a serious look at it. Sometimes you need to just suck it up and continue.
posted
My advice- don't even begin to worry about it until you're done with the manuscript. By the time you've finished and redrafted, I guarantee that what you write will change. THEN, if you still think that it may be offensive, work on rephrasing it or rerepresenting it- but as wbriggs said, unless it's the content, don't worry about it. I'm currently critiquing a manuscript where souls are matched before they're even born. Apart from the fact that the idea is unappealing, I can find no way that it would be offensive to anyone with an ounce of reason. Most people will read it, and if they are offended, they will simply set it aside and let it go because it's fiction (particularly if it's SF/F). People were offended by Harry Potter, but who cares? It's still widely read and loved. Focus rather on making your story a good story (and try not to make the religious bit too overpowering).
posted
quote: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unless it's Islamic sensibilties that are offended. Then they'll burn your country's embassies and kidnap and kill your fellow citizens. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Are the bigoted generalizations really necessary?
I'm afraid so. Haven't you seen the news this week?
quote:I am afraid that things will be taken in a context other than I intended
It is important to realize that you do not have control over how people "take" your writing, in the same way you don't control how they take your words, your facial gestures, your intentions, etc.
The reason is that every human being has a "filter" in place, based on childhood, life experience, education, belief system and personality that interprets information into good/bad, comfortable/uncomfortable, right/wrong.
You cannot write in such a way that 100% of people "take" the story in the manner in which you intended. Your job is to write an entertaining story. The people who will resonate with your meaning will like the story; the people who eschew it will dislike it.
Look at Tolkien and Lord of the Rings... you can find a plethora of people who have analyzed the meaning of his milieu, his characters, the setting... but if you compare their analysis to what Tolkien himself said about LotR, you'll find they "took" it wrong.
The great joy of writing is that people take it on the level they NEED the information. Relax, and realize you cannot be all things to all people. Make sure the story has meaning for YOU, and let the rest of the people approach it on an equally individual level.
And, as someone else already said, it's a moot point unless you actually finish writing the sucker. Give yourself permission to finish the story without worrying about your internal editor, THEN worry about the editing and what stays in, and what gets changed or left out.
quote:Are the bigoted generalizations really necessary?
I would hope we don't stoop to bigotry. I find it extremely offensive to paint all Muslims with the same brush that the extremists use. There are many orthodox Muslims who are horrified by the tactics of the extremist factions. Most Muslims are good people with families, jobs, loving relationships, and a deep caring for living a "good" life... just like most folk who have other religious beliefs.
There are some who say that a government/organization claiming to espouse Christian beliefs, yet supported a pre-emptive attack on a nation that did not have weapons of mass destruction, was not part of 9/11, and in the process has killed over 100,000 citizens of that country, is an extremist religious-fanatic terrorist organization.
It all depends on your perspective. Who is doing the attacking? Who is doing the dying? You'll find the ideology of right and wrong is 100% dependent on which side of the border you stand.
So let us not debase ourselves or the discussion by tossing bigoted generalizations into the mix, one way or another. One of the things I like best about this board is the fact that we can have discussions about religion, as it pertains to the writing, without flaming entire groups of people or cultures who may hold a different view, based on the violent activities of a minority.
So it's not just a matter of which side of the border you're on in any other sense than metaphorically. And in that case, it's a tautology. "Your ideology of right and wrong is 100% dependent on your ideology of right and wrong." Something like that.
There are a lot of Muslims in the U.S., and they've generally said things that I find completely sensible about this incident. People shouldn't deliberately offend over a billion people, many of whom are already oppressed. People shouldn't be killing random bystanders over a cartoon no matter how tasteless and offensive it is.
The thing is, they have all these hate speek rules in Europe. It's not like the government couldn't have said, "that's clearly hate speech" and punished the offenders. But they don't want to appear spineless. They've chosen to be helpless when it comes to the violence, so they wring their hands and claim to be helpless against the vileness.
posted
To reiterate, and rephrase: don't worry about offending people with what you write, while you're writing it. You can worry afterwards, and make a decision to publish or not to publish later on, once the work is finished.
(Though if anybody thinks I've offended Islamic sensibilities by what I've put here, I'm not inclined to apologize over it...)
posted
You haven't offended the violent ones, they're quite happy to have their proclivities known. Non-violent Muslims might not be too happy about being lumped together with their fellow believers, but as long as they aren't willing to assert that true followers of Islam will do no such things, they'll have to bear with a certain amount of flak.
Heck, they'll need to put up with the flak anyway, everyone else does
The lesson here is that offenses happen. Live with it.
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