I came across a call for submissions that included a request for trigger warnings. I quickly determined that the publication was not one for my work. If my work should come with a trigger warning, then let it be "Here there be monsters."
Posted by Disgruntled Peony (Member # 10416) on :
All of the stories I've managed to retain focus on writing have something dark or disturbing about them. That's part of why they retain my attention. I wouldn't want to deal with a publication like that either.
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
The article manages to define "trigger warnings," takes several sides of the topic, asserts dissents and defenses about extremes between never and mandatory policies, a touch of historical background, valid reasons for trigger warnings and for no trigger warnings, and actually makes sense.
Posted by Disgruntled Peony (Member # 10416) on :
That's a very interesting and valid argument. I hadn't thought about it that way. Thanks for sharing.
Posted by babooher (Member # 8617) on :
Trigger warnings are great. They save me the trouble of finding out on my own that I don't want to read your work. Not because of what might be offensive, but because if you're going to treat me like a tender snowflake before I even crack the cover then I'm guessing your writing will be too timid on the inside.
To each their own. If publications pick up on this trend I'll either adapt or stop selling work (and the crowd asks when will I start selling work). As it is, I'm doing what I can to dissuade anyone from picking up on this trend by not submitting (and the crowd wonders how that doesn't bolster the use of trigger warnings) and by not purchasing anything that comes with a trigger warning.
[ October 10, 2015, 11:27 AM: Message edited by: babooher ]
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
Writing workshops generally announce trigger warnings, workshops that foresee or have encountered issues with content that offends or traumatizes traumatized workshoppers. Hatrack has a trigger warning policy for mature adult content.
Publications are another matter. I suppose the question of substance is whether a trigger warning policy is a kind of active self-censorship and imposed censorship that could stifle creativity. A blanket policy I'm adverse to -- most any one individual reader's offense or trespass is another individual's delight and vice versa.
My response to a blanket policy is a blanket trigger warning similar to though yet more blanket than television trigger warnings -- even for workshops: "Mature adult content." placed below title line and byline on a manuscript. Intended to parody trigger warnings and make an ironic understatement. Ideally, such a warning is unobtrusive and, more importantly, arouses curiosity for "forbidden fruit." You were warned!
Literature classes and as well workshops generally begin with blanket trigger warnings -- in a syllabus at least -- that content may be mature adult, take it or leave it, drop the class or workshop and try elsewhere. Workshoppers generally comment about gratuitous adult content; a literature reading response that only objects to mature content is unlikely to earn high grades. Literary reviews that object to adult content probably aren't especially mature either.
Literary motifs require some degree of dramatic interpersonal interactions reflective of real life -- many are mature adult situations. Does a writer have a social responsibility to faithfully portray them and as well a social responsibility to conscientiously portray them? Yes.
I couldn't care less about and am adverse to the so-labeled political correctness and anti-PC debate that has come about these past few decades and has been forefront in public debates at times back through human history. Social responsibility, to me, reconciles that PC, anti-PC dissonant divide. Like a blanket trigger warning -- "Mature adult content."
[ October 10, 2015, 01:48 PM: Message edited by: extrinsic ]
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I don't really feel the need. In the unlikely event someone gets a shock out of something I've written---well, then I'm happy 'cause I accomplished something.
If I worry about offending someone, I'll deal with that in the writing of it---say, like the agreements about what I can and can't post here. Generally, I prefer to treat people like adults, and adults by definition should be able to handle offensive material.
Posted by Grumpy old guy (Member # 9922) on :
At the risk of sounding like an insensitive clod: Harden up, kitten.
I have been exposed to some of the most traumatic and horrific scenes imaginable--the brutal rape and murder of children; I sleep fine at night. People need to face the reality that the world, and a lot of the people in it, aren't all that nice--get over it and live in the world that is, not the one you wish it was.
Bad Phil.
Posted by wetwilly (Member # 1818) on :
I don't think there's anything wrong with a little warning. Some people don't want to put scenes of graphic violence or graphic sexuality (or graphic sexual violence) into their imaginations. What's wrong with a little heads up to steer clear if you don't want that? It's not about being adult vs. being childish or putting your head in the sand and pretending it doesn't happen in the real world. A person might be fully aware of the dark side of life but not want to go there in their head.
Posted by pdblake (Member # 9218) on :
Having recently been diagnosed with PTSD I would have appreciated trigger warnings on a few books I've read. Unfortunately no author has any way of knowing just which snippet in his 250k masterpiece is going to give me, or anyone else, a flashback.
That said, there are far more triggers outside of books than there are in them, for me anyway.