Today is the heavy topic Monday, it seems.
Why do certain genres deal with dark themes? “Perhaps HA can answer why themes of child abuse and rape comes up in certain genres. These themes are a bit stomach turning and I am curious to know what would propel an author to explore that.”
Art is a reflection of life. Rape exists. Child abuse, sexual abuse, murder, self harm, suicide, human trafficking, all those things may not be a part of our lives right now but they are a part of someone’s life.
If we pretend they don’t exist, we will end up with a version of Soviet media, which simply erased anything that they found problematic. Serial killers, prostitution, suicide, drug abuse, domestic violence, those things didn’t exist in the Utopian USSR. Neither did gay or transpeople, because communists are very conservative and they like to put everyone into a box. If you don’t fit into a box, if you stand out in any way – maybe you’re not comfortable with your gender, maybe you are unusually smart or perceptive, maybe you are neurodivergent – they will hammer you until they break you. And then they will put your broken pieces into the box.
This kind of erasure has real consequences. Chicatilo, the Rostov Ripper and one of the most prolific serial killers in the world, operated in my home city when I was a child. Part of the reason why it took so long to catch him stemmed from the officials’ refusal to admit that serial killers could exist in Russia. They were a Western perversion. The field of psychiatry in Russia may have caught up to US by now but when I was a teenager, it was considered to be a bullshit science without any real benefit or purpose. People in USSR did not have mental problems. How many people needlessly suffered and how many mental illnesses went untreated? We will never know.
Darker themes have their place. Sometimes their portrayal in fiction is simplistic and crude, sometimes it’s complex and nuanced, but they absolutely need to be in there. People are complicated and they have different needs. A diversity of fiction and themes is good because it allows us to pick and choose who we let into our heads.
Fortunately for all of us, entertainment isn’t compulsory. The scroll past it solution applies. Just as we can simply scroll past a post that doesn’t pique our interest, we can skip a book that might be too dark for where we are in life at this particular moment. Taking care of one’s mental health and emotional wellbeing is very important.
Where do you stand on trigger warnings or content warnings as part of the description of a book- in the author’s note, or even somewhere on the cover, like in the blurb? Can an author make them into selling points? Do they always spoil the plot? I noticed you said you would include them for the blog serial for Maggie, what about the published book?
Oy. This is a dialogue that’s probably above my pay grade. Let’s get some articles out there:
I Was Wrong About Trigger Warnings
Why Usage of Trigger Warnings Persist
As you can see, it’s complicated. I don’t know enough about this issue to be any kind of authority on it. People who are experts with a lot more relevant education and experience are hotly debating it right now, and I’m going to reserve my judgement until there is a consensus.
I will say that in my experience, trigger warnings on fiction most often do not actively represent the content of the books. If I tell you that Clean Sweep is a book about dog murder, will you read it? Probably not. Even though Brutus’ demise happens off screen and is the tiniest part of the narrative, I would be lying if I said there was no dog murder in that book. So I do not support very detailed trigger warnings.
However, I do support truth in advertising and I support providing enough information for the parents to be able to make an informed choice about the content their children are exposed to. So if part of Maggie will be serialized, it will come with R warning for violence, adult themes, and sexual content. Innkeeper has stayed pretty solidly PG 13 primarily because kids are reading it.
Other authors have shared in the past that whenever they are stuck, they go on a character murder spree. Do you also employ that solution when the plot doesn’t come easily? Was that why Aunt B died?
You guys do realize Patty was joking in that Facebook post, right?
People in books die for plot reasons. If I’m killing a child on the page, it’s because I want the reader to understand in no uncertain terms that the person doing it is a horrible slime and will get everything that’s coming to them. Because killing children is not okay and will not be tolerated. It happens in life and sometimes people get away with it, but if it happens in our books, the perpetrator will be punished. It’s about justice and balancing the scales.
Aunt B died because she was protecting those she loved. People remember her death. It meant something. It was the ultimate expression of a parent’s sacrifice, not just for Raphael but for the younger generation of the Pack. Parents do this every day in more mundane ways for their children. These sacrifices may be small, like giving up their free time to attend a ball game or large like mortgaging their house for college or medical expenses. But it’s a familiar feeling to any parent out there or just any older adult, who looks at the situation and steps in.
Writers do not make those decisions lightly. Please give us some credit, heh.
Oy. That was some Monday post. I feel like I need to share an apple cake recipe or something next.
Please remember that this is an active blog and your comments will be read by at least 15,000 people today alone. We’ve touched on some sensitive topics here, so please take care to share only what you are comfortable with.
PS Mod R:
Whilst we, on the Ilona Andrews website, are not equipped or trained to provide help in situations of crisis, if you are affected by any of the topics discussed today, please reach out to available medical and social aid resources near you.
Here some links for the US:
Emergency Medical Services—911
If the situation is potentially life-threatening, get immediate emergency assistance by calling 911, available 24 hours a day.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, 988 or Live Online Chat
If you or someone you know is suicidal or in emotional distress, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Trained crisis workers are available to talk 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These centers provide crisis counseling and mental health referrals.
SAMHSA Treatment Referral Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357)
Get general information on mental health and substance abuse and locate treatment services in your area.
Veteran Crisis Line– Dial 988 and Press 1
24/7 confidential support for veterans and their families, specializing in military-related PTSD. You do not have to be enrolled in VA benefits or health care to connect.
More resources available at Mentalhealth.gov.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the discussion. We are now locking the comments on this post to make sure the discussion doesn’t veer off topic. Thank you for your understanding.
Wow this was a powerful one. It is ironic that with the Soviet Union, it is called ‘leftist’ , yet in so many ways it mirrors what we call the right ( putting everyone into boxes,conformity eschewing social science as ‘made up’, etc. It goes to show you authoritarianism is much the same, it is similar whatever the motivation is under the surface, nationalism, religion, the power structure is the same, including ignoring or demeaning things that don’t fit the box.
And writing reflects the real world, all the ugly things mentioned happened. It is why some fantasy stories and romance ignore the really dark stuff, because it is a refuge from the real world ( ya know, the story where the main characters are members of a motorcycle gang who are good guys, protect the city, live their women,etc).
I always wondered about the movie Forrest Gump. While it dealt with dark issues with Jenny, the movie itself is a fantasy,and in the movie they kill Jenny off when even the book doesn’t. Why darken a fairy tale?
It can be hard reading dark books, it can trigger things. That said I didn’t like trigger warnings, I feel like that may keep ppl from reading something they might enjoy bc it scared them off. I am not blowing off what can happen go someone who has had a dark past and reads it, I have seen what triggers do in myself and other people.
Put it this way, I have read books where the description of the character growing up in a family like mine, where there was a kind of pervasive cruelty in putting down family Members, making fun of them, that pales against the kind of physical, sexual and emotional abuse in some families, yet when I read it I go into a physical rage, not knowing where to go with myself at times. A trigger wouldn’t help and in some ways it has helped me realize things with myself,as hard as it is. Caveat , this is not denigrating those who want trigger warnings or my experience somehow is as bad as people who have experienced much worse. I think trigger warnings can end up keeping ppl from experiencing things that in the end will cause them to lose out. it is like banning Huck Finn or the Merchant of Venice, rather than use it as a teaching moment, to talk about Racism and Anti semitism and the fundamental humanness of the denigrated ppl in them, rather it is ban it.
Anyway, very powerful essay Ilona, one with a lot of levels.
Thank you for your insight into this.
As for trigger warnings, I’m completely against them. When I was a kid checking out books in the Bookmobile (tiny, tiny, remote town), I had to get my parents’ approval to check out certain books (Alfred Hitchcock as an example) because of my age. I was a book devourer (still am) and had read everything in my age/grade level. Book checkouts were based on what authors wrote (Danielle Steele, Alfred Hitchcock, etc. were Adult writers). There was no censorship (I’m against it) and it was left up to the parent to decide (which it should be). Too many people get too “triggered” by too much in today’s world. You don’t like something, scroll past that part (I have, because I’m not fond of graphic sex scenes), or just don’t buy/borrow that book (ditto); don’t push your views about certain subjects onto others. Just because I don’t like something (ie, 30 Shades of Gray – blush) doesn’t mean I’m going to try to stop someone else from reading it that does.
My great grandparents on my father’s side left Russia for a better, free-er life (at that time it was ruled by Tsar’s). They came to the US for a reason.
Ilona Andrews books are my favorite because violence is never gratuitous and justice always prevails. I appreciate content warnings for other authors (but am fine without them too), but I trust HA to ‘make things right’ so I really don’t even read content warnings for them.
Side note to Ilona:
I appreciated your willingness to take on tough questions in this blog, and even more appreciated when you said others have more expertise than you. Too often these days people with no real expertise in a subject claim robe the experts…so good on you for not going that route! 🥰
I don’t even watch super violent or disturbing TV anymore, because I want escapism and a happy ending. That’s just where I am in life now. Books are easier, because if something is too heavy for me, I’ll just skim it to get the jist and not linger. What actually bothers me the most is cruelty to animals, so after you warned us, (thank you for that) I just scrolled right past that part in Sweep of the Heart. Still don’t know what Unessa did and probably never will. If my husband has watched something I’m considering watching, I have 2 questions: is it torture-y or do any animal die. If the answer is yes to either, hard pass. But your books are never too much, I think the difficult topics are so well handled.
I so hear you on a lot of TV, and honestly I think self-care via happy endings and warm fuzzies is a great thing.
I have fallen down the rabbit hole of the Great British Baking Show because everything about it is so darned wholesome and supportive and caring. It’s so calm and soothing. Plus amazing bakes, mmm.
I really enjoy posts like this. Insight into your thought process and knowing that as authors you always have a reason for dealing with the hard stuff in your work. (I already knew that, but validation is a good thing)
Life is hard. It’s nice to know that evil eventually gets what it deserves, even if only in my favorite fantasy worlds.
At a recent writers’ convention, there was a very spirited set of discussions, on and off-panel, regarding trigger warnings. Even with a book title “The Property of Blood” it was urged that the author use a trigger warning for violence.
As someone who’s lived with PTSD for most their lives and has had the cinematic Vietnam vet flashback, I can’t agree. Caveat Emptor needs to be a much finer, more granular warning, if at all. What triggers one person may be fine for another. And where’s the limit? Do we warn if there are large spiders in the novel? What if there’s non-consensual, non-sexual touching? The honest echo of trauma from being beaten by a bully can be very painful for some readers, but how does one alert the public?
What Ilona said, mostly. But also, if there’s a large amount of specific violence such as anti- abuse that’s not on the title or dust jacket, it’s probably not a big deal to add a warning on the back cover just to give a heads up.
I think I fall somewhere in the middle of this one. I can’t think of a situation where I would skip a book in a beloved series because of trigger or content warnings, but I know of two books I skip or skim in rereads of those series’ because of events that are, uncomfortable at best, for me. One is a KD book, another is a Patricia Briggs Mercy book. It doesn’t make those books bad, just not something I can happily reread in my present state of mind.
Thank you for sharing. I was just 10 min before, listening to another audiobook thinking I hate it when they bring up political, social, or other controversial topics. It drives me nuts and I much prefer lighter books that don’t try and force me to their political views. But I can certainly understand why it would be important as well, based on your response. So thank you for that. 🙂 It makes me feel less frustrated about being half way through a book and being pushed into an unnecessary political commentary.
Triggers may not help in your case , given that even fantasy stories usually involve politics that can mirror our own world , love it or hate it. It is why it is important to read reviews on Amazon or Good Reads, likely someone will share the same view.
What a hard topic to bring up and your approach was very thoughtful and helpful. Thank you! When I do not have a dessert in the house, my other go to is to make a good muesli with the oats, fruit, nuts, then add plain or vanilla yogurt and let it get all soft and cold. Yum 🙂 Cheers!
I just finished rereading all the Kate books along with Iron Covenant…will there be more Hugh books in the future 😊? just curious…
Yes, the Iron Covenant series will continue! 🙂
Hugh will have at least one sequel, but the announcement for its release will come when the authors are finished with the manuscript and the preorders are ready to go. This is the policy that works best to manage both workload and reader expectations 🙂
Cool
Being a rather liberal scandinavian i have considered trigger warnings a bit weird.
It also shows that i am privileged not to suffer from the kind of trauma that would make me need them…
I once read about a book that it didn’t contain explicit sex, profanity or graphic violence, so it could be read by teenagers.
I almost didn’t by it because that description made me think of Disneys polished endings (the little mermaid didn’t really get a HEA).
The book was the first of the riyria revelations by Michael Sullivan and a great read, i have read all his books now, and almost cried over his foreword to the latest book -about his own unexpected HEA.
The reason for the description was that he in the first place wrote them for his young dyslexic daughter 😃
Just shows me my prejudices 😝
Thank you for this! I think dark themes reflect life, and have a place in the book world.
I can’t tell you the joy I felt seeing a Patricia Briggs reference on this blog post (and not only that, but I knew the reference!). It’s like the first time I tried peanut butter with chocolate. Two favorites in the same space, if just for a bite. ❤️
So… Apple cake recipe tomorrow, then? Or if you don’t want to post another (since of course you’ve given us Dina’s delicious version), perhaps something equally delicious? 😉
As always, thank you for taking the time to answer questions, even (especially) on hard topics.
I didn’t read the articles about trigger warnings, but I do appreciate content disclaimers about rape or abuse themes, etc. I prefer having the choice if darker topics will be prevalent or explicit.
And I love what you said about Aunt B. I have 3 sons, so what she did, and the boudas about their boys more generally, resonates with me in a personal way.
IMO, it would be difficult for a book to represent life without bringing in some of the less savory characteristics of people. It gives the good people something to counter. It’s difficult to make a bad guy without evil behavior.
I’m a teacher and, during a workshop around “how to deal with violence”, the animator asked “what do you perceive as a violence done to you ?” Well, the answers ranged from the expected to the most bizarre, like “a car encroaching on the zebracrossing at a stoplight” or “my spouse is unable to be on time”. I guess triggers will have the same impossible to classify variety, and trigger warnings can therefore never be detailed enough to allow everyone to avoid their particular triggers. Content warnings or movie ratings might be more useful.
Dear BDH, House Andrews, and Mod R: Your thoughtfulness, compassion, and ability to handle difficult topics awe me.
You guys are the greatest. Just truly awesome people. Thank you.
Thank you for presenting these writing problems. Today in our local newspaper there were articles about banned books, and those banned books were not about sexual deviation or abuse or vile murder. Their subjects were about gender and racial identity and issues.
I have never, and probably will never be triggered by a Ilona Andrews book because I know that every abuser, murderer etc will get exactly what they deserve. And that nothing too awful will happen to break the main character. And that any dark topics will be navigated thoughtfully, without whitewashing.
Unfortunately I have read books marketed as cute romances that contained awful stuff that left me feeling extremely triggered. I think that the reason that I felt triggered was because the horrible trauma was thrown in as a plot twist to make the reader feel emotional and not dealt with in a meaningful way. Or/and they had the main character bounce back like nothing ever happened.
It’s very nuanced but I think that a big part it is dealing with dark topics well.
I like having a handful of trusted authors that I know will handle everything well, even if it’s a trope I generally loathe or a concept that I’m really not keen on.
But I trust the author to handle it with respect and thoughtfulness, and the end result is always a great read, if not always a comfort one.
It’s not a long list, although House Andrews is on it. It’s funny, one author on it writes nothing but dark stories, yet I love every single one. Several are very prolific authors, and others are just authors that I’ve figured out over time that I will go anywhere they want to take me, because the journey will be worth it.
I love dark stories, so long as there’s a purpose to the darkness. I do put a trigger warning at the start of my books, partly because people who know me are so shocked I’m actually writing what I write (but you’re so *nice*, have you tried a visit to a priest, etc). And partly because what’s in there is rather…in your face. I don’t think the world needs to be plastered in trigger warnings though. In fact, I’m pretty sure we could do with fewer warnings and less soft-footing around issues than we do. That said, I could have used a trope warning on Magic Bites, because the initial vampire description nearly made me give up (not like other vampires, aaaah, what is this?) and then the description of the werewolf coming to get Kate nearly sent me out of my skin (thanks, vivid imagination, thanks alot).
This comic though, is my favorite answer for people who poo poo darkness in stories, or dark works in general. Just so perfect. https://www.akimbocomics.com/?p=924
What are the references to “Maggie” referring to?
Maggie is the new project House Andrews are working on 🙂, it is a new world, not linked with any of the previous series. The first part of it may be serialised for the blog, in the style of the Innkeeper serials.
Here are some of the snippets generously shared with us so far:
https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/maggie-maggie-maggie/ and
https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/bdh-the-best-fandom-ever-and-snippet/ and
https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/busy-week/ and
https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/meow-meow-is-okay/
well done. Real life is real. We don’t want unrelenting grim , but pollyanna cheer is pretty – boring. You do a darn good job. kudos
I once wrote a story just so that I could kill off people in a variety of horrible ways. It started off as a crappy story, but eventually, after a lot of tinkering, the story has actually become something I’m happy with as well. I am aware that if I ever want to do anything with it, I’d have to remove about 80% (and still climbing) of the deaths, but yeah….that’s not gonna ever happen. Also, since my writing is crap and only interesting to myself, there’s no real urge to clean it up for consumption anyway.
I also kind of wonder if writing about someone’s death the way I do, would be less cathartic and more annoying for someone who actually writes for a living.
Over the last couple years, I’ve been listening to a podcast called “Tossed Popcorn” which consists of 2 young women watching and discussing all the movies on the IFC 100 top movies (the slightly less racist recent version) – even though they start out with pretty much zero knowledge of film. I adore it and I’m bummed because they just reached the final movie.
It’s been extremely interesting to me and I highly recommend it, for the way it looks at violence in media, as well as many other issues. The biggest takeaway for me has been how female characters are so often included in stories as “reasons why” men do things. Instead of being full characters in their own right, stories of abused or murdered women are often used as the motivation for men to take the action that is significant in the plot. Often the best thing they can do to help their man is to die off or on screen. Which is crazy, when you think about it. You could replace “wife” or “lover” in these stories with a beloved pet, and get the same result. I think that’s an area where we need to be observant and careful. I now look for this same issue when women and children in books experience violence. Is the “victim” character considered to be a whole person or does the violence just happen so the male character has the opportunity to grow, fight, change or whatever else men are up to these days? Are there other female characters who are whole people? Or is it just men in those roles? They are good questions and I think more of us should ask it when we purchase entertainment in any form. Violence should never only be a plot device. It’s a big deal and needs to be portrayed as such but not just in how it affects men.
It’s interesting how many pieces of media don’t pass even the most basic representation benchmarks, however imperfectly conceived- I’m talking basic like the Bechdel test (at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man), Sexy Lamp test (If you can take out the female character in a plot and replace her with a sexy lamp for same impact), or the Mako Mori test (at least one prominent female character, with her own character arc that isn’t about supporting the man’s story) etc.
Looking further into representation of other historically discriminated groups, it gets even more discouraging.
Something I’m glad to see has mostly gone away (not a moment too soon) is the prevalence of the “I’m strong *because* I was abused” message. Haaaaated that.
This was an insightful , articulate and interesting post..
Ilona ,thanks very much for sharing a but if the culture of what was the Soviet Union, and likely exists all over terra firm-a..
I went to a stage play that was traveling around the U S, to invited areas a few years back …the authors had take Alice in Wonderland as a base and turned it into a high-school friendly show about Child Trafficking..
It really opened my eyes …people need to know…Authors had often used literature to educate and if you choose to do that I may not enjoy that any more than a creature reanimated from a dead thing…but its poignant..
And its exciting…
Like a fried Green Tomato
“Ill eat it “
Much love to HA, Mod R and the BDH. Good vibes all around and thank you all for being a healthy and compassionate online community.
On the heels of this discussion, and mentions of comfort re-reads, I started to re-read Emerald Blaze and immediately encounter Morton, grieving his adult son’s murder and worrying about his grandchildren’s well being. My daughter didn’t get murdered, thank Goddess, but the rest of it hit me. I love the other aspects of the book and know some humor will lighten it, but I mourned for Felix’s death before and I know it will be harder this time around.
Years ago I took a book to the hospital with me and it turned out a character had suffered a brain injury–and my son was hospitalized in a coma with a severe brain injury. (He survived!) But I had no other books or reading material with me and I slogged through the book anyway so I wouldn’t just sit with my fears and obsess about them.
Interesting as per usual! Thanks!
personally I’m a huge happy ever after person, but the end to evil to get to that I find extremely satisfying. truthfully as long as the good or light wins in a big way I’m normally happy to spend money on reading it.
Trigger warnings are similar to providing consent in any general relationship, though most might be more familiar with romantic relationships. With Trigger warnings you are establishing a respectful communication between yourself and your audience. You will tell them what will generally occur in your books that can allow them to consentually and constructively make informed decisions on how they can protect themselves and their mental health through a form of informed consent. If you have trigger warnings you are allowing your reader to properly inform themselves so they can actively consent to any pain they wish, or desire, to inflict on themselves. If you do not inform the reader of the pain, then it is abuse you are laying at their feet rather than entertainment, depending on the content of the instances which require trigger warnings.
In BDSM, if you are going to put yourself into risky situations you put in a lot of research into the subject, find out the risks and rewards, and then lay a foundation of trust between both parties by installing safeguard measures prior to the agreed upon scene. Establishing limits, hard and soft, coming up with a safeword, and ensuring aftercare after a scene are all essentials to provide a safe space. If someone in a scene breaks that established trust, through pushing past a hard limit or not acting immediately when a safeword is used and is not immediately remedied, then that treads the very fine line into abuse. Trust is instilled prior to the scene through green flag actions, continues on into the scene and into the aftercare. Risky situations such as those which are involved in BDSM is not a good place for grey lines, otherwise safe spaces become dangerous quickly. These types of unsafe actions will cause someone pain and hurt, not in a good way, and becomes full-on abusive rather provide a mental space for enjoyment and entertainment.
Similarly, books are mental connections, there are emotional and psychological components portrayed to the reader by the author and that relationship is a delicate balance of the author protecting their fans’ mental wellbeing while also providing them the content they crave in a way that they expect without spoilers.
With the Kate Daniels series there have been situations where I personally didn’t have any triggers to the material and I enjoyed the books, but other authors have been another matter. Different situations and different interactions. Some authors I’ve read have cliffhangers that just rip your heart out and the wait is atrocious for the next book, or other have a main character going through a horrible, torturous ordeal. I’ve had to gird my loins, so to speak, when I went back to reading the next book in the series, but by then I knew what expect since I was forewarned. I had informed myself of what was ahead of my reading journey and prepared myself ahead of time to protect myself in positive ways. When there are no trigger warnings it’s harder go in mentally prepared, and it is harder to gird my loins.
As an author, ensuring a balance between not giving away spoilers with trigger warnings and protecting your readers wellbeing is a tough battle. If you read enough books that have established Trigger Warnings, you can determine over time what works or don’t work to not spoil the storyline while also keeping the balance of protecting your readers. Beta readers, editors, et. al. might be good sources of figuring out the appropriate trigger warnings before the book is published, since they might have read enough of these types of books between them to know which trigger warnings work or not.
One of the differences between the BDSM scene and the endeavor of reading the book is that you’re discussing your consent, safety, boundaries, triggers, tun ons and icks in person with your partner/partners. This doesn’t happen with authors and readers on a one-on-one basis. Thousands of people will read that book and it’s likely to survive beyond the life span of the author- there is a limit of what warnings can be placed and how many of these elements can be considered.
I think this comment section alone proves that. Someone is very affected by scenes of corporal punishment. In the same book, I might not even register the spanking but be profoundly disturbed by the what-I-perceive as objectifying gang bang scene that they read without hesitation. Both readers picked up a paranormal romance book author known for smut and extreme sexual scenes however, so the responsibility rests somewhere in the middle.
The other difference between BDSM and reading a book is, of course, that we can put down and return a book as soon as it makes us uncomfortable, no strings attached (see what I did there 😉 )
An interesting approach I just saw another site use for content warning – “content warning” at the top in bold, but then the actual warning is fuzzed out with a spoiler type tag you have to click to see the actual content. It seems like a good way to offer warnings while respecting both those who want to go into the story “spoiler” free and those who may find the unexpected flat out statement of the topic being warned about problematic. (In this particular site often the warnings would be flat statements like “animal death” but then the story would be about something like a peaceful passing of a beloved pet, and some people found the tag more emotionally shaking than the story in those cases.)
I personally find trigger warnings extremely helpful, especially when the alternative is suddenly being shoved into something that srnds me into PTSD flashbacks.
I have PTSD from some really awful stuff in childhood, so when I tried to watch “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” or was reading “Bird Box”, I slammed into extremely graphic depictions of what happened to me, and it’s like having my brain thrown into a feedback loop + tons of physical symptoms like throwing up and spending a lot of time freezing cold and sobbing.
It doesn’t just wreck my evening or whatnot, it puts me out of commission for several days.
I’m in a place where PTSD doesn’t control my life, too. My symptoms have been managed to the point that some no longer exist with inexpensive medication and compassionate trauma-trained therapists. The only time I run into problems is mis-timing an adrenaline blocker before I go to sleep, as it keeps me in REM sleep and doesn’t let me slide into flashbacks. Sleep flashbacks are the worst, because you can’t do anything about them while they’re going on and your emotional armour is all down, and brains are kinda jerks and turn all this input of adrenaline + anxiety + fear + self-hatred and turns it into lovely nightmares for you. The nightmares don’t have to be re-living the flashback event to be flashback nightmares, it’s just how the body is able to come up with a story to explain all of these feelings.
A few years ago, a flashback nightmare would put me out of commission for the day. Now, I feel like crud for a few hours, but I’m able to get in to work and have a productive day.
The trigger warning articles are talking at cross-purposes to some things, though. They’re mainly focused on them in things assigned for students to read, or for freelance bloggers who don’t have a moderated or supportive community.
For books, I find them totally critical. If it says there is CSA in it, then I can go and look at a different book. If I buy a book and it has graphic CSA in it with no warning, not only am I super upset, but I’m leaving a low rating review stating what the content warnings need to be and I’m probably going to try to get my money back.
I can curate my own reading, movie watching, general media consumption. I watch certain Youtubers because they don’t use racist, sexist, or homophobic slurs (this was a much bigger issie 10 years ago). I have some authors who have promised that they will never, ever have sexual assault on-page, so I know I’ll be fine with mermaids eating people or toxoplasmosis taking over the world. It works for me.
If stuff happens off-screen, it generally doesn’t need as much of a warning imo. And I would never define an entire book by a single trigger warning like the dog death example. There are great sites out there like “doesthedogdie.com” that also help, heh. But unless it’s Old Yeller, the whole book really isn’t about (betraying a child’s love and trust in movies — er, that Rabies is realy bad shit) that, it’s just a side note.
(Oddly enough, I’m a horror movie fan and Cujo is right up there. So a lot of it is not just WHAT you’re writing but WHY.)
I make video games, and we still have this awful idea that if a woman is a main character, then she is so because of sexual assault in her past. Now, in reality, it likely HAS been part of her past with 1 in 4 (or more now) being sexually harassed and assaulted… but it doesn’t pass the sniff test because we don’t make men have a backstory like that if they’re the hero. A lot of time, they’re just the hero.
For books, fiction especially (and romance extra especially), sometimes it’s a place where people friggin’ respect each other and don’t have to be dragged kicking into the “decent being” side of the line because it’s just so exhausting having people tell you all day that you deserve to be dead because of your gender portrayal/who you love/your identity.
Other books explore these thenes, because as you say, they happen in real life. I love spec fic because they’ll take a concept and just run it out as far as it can go.
Trigger warnings don’t automatically make me skip over a book. But they let me go in aware, armed and armoured, and that makes such a huge world of difference.
There are fun comorbidities hanging out with the mostly-relaxed PTSD, but none of them can be triggered like that or make me completely unable to do anything but blanketfort with my cat, cry, feel like crap, and be angry at whoever felt it was necessary to include it without warning, and feel like crap that I’m so angry at them.
I definitely buy more books from authors who include trigger warnings and handle them like adults — not turning them into cutesy lists of positive things in the book, and if it’s LGBTQ++ fiction it had better not include “man on man touching” as a trigger warning. Both really, really insult and denigrate readers who already deal with a pretty rough customer set up in their heads.
After all, PTSD results from TRAUMA. So calling people snowflakes etc because they’ve been exposed to or harmed to the point of it being life-threatening, which comes back and explodes your whole life about 30 years later… it’s not cool? Especially as PTSD is a universal hunan condition (and is experienced by animals as well), with the fine print that if you’re exposed to traumatic events or situations often enough, the chances of everyone developing PTSD becomes 100% eventually.
So, yes. Academia isn’t my field, and maybe things are troubled there. But for book readers and book buyers, I think they’re very important as the more knowledge we have, the happier we are.
Fascinating article!
One of the book sites I subscribe to lets you pick the genres then pick the amount of violence, sex, foul language, religion, etc you will tolerate and then makes suggestions based on your preferences.
I read the newsletter every day to pick up newly found authors and I wish there was an industry standard symbol that a book blurb could
list. I listen to, and occasionally read at least 20 books a month. So I am very picky about what I devote my listening to. Somehow, listening is a more intimate experience than reading, because it is much easier to skip over foul language and sex scenes when reading than when listening.
I think that we tend to stay with favorite authors. We know what to expect in terms of our preferences.