One useful comment
Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2010 6:34 pm
Guys, it has become increasingly difficult to monitor this board. People are leaving because of the conflicts. We are a very diverse group geographically and culturally and in terms of past experiences. PLEASE behave respectfully towards others or we will have no forum at all.
I wanted to preserve Distracted’s comment on whether it is OK to address rape or some other heinous crime in a story:
I wanted to preserve Distracted’s comment on whether it is OK to address rape or some other heinous crime in a story:
For now, I will lock this thread as well, but if you all cool down perhaps in the future we can discuss it.I'm probably going to regret stepping into this, and I haven't read the story in question, but can't we have a civil discussion without name-calling? Yes. Rape is a heinous crime. But if you consider mental invasion a form of rape, the series writers themselves wrote storylines in which T'Pol was raped THREE TIMES. So no one can say that using the "T'Pol gets attacked and her anguish over said attack brings her closer to Trip" scenario is unprecedented.
Shouldknowbetter has written some very fine stories. Just because this particular story is offensive to a particular reader doesn't mean that it is offensive to everyone. Offensiveness is often in the eye of the beholder. But even if you personally find this story offensive, think about it this way. Other fanfic writers have written stories in which awful things happen to Trip and/or T'Pol. These terrible things are used as plot devices to allow the author to show their version of how TnT as a couple would deal with such trama. Hurt/comfort stories are a well-known class of story, especially in TnT fanfiction.
That being said, everyone has their topics which they can never and will never enjoy reading about no matter how well-written the story is. I can certainly see how rape might be one of those topics, and I totally respect any individual's dislike of a story based on its subject matter. I have stopped reading more than one story because it turned my stomach. I have even made the mistake on one occasion of telling the author in the comments that I didn't plan to read any more of his work if he was going to write something so disgusting. I regret doing that now, because I really hurt his feelings and he obviously had no clue that the story would be so offensive to everyone. Based on that experience I am of the opinion that making broad statements that label a story as "abominable" can be very hurtful. Often an author has put honest emotion into their work, a part of themselves. Since my mistake I have been on the receiving end of reactions like Kotik's to one of my stories. Some people took it as a story about incest (it wasn't), and made comments that were very negative. It took me some time to get over that reaction. Shouldknowbetter isn't a contributer here, but I think we at least owe her enough respect to say "although this story is well written, I find the subject matter very offensive" and leave it at that.