It’s unhinged to assume that someone’s taste in fiction equates to what they believe is moral or good, or is something they want to see or experience in real life.
That is a bonkers assumption to make.
I’m tired of humoring people with long arguments about it when the simple fact is it is a totally fucking absurd reach to accuse someone who enjoys something in fiction of being in favor of it in real life.
I’m tired of pretending like this is a legitimate position to hold– that they should be afraid of fiction’s dire influence on a reader’s moral decay or that it’s a sign of what the author secretly wants for realsies in real life.
I promise you it is still getting me death threats in 2024.
All I can think is like. Okay. I love the Lord of the Rings. Great books. And movies. One of my formative stories for sure. I love reading about the companions traveling and sleeping under the stars while some of them keep watch for enemies while others sing old songs about a lost world.
You know what I don’t want to do in real life, at any point? Sleep in stinky clothes I’ve been wearing all day, every day, for months. I don’t want to do this while sleeping on the ground outside, which is uncomfortable and surely has ticks and wood lice and such.
This is such a mundane thing. Such a “well, obviously” thing. I imagine most people who read fantasy journey stories don’t want to experience the real life version of it. It would suck.
So why the hell would anything else in fiction automatically be something I’d want to experience in real life.
Discussion ¬