What is Taboo?

 

In the realm of fiction (I feel) there is no subject too Taboo to write, there's only a writers unwillingness to broach it.

 

It's as if they don't want to get their hands dirty.  Or they wish to portray a certain image.  And to swim in those

 

murky waters of societal disgust is too much for them to bear; or perhaps they feel their readers can't handle it.  

 

 

Personally, I believe those who do not meet these subjects head on with their full measure of composure do their potential

 

readers an injustice.  Shouldn't a reader be given their choice of reading material?  

 

 

Writers and publishers alike are bending to the wills of people who wrongly assume a writer should only write what he/she, an

 

editor/publisher, or a loud communal (so called) voice of reason considers moral.

 

 

Why is that?  Isn't fiction just a reflection of our reality?  And if there's anything our children learn more quickly than that this

 

world IS often immoral, I can 't think of it.    

 

 

Reading books, watching movies, television, and interacting with others, can all have an affect/effect on a person, but there's

 

a reason why it's only a small percentage of people who pattern their actions after the madness they witness.  They are

 

already damaged in some way.  And having a scapegoat to blame it on is one of the oldest tricks in the book.  Akin to the

 

Devil made me do it.  Not that I don't believe ole Clubfoot hasn't influenced the weak at times.  But those people

 

were already in a fractured state of mind.   

 

 

One of the things I find TOO ridiculous is that much of the time when a heinous crime is committed it's said that some form

 

of media was at fault.

 

 

Take for instance the blame which has been lain at Stephen King's doorstep for his work entitled Rage--which as far as I'm

 

aware has been taken off the shelves--accused of influencing High School shootings.  In my mind, the desperate soul who

 

clings to that as an excuse for a kind of violence that will never be fully understood, is even more disturbed than the actual

 

shooters.  In other words, if it wasn't that it would have been something else. People like that are teetering dangerously on

 

the edge and absolutely nothing but their perception is required to push them over.

 

  

That being said I don't think it matters what we do. Limiting exposure isn't going to solve the problem.  It's merely a bandaid,

 

and till we truly get to the root we're doomed to the chaotic whims of madmen/women.  I could be wrong.  Lord knows I'm no

 

genius, but no amount of testimony will lead me to believe a book or movie ever turned anyone into a rapist, a child

 

molester, mass murderer, or serial killer.

 

 

To me, there are only two paths to the creation of such: Neurological, and Environmental.  I don't believe a person is born a

 

serial killer.   Although, I would venture that they could be born with a flaw in their brain chemistry which could cause them

 

to develop along those lines.  I think only environmental anomolies (traumatic events, death of a loved one, molestations,

 

abuse, etc, etc,) can lead to the fusion of normally functioning nueropathways, causing the nuerons to be rerouted into other

 

previously damaged--or purposefully unused--portions of the brain. 

 

 

I believe a person is definitely a product of their environment.  But I think that statement is too limited in scope.  It shouldn't

 

just include their home life, their shcool, or their circle of friends and family...  Because it's really everywhere they've ever

 

been.  Anything and everything that has ever left a lasting impact within.

 

 

Mostly I've been speaking of works geared toward adults, but one gander back through literary history ought to settle the

 

argument.  Though many of those stories had a moral to them, by todays standards they'd definitely be classified as

 

immoral.  Off the top of my head Hansel and Gretel comes to mind.  What's moral about kids murdering somebody?  If Gretel

 

had the time to push the old witch in the oven, then she probably had time to help Hansel escape.  Even still this story

 

taught a valuable lesson to children the world over: Not to place too much trust in strangers.

 

 

I'd posit that there needs to be more specific stories written today.  Tales to inform the children of the beguiling ways of

 

molestors and their like.  Having child molestors register before they move into a neighborhood isn't enough.  The children

 

need to be made to understand the possible dangers of going into the home of one of these people, and since for the most

 

part they pay little attention to what their parents say, what better way to reach them than by a story?

 

 

Not that I want necessarily to write these kinds of warning stories for children, but I think even though that thought was

 

tangential it applies in the same way.  I just want to be free to write anything I'd like, and to please the adult crowd who are

 

so obviously out there in search of these kinds of basically outlawed stories.  Millions of people are seeking out and reading

 

what publishers refuse to publish out of fear of backlash, or  upheaval, every single day.

 

 

For me no matter how disgusting a story or its characters motives may be I always know that they are not my own. And so

 

long as the words come I will NOT fear snaring them from the ethereal.  It's what we do.