Moral gray areas and writing.
Jun. 23rd, 2006 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarusI could write Out Of Bounds this weekend, or I could spend another two days squabbling over the ever-popular Last Port Of Call.
Ah! Or I could lock comments, side-step the fight (okay, discussion), and still focus on writing while I have some time off.
The most surprising aspect of the hullabaloo over Last Port Of Call was the fact that anyone who has read my stories could be surprised at all. Since when have I ever shied off of writing a moral gray area?
Then it occurred to me. Most people in SGA haven't read my stories beyond the fluffy and fun skating fic and have no idea what they're getting into.
Folks, Out Of Bounds is my "pink champagne" story. You are guaranteed a happy ending because I'm enjoying writing this utter cliche. This is not the norm.
Let's take a tour.
I have written non-con, where both parties are forced, which takes place in an arena surrounded by hundreds of viciously cheering enemies. I've written parent/child incest that is so long term it has completely warped the relationship and the parent isn't quite in charge any more.
I've written just-barely-within-the-age-of-consent teacher-student sex where the teacher hasn't one iota of remorse and only cares about not getting caught. Then there's the morally dubious prostitution fic where the 'right thing to do' is technically the very thing you ought not to do.
I've written twin-brother incest humor, where the only upshot is a lot of teasing. Shuddersome chan where the child hero-worships the abuser and doesn't understand the adult has made a pass at him.
Then there's the story where the prim older brother wakes up after an office party to find he's slept his little brother, and how this situation tears them apart.
Some may be shocked I've written very many cross-dressing fics and would happily put John Sheppard in a dress. I've a story that can't be archived at the NC-17 Restricted Section because it features sex between a 14 and an 18-year-old, where the older boy is the one less certain if more experienced.
I've written any number of bad sex stories, including one where a teenage boy pushes his girlfriend into (crappy) sex and then humiliates her when he tells all his friends. Then there's the one where the naive innocent has an unwitting crush and is taken advantage of by a married man.
I've even written Hagrid having sex with a hippogriff -- with a voyeur! -- and Jack having rather mediocre sex with Thor.
Granted, my Stargate stories as a whole have been pretty tame compared to my Harry Potter fics. But I can only think of one story that's all flowers and roses. One of my betas recently laughed at me when I considered the moral quandries of First Time A Soldier "fluffy."
Here's where I get serious for a second.
From what I've noticed, life doesn't fit neatly into our black-and-white moral boundaries. If you look at it honestly, it's messy, confusing and complicated. It's hard to condemn anyone if you understand them really well.
For example, that parent/child incest story is based upon a situation involving someone I know. The moral should be that what his mom was doing was wrong and she was evil.
Yet watching the situation with clear eyes I had to admit that she loved him, that she was terrified of men (I suspected for good reason) and that she'd turned to the utter devotion of her son. More puzzling, the sex really wasn't the part that was fucking him up. It was the responsibility, of being the "man of the house," her emotional rock of Gibraltar when she was down -- even while he still had to obey her like a little kid and take out the garbage. She was asking too much of him. I saw there were good reasons a child shouldn't be in an adult relationship, and good reasons for the parent/child roles beyond a simple "because ignoring them is wrong, wrong, wrong!"
The situation was even more complicated than that, but my point is, I care about these complications. And I write about them. Understanding isn't the same thing as approving, but it isn't my job to approve or disapprove. What use is condemnation except as a political sound-bite, to prevent others from doing the same thing? And does it? Or are the causes much more convoluted and individual and you have to get into the sticky stuff to really make a difference?
The moral code is important. It's like the rules of democracy. You need to have the structures in place for it to function at all. But when people screw up, it's never because they don't know the rules. It would not have been news to my friend's mom that she shouldn't be sleeping with her son. He knew it was wrong, too. There you have your moral gray areas, what people really do and why. It's like a tangled ball of string. To solve it you have to see where it's tangled.
I think that's the definition of compassion. Not the sobby, sloppy stuff you see on the "Save The Children Fund" commercials, where you have a good feeling for people you feel are deserving, and then pat yourself on the back. Compassion is seeing the truth, even if it's ugly; and doing what's needed, even if it's difficult.
/contemplative stuff
Last Port Of Call by my standards is very mild. Where would anyone get the idea that I would even bat an eye at manipulative sex? There's a part of me that looks at the furor and thinks... you're kidding, right?
Okay. Off to write more of Out Of Bounds and deal with RL stuff.
Ah! Or I could lock comments, side-step the fight (okay, discussion), and still focus on writing while I have some time off.
The most surprising aspect of the hullabaloo over Last Port Of Call was the fact that anyone who has read my stories could be surprised at all. Since when have I ever shied off of writing a moral gray area?
Then it occurred to me. Most people in SGA haven't read my stories beyond the fluffy and fun skating fic and have no idea what they're getting into.
Folks, Out Of Bounds is my "pink champagne" story. You are guaranteed a happy ending because I'm enjoying writing this utter cliche. This is not the norm.
Let's take a tour.
I have written non-con, where both parties are forced, which takes place in an arena surrounded by hundreds of viciously cheering enemies. I've written parent/child incest that is so long term it has completely warped the relationship and the parent isn't quite in charge any more.
I've written just-barely-within-the-age-of-consent teacher-student sex where the teacher hasn't one iota of remorse and only cares about not getting caught. Then there's the morally dubious prostitution fic where the 'right thing to do' is technically the very thing you ought not to do.
I've written twin-brother incest humor, where the only upshot is a lot of teasing. Shuddersome chan where the child hero-worships the abuser and doesn't understand the adult has made a pass at him.
Then there's the story where the prim older brother wakes up after an office party to find he's slept his little brother, and how this situation tears them apart.
Some may be shocked I've written very many cross-dressing fics and would happily put John Sheppard in a dress. I've a story that can't be archived at the NC-17 Restricted Section because it features sex between a 14 and an 18-year-old, where the older boy is the one less certain if more experienced.
I've written any number of bad sex stories, including one where a teenage boy pushes his girlfriend into (crappy) sex and then humiliates her when he tells all his friends. Then there's the one where the naive innocent has an unwitting crush and is taken advantage of by a married man.
I've even written Hagrid having sex with a hippogriff -- with a voyeur! -- and Jack having rather mediocre sex with Thor.
Granted, my Stargate stories as a whole have been pretty tame compared to my Harry Potter fics. But I can only think of one story that's all flowers and roses. One of my betas recently laughed at me when I considered the moral quandries of First Time A Soldier "fluffy."
Here's where I get serious for a second.
From what I've noticed, life doesn't fit neatly into our black-and-white moral boundaries. If you look at it honestly, it's messy, confusing and complicated. It's hard to condemn anyone if you understand them really well.
For example, that parent/child incest story is based upon a situation involving someone I know. The moral should be that what his mom was doing was wrong and she was evil.
Yet watching the situation with clear eyes I had to admit that she loved him, that she was terrified of men (I suspected for good reason) and that she'd turned to the utter devotion of her son. More puzzling, the sex really wasn't the part that was fucking him up. It was the responsibility, of being the "man of the house," her emotional rock of Gibraltar when she was down -- even while he still had to obey her like a little kid and take out the garbage. She was asking too much of him. I saw there were good reasons a child shouldn't be in an adult relationship, and good reasons for the parent/child roles beyond a simple "because ignoring them is wrong, wrong, wrong!"
The situation was even more complicated than that, but my point is, I care about these complications. And I write about them. Understanding isn't the same thing as approving, but it isn't my job to approve or disapprove. What use is condemnation except as a political sound-bite, to prevent others from doing the same thing? And does it? Or are the causes much more convoluted and individual and you have to get into the sticky stuff to really make a difference?
The moral code is important. It's like the rules of democracy. You need to have the structures in place for it to function at all. But when people screw up, it's never because they don't know the rules. It would not have been news to my friend's mom that she shouldn't be sleeping with her son. He knew it was wrong, too. There you have your moral gray areas, what people really do and why. It's like a tangled ball of string. To solve it you have to see where it's tangled.
I think that's the definition of compassion. Not the sobby, sloppy stuff you see on the "Save The Children Fund" commercials, where you have a good feeling for people you feel are deserving, and then pat yourself on the back. Compassion is seeing the truth, even if it's ugly; and doing what's needed, even if it's difficult.
/contemplative stuff
Last Port Of Call by my standards is very mild. Where would anyone get the idea that I would even bat an eye at manipulative sex? There's a part of me that looks at the furor and thinks... you're kidding, right?
Okay. Off to write more of Out Of Bounds and deal with RL stuff.
