alanajoli | That Hugo Time of Year; Rape as a Fictional Device

It's that time again. As BoingBoing announced, the Hugos are up and nominated. Naomi Novik and Neil Gaiman are among the nominees (in two different categories).

The last time I truly paid attention to the Hugos was in 2003. I was running the Science Fiction and Fantasy book group for the Barnes and Noble in West Bloomfield, Michigan. That year, we read something like two thirds of the novels, which included winning title Hominids by Robert J. Sawyer, with whom I was working on an autobiographical essay at the time, and Kiln People by David Brin. That was the book that made me fall in love with cross-genre private eye noir.

I may try to follow them again this year (as much as I can) and see how many I can read before the voting happens. Not that I'll make it to WorldCon in Japan... but it will be fun to follow.

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Funny that I should mention Sawyer this morning, as I was just thinking about him last night. I started reading King's Peace, by Jo Walton, which begins, in the first chapter, with the main character's rape. One of the problems I had with Hominids, which Sawyer actually dealt with very well and with great sympathy, is that the main female character is raped very early on in the novel. Rape generally bothers me as a fictional device, and I'm astonished how much both rape and attempted rape come up in manga and anime designed for the young female audience.

My friend Lydia Laurenson (whose newest title, The Books of Sorcery: The White and Black Treatises came out in January) has written several very good short essays about the dangers of using rape as a storytelling device in roleplaying games. Sometimes in storytelling, rape is used as a short-hand for how evil the villain is In Hominids or King's Peace, from what I've read of the second so far, as the rapists are mostly nameless and faceless, I suspect that the rape is designed to give the heroine an internal struggle to overcome.

I tend to find almost all uses of rape as a fictional device off-putting at best. In the case of King's Peace, where I had yet to invest in the character, I seriously questioned whether I wanted to continue a book that started with this kind of event. So here's my question: why rape? Is the intention to make the audience uncomfortable (I suspect this is the case in Hominids)? Or have readers in general become desensitized to this type of violence?

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I think rape is used to show "evil" mainly because it is one of the worse crimes we can commit against anyone. There really isn't much more worse, unless you involve children and I'm thankful writers as a whole avoid that specific topic. It is related to us, as readers, becoming jaded to crimes. It seems like most sci-fi worlds, besides our own, is populated with thousands of creatures that eat everyone, aggressiveness that we don't have in our own world. And crimes are the same way. Everyone seems to be getting mugged, attacked, drawn into nearly constant battles. Things are stolen and people are lost, mainly because stories are about the interesting events in a character's life, not the endless hours of sitting around playing cards. Rape is basically near the pinnacle of these crimes.

Personally, I'm not fond of writing about it. Actually, I don't write about it. I do think you can create a compelling story without it. It is a good way of setting the mood, or letting the reader fill in a lot more (internal struggle as you mention), but if it is overused by too many authors, I think it does become muted.

I was watching Serenity on Monday (bad movie night, though its a good movie) and I noticed the same thing. They kept hammering the point that Reavers rape women, and that was the major reason they were frightened. I think it was a plot device, but I found it, I don't have a good word, "bolted on" in a sense. It didn't add much to the story, it was just there to say "these are really bad people" like the rest of what the Reavers did was any worse.

Wow, I hadn't *ever* thought of that part about Serenity. Although there was a Firefly episode pitch dealing more directly with Reavers and rape that I heard about in an interview--I want to say with Tim Minear--and I was distinctly uncomfortable with that. I guess the *threat* inherent in the Reavers didn't bother me, because after the brutality of the whole thing they were going to kill you anyway. Huh.

I think one of your phrases above is the one I stick on: "I do think you can create a compelling story without it." If rape is used as shorthand, won't we as an audience become just as desensitized to that crime as we are to the others you mention? I don't know--and I think my merely assuming it's shorthand in every instance would unfair to a lot of authors who may actually be using events of violence in ways that enhance their stories.

Which is a long way of saying I think I am going to keep reading King's Peace and see where it goes, despite being put off by the first chapter. I don't think there are any real answers to this (though I'm sure lit papers have been written), but I do think it's an important topic to think about.

There was a huge comments thread on the first long Rape in RPGs article I wrote [ http://www.gamegrene.com/node/447 ] that talked about this a lot, actually. Most of the participators came to the same conclusion -- it helps to "demonstrate evil" but is largely unnecessary.

Also, I'm not sure I even want to acknowledge the very-heavily-edited bits we wrote of B&WT as our work, but thanks for the shoutout. :grin:

Hey, I like to promote your stuff whenever I can. :)

Is it cool for me to "lj user" tag you, or were you still keeping your lj largely unassociated with your author life?

Mmmm ... just keep using my name, if you wouldn't mind. I imagine there could be some entries I wouldn't want people to be able to follow my real name --> username from. I guess I'm not as careful about this as I might be.

Thanks, by the way!

I was very happy with Black and White myself. :) Its right near the top of the books I use nigh weekly. Plus, I'm taking some of the ideas in there for my personal project as a baseline.

I'm just bitter; it could have been a lot better. Glad you like it. One of these days I may be able to post extra material for it, so keep your eyes peeled.

I always look forward to the stuff that got cut. I found a bunch of it when I was doing my online map of Creation. I have my own aspirations for being a WW writer myself, don't know if it would happen, but I have a few side projects to see if I can.

It is also sad to see what gets cut to fit in word/page limits. Like cut scenes in movies, sometimes they really add depth to the art, sometimes you sit back and go "yep, glad they cut it."

One good example of that is in one of my stories. The publisher was only interesting in books in the 80-120k word range and it was 168k. The 48k words I cut actually would make an entire sequel to the story, a plot line that I really thought explained the world, but I couldn't get it under the word cap otherwise.

I was actually wondering what other cross-genre private eye noir you've read and liked. Or heard about, but haven't had a chance to read yet.

I enjoyed the first of the Harry Dresden (http://www.jim-butcher.com/books/dresden/) books by Jim Butcher as well. A little darker and more violent than my usual taste, so I have to be in just the right mood, but I did enjoy it.

On the not novel side, the Supernatural Crime (http://www.supernaturalcrime.com/) Web site has some great, well, supernatural noir that isn't *quite* cross-genre, but mixes in some fantastic elements really well.

I feel like I must have read at least one other novel--but those memories could come from the conversations I had with a coworker at Barnes and Noble who actually made detective lit one of his thesis topics during college. He and I talked a lot about noir and using noir in alternative settings. (I may be using noir incorrectly--he'd know.) It sparked a lot of ideas, and I've been meaning to read the Maltese Falcon since then to see how good inside-the-genre private eye novels are really done. :)

I've read all the Dresden Files books, a friend loaned them to me. The same friend loaned me Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. books (Dresden in reverse, a P.I. in fairy land.)

Oooh! I'll have to pick those up! I take it you're enjoying them?

They're very cute. Not particularly dark, but the appropriated noir tropes are all there. Lots of dames in trouble or who are trouble, or both. A bit more of a humorous or satirical take on crossing fantasy with noir. Does a good job with the classic Raymond Chandler voice-over style of writing.

Not at all fantasy or sci-fi, but I really enjoyed on my last long car trip the detective radio series Black Jack Justice (with girl detective Trixie Dixon), a podcast from Decoder Ring Theatre.

Cool. I'll have to check those out myself. The novel I'm trying to currently get published is a forensics murder mystery set in a magic/steampunk world. After writing that, I found myself really enjoying the genre.

That Hugo Time of Year; Rape as a Fictional Device

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