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RE: Violence and Brutality in Fiction: The Ink Well's Stance

in The Ink Well3 years ago (edited)

I've done it before (most likely not once, but it was instantly silenced, and I didn't notice) and the community administrators gave me a warning (very smooth pitched, but actually loud). I'm embarrassed and I have to ask myself and start asking, is my imagination too narrow to be filled with descriptions of violence? No, no!

I really like war-themed stories because I was born in a part of the earth where war/ is raging (Aceh, Indonesia). And war is a sorrow that has filled my soul. But then I realized, with the description of violence, readers who have become survivors will remember the dark times they have experienced.

Indirectly, she/he experienced a second violence, and I was the culprit. That can't happen! War stories don't have to be about gunshots, but there are always small pieces to tell apart from the violent ones.

There are millions of other possibilities in the vast and wonderful spectrum of great storytelling, so it shouldn't be hard to avoid themes about violence

So true. This is a great statement. This sentence should be able to make us realize that imagination is not that narrow, right?

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Very well said, @mosin-nagant. For those who have experienced violence, or live in a part of the world where it is prevalent — now, or historically — the desire to write about it is undoubtedly strong.

You have a clear perspective on this, and it's great that you understand the impact words can have. We can easily re-create horrors for people that they are working hard to forget.

And yes, the possibilities for storytelling are truly endless. We open our arms and our hearts to all of them... except violence, brutality and NSFW.

Thanks @jayna. This community has a very humanist perspective, many lessons are taken from it. I was the one who studied here, even though I'm still often out of the community's code of ethics, however, I'm glad there's always someone to remind me.