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Many of my stories--and I've written a lot--have Scifi/Fantasy as the background. In other words, the SF/F part of them is just there to help the real stuff move along. For example, one of my stories is about a Fallen Demon, an archangel, a fallen archangel, an Antichrist, Lucifer, and God. It's a family Drama. The Fallen Demon and Archangel are gay lovers, the antichrist is their daughter, the fallen archangel is their good friend, Lucifer is the estranged father of the Anti, and God's just meeting with his children and grandchild. The gay lovers get into a fight which they eventually patch up, the antichrist and the fallen angel have a long talk to help the Anti deal with all her angst (She's a teenager...) and God and Lucifer are sort of trying to patch things up and eventually, in an especially heartwarming moment, give each other Christmas gifts.
So yeah. Definitely not set in a, "normal," universe (I find those unlikely to begin with, but each to their own) but it's more than just, "LYK ZOMG SO TEH ANGELS AND TEH DEMONS ARE FIGHTING AND DERS ACTION AND THEN A DEMON AND AN ANGEL FALL IN LOVE AND DERS ROMANCE AND DERS YAOI AND LYK OMG THIS IS GOING TO BE EPIC! ALSO, THERE WILL BE LASERS!"
But the problem with that is that isn't a sci-fi drama, it's just the family drama with different labels. A sci-fi drama is a drama that utilizes technology or fantasy items to move the drama, not be the drama.
For example, Stephen King wrote a book called "The Tommyknockers" which discussed a buried alien space ship that was turning a bunch of people in this small town into aliens due to it transmitting an addiction to them to dig the ship out of the ground. Then this one guy shows up (he has a drinking problem) and sees what's going on, stops drinking, and flys the space ship away and dies.
The book has absolutely nothing to do with aliens, space ships, or weird townspeople. Rather, it is all used to make the one character face and consider his drinking problem by comparing himself to the space ship addicts.
Ah...do you think it's still ok, then? A family drama with fantastic labels?
Josh Lipke has somewhere between three and seventeen brain cells in his head, and is also a confused, sheltered, persistant squee.
And the rape wasn't anything. I've read a lot, and that wasn't particularly bad. Not by a long shot.
He's also twelve. :/ I asked him if he could handle it, and he said yes. I said it had adult themes, and swearing, and he said ok. I warned him. What was I supposed to do? I respect him...sort of. I'll admit, he's no genius, and I don't particularly like his writing, but I saw potential in him. Now...well, I still see potential in him, but less of it. If he's not willing to come out of his shelter, he'll never be a good writer.
The rape was there because of all of those other stories, as well as a method to see Cane's change from hero to antipath. I don't see what's wrong with it. I'll post my response to him, just a sec.
"...You are sick. And so are those books."
I'll admit to that.
I am not normal. I see things in a different light. I have no qualms about writing or reading those kinds of things. In this way, I am, "Sick."
But see things from my perspective. I'm just like Cane. I've been exposed to the brutality of the world so many times, writing or reading about it in fiction triggers no reaction from me. Of course, I'd try to stop it in real life--I'm not inhuman. But that doesn't mean I can't torture a few fictional characters.
The world is a brutal place. There's sex and rape and torture and murder and people just generally acting human. And I was born without the filters that make all that go away. I'm not like you. I'm not like anyone. I see life as it really is--an awful and evil place, void of all but the smallest specks of goodness and kindness and people acting as I want them too--as you want them too.
When a nine year old girl is murdered, everybody else says, "That poor congresswoman!" I'm the only one who cries for the girl.
Of course, I've exaggerated--I'm not the only one born with their eyes open, and I'm not the only one who cried for that girl--her family, for a start. But you get my point.
So maybe I'm a bit of a psycho. Maybe I'm a sociopath. Maybe I have aspergers. So what? I'm no different from the rest of this cruel, harsh, disturbing society. Other people rape, I write about rape. Other people do horrible things to children, I write about it. And that is how I try to stop it.
Swearing? People swear all the time in real life. Reflecting that in a book is no different. I don't swear. I don't rape. And unless someone else wants to be as pathetic and pitiful as Cane is, I doubt anyone will see my story as a set of guidelines.
My story is a warning. A warning about humanity. Humans are slowly being desensitized to violence, and my goal is to stop it. Do you want to know my message?
Hah. Clever.
I got the interview mixed and put it up earlier today. If you want to play around with the volume, that's your pick. I also put up final versions of the four puzzles.
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