Don't forget it's fiction

So is it politically incorrect now, or taken as offensive by authors, if a reader comments that a character in a story is dastardly? To me, this is in praise of the author for being able to create a fictional character who is so controversial or hate-worthy. Like someone commented above, JK Rolling would be complimented that people intensely hated Voldermort and it reflects her skill as an author.

I tend to agree with Jools, if an author writes a character so well it makes the readers love/hate that character then they are a good author. One should be careful to interpret a response's meaning. If you're not sure whether it was a compliment or not, maybe contacting the commenter and asking would be the better course of action...they should be proud they created such a dastardly character, I think it's a sign of a good descriptive writer...that is just my humble opinion.

Criticism is fine. (Well, I would say that, wouldn't I, since I'm a movie critic by profession?) But I prefer to restrict my criticism to matters of style, construction, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc - and even then I often do it as a PM to the writer concerned, rather than in a public post.

'Offensive', I feel, is a term far too freely used these days, as though offending someone is somehow infringing their human rights. My political views would probably offend most right-wingers, just as my views on religion might offend a lot of believers. Come to that, their beliefs often offend me - but so what? I can take it.

So no, kdp, I certainly don't think we should censor critics. But I think anyone planning to criticise should distinguish between "I think this story wasn't well written" and "The subject-matter of this story happens not to coincide with my personal taste". The first is valid grounds for criticising; the second - well, maybe not.

I have never taken offence to any story I have read in the library but I would be uncomfortable reading about rape or brutal violence. In fact I dislike reading sex stories although I disapprove of censorship. I think the best form of censorship is not to read it if you don't like it. We all have our own tastes and we shouldn't be arrogant enough to think we should decide what other people should or should not like to read. We have governments that are only too happy to do that for us.

Why should anyone want to attack the Bible? It is a great book that everyone should read at some time in their lives. I say this as a life time agnostic. The Bible hasn't caused any wars it's just stupid men that cause wars. All those religious wars are not caused by the Koran or the Bible. They are caused by fanatics that know they are right and every other bugger is wrong! You can't blame a book for all the ills of mankind. In any case what do men worship if they don't worship a God? A new flat screen tv with quadrophonic sound? A top of the range BMW? Their is nothing wrong with a quiet personal belief in God in my opinion and you should respect it rather than sneer at it.

In reply to PhilK, I think if a reader feels the need to comment that a story is not well written, it is far kinder to do so in private pop up message (as Phil suggested) and also remember that just saying to an author that "his/her story was not well written" could also put them off of writing further stories. It is far more helpful to offer the author constructive and helpful suggestions to enable them to improve and develop their writing style and provide support if they ask.

If a commenter on one of my stories were to say that the subject matter doesn't coincide with their personal taste but the storytelling held them to the end I would feel highly complimented as an author that I maintained their interest in a story which isn't their preferred genre.

So, at the end of the day, I think it is more about the intention behind any comments being well-meaning that matters.

I think the reminder by Februs very apt.

We should all remember that the only places where beating currently takes place, it is either inhumanly punitive and harsh, or designed to keep women unequal to men. I believe that few reasonable correspondents would actually support this usage.

I think it doubtful if even in the highly unlikely event of a fair and universal referendum taking place on the restoration of corporal punishment that there are many places where it would attract a significant vote. (Surprisingly if certain forms of murder were to be made subject to capital punishment then the results may be very different.)

So any realistic story relating to adults or those in their very late teens has to be set in an historical setting where unfortunately there was no mutual consent and all too frequently the punishment was overly harsh and sometimes the punisher derived pleasure; or otherwise it must be set in a fantasy environment.

I personally very rarely read stories involving juveniles ( although I realise that many writers only use "spankees over eighteen when everybody knows this was extremely rare and most school punishments were meted out to the under 16s- a bit of literal discretion makes these stories more acceptable and of course they become a fantasy as few such characters would ever give consent.)

When writing I usually try to involve some degree of consent, either by being in a fanciful environment where judicial discipline is accepted or avoidable; or that some get out was available but not taken.

That said I still enjoy some stories which imply no consent.

Currently one of my favourite series requires suspension of disbelief to an enormous extent, I described it as "ludicrously fanciful but hugely amusing and entertaining"; such stories are obviously impossible but nevertheless well-written can be very enjoyable, and I for one hope that this series continues to amuse and titillate me.

So I must agree that we remember that it is fiction designed to entertain the reader. I have previously commented that in our particular genre even little things can be a turn-off, anything ranging from age, to severity, to sex of spanker/spankee, environment, sexual activity etc. We all have our own likes and dislikes and should comment favourably and constructively; and probably it is best to leave strong dislike or criticism unsaid.
We should all remember that none of us have to continue reading anything that may offend us.

That's a fair question! Sometimes the line is depressingly bright. Some readers (not here) haven't stopped at criticizing my work, they criticize me, sometimes making hateful assumptions about my personal life.

That's one reason I had to turn on comment moderation on my personal story site. That site provides me with the occasional reminder that here in the library we operate inside a gilded, padded firewall that largely insulates us from the real world.

Guy

As I am a pathological masochist and therefore always prepared to take every blame, I just want to give notice, that I feel a little bit confused about the discussion on commenting in canadian spankees and this thread. When CS started his thread I immediately felt guilty in offending all this marvellous authors, who are giving their genious stories graciously and free to us readers, by not commenting on 90 percent of my reads.

As many authors wrote how much they would appreciate every comment, even if it is critic and that they would love to communicate about the stories, I went off with the wilful intent to show my gratitude and started to comment on whatever story appeared on my screen.

In one comment I actually mentioned, that I don't like the idea of spanking children, even if I know that it's fiction. But that was on a story about a spanko-mother and a spanko-daughter, who confessed that she would like to have a spanking and the mother gave it to her. That is not really a fiction for me, because it could be a real question. What would I do if I would have a daughter of 16 years, who would ask me for a spanking? In this case I really think it would be worth a discussion and I didn't want to offend somebody or wanted to state that an author should never write such things.
Fiction and reality are very, very close in this special situation.

In another comment I wrote, that I liked the story very much but I'm also glad that it is just a fiction. Now I came to this thread and heard several opinions:
- Don't make negative comments
- Don't write, that it's just fiction
- Don't write, that something is bad written (Okay, I don't do that, because I don't recognise bad style and wrong punctuation)
- It's not necessary to tell the authors, that a theme is not your cup of tea.
- Please be meaningfull and not write just "nice story"

So I actually made nearly every possible mistake a reader could do in a few days. If I don't comment, I'm a moocher. If I comment, somebody will certainly find something wrong or feel offended for one or the other reason. Therefore I'm a little bit at a loss, what to do?

I think the purpose of this thread Mati, is to encourage readers to give supportive comments that wont dissuade authors from writing further stories. From the examples you give of comments that you have made, they sound perfectly good comments...so keep up the good work

And I'm sure it's perfectly fine to say that you don't usually read or enjoy that particular genre so long as you also add that this particular story held your interest... as this is then a positive comment. So since you mentioned your enjoyment of the story, your comment would be taken positively by the author.

mati

You have made no mistakes and no one is looking at every comment trying to find fault I assure you. Please do continue to comment in an honest fashion, no one is going to knock you for that.

It is perfectly fine to say, for instance, 'That story was just not for me' or 'Sorry I didn't get it', you don't have to love everything you read, or even be positive if you don't want to be.

What sometimes happens is people read something that is not their type of story but instead of moving on, they seem to keep saying the same thing over and over and that can get frustrating and demoralising for the author. We sometimes get people sending e-mails or such-like saying that they dislike stories with children in yet they keep reading and keep commenting, instead of finding something they do like.

A lot of the stuff we are talking about is not seen by people on the site but what we are not doing is discouraging balanced and well thought out comments, whether negative or positive.

It was just a general reminder, it is fiction and as you said, sometimes that is a good thing! I think some people are over analysing what really was just a gentle reminder.

Don't know if this helps, but I don't want you to be put off commenting as there is honestly no need.