Disgusted With Disgust for Disgust’s Sake

 

It’s the first Wednesday of the month, and year, and so it’s time for another Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG) post! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions.

A new year always presents new opportunities. That includes new opportunities for reading books we’ve never read before. And so many of us make resolutions to read a certain number of books through the new year. Yet, there are some things that would make me deliberately break such a new year’s resolution. And so that’s where the answer to this month’s IWSG question comes in. The question: Being a writer, when you're reading someone else's work, what stops you from finishing a book/throws you out of the story/frustrates you the most about other people's books? 

I can deal with bad writing as long as the story and pacing of it is good. I don’t prefer poorly written books but I can deal with them as long as they meet those two criteria. What I cannot deal with, and so to answer the above question, is a book where the author uses far too worn-out cliché scenes or throws in descriptions of disgust that have no integral importance to the plot. In many cases, these two problems overlap. Some examples: the main character or protagonist is explicitly described as taking a crap or blowing snot out of his/her nose; a bathtub or shower scene that describes every detail of the scum being washed off and going down the drain; graphic violence and gore that does nothing to move the story. I’ve seen too many cases like these put into books that seem to be for the reason that the author can and so wants to shock the audience. 

A more specific example is one that I see in a lot of science fiction (my genre): The setting is the distant future. The society has advanced technology yet the weapons, often fire arms, it uses do not humanely or cleanly kill but kill by exploding a person’s guts fresh all over the place. And so instead, the weapon in this so-called advanced society, unlike a laser or ray gun, basically kills or wounds a person in a manner as gory as a battle axe would have in the Middle Ages.  

When I read a story, particularly fiction, I want to read something that flows well and sticks to the plot. I also want to read a story in which I can respect the main character even if they are an anti-hero or morally ambiguous. The character should have some degree of dignity or the search for it to where just about any reader, myself included, can identify with him/her. When a character is shown doing something for no reason of developing the story, I lose disrespect for the character and so can no longer identify with him/her. I also lose faith in the author as far as their writing craft goes. 

The problem today with not only fiction but also movies and television is that they are influenced by, what I call, a cult of disgust. The more disgusting a character is shown doing something the more that story, in whatever media (film, TV, print, etc.), wins popularity. The story is no longer about the character growing or coming to a new awareness that will make them a better person or make ourselves better. It’s about shocking the audience and so about the author or creator showing how far he/she can go with a character’s situation. Disgust is fine where needed and so if it enhances the character or plot, but when it is just there because it will amuse the audience or because it’s the formulaic device of the times then that’s when I put the book down, literally. 

There are too many books to read in the world for me to waste my time on mere shock or disgust. I want a story that I’ll remember for its events and the characters’ experiences and what they learn from them, not a story that puts a spotlight on some scene of disgust that was otherwise hidden. 

So its books that centre on shock or disgust, instead of a character’s experiences according to the plot, that I am all too willing to break my new year’s reading resolution over. 

What books do you hate so much that you would be willing to break your new year’s resolution over, assuming that resolution is related to reading books?

Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts: Ronel Janse van Vuuren , J Lenni Dorner, Gwen Gardner Sandra Cox, and Louise - Fundy Blue! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels! 

Until next time . . . 

Coming May 4, 2021!