can you deal with incest in fanfic?
Jan. 12th, 2004 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
percivalIf you are a mature adult, yes, possibly. But if you are a child or a teenager? Will you know that it is not a good idea to have sexual relationships with your sibling? Or will repeated exposure to the idea and fantasising about the idea somehow start to make incest acceptable to you after a while?
Just a Buddhist thought:
In Buddhism, we try to be compassionate and loving in our hearts. That means that we neither dwell upon violence nor enjoy it. One of the key insights in Buddhist spirituality is that who you are and how you act is closely related to what you think. As a consequence, we need to work on our mind, our thinking. We need to make sure that our thoughts are compassionate, loving, free of clinging desire.
So, from a Buddhist perspective, actively seeking out incest fics because you get a thrill out of the dark, forbidden relationship is clearly wrong because you are indulging a desire to see people harm each other. You invite these fantasies into your mind and nourish them.
How would a Buddhist regard people who read incest fic? Well, non-judgmentally, with compassion and understanding. If they decide they need to pollute their minds, they will have a reason for doing it.
For the record, I myself continuosly pollute my mind with thoughts of anger, self hate, sarcasm, hate of others, petty jealousy. But seeing that I want to be a good Buddhist, I will need to work on that. Sigh. Revelling in anger can be such fun sometimes, just as revelling in fantasies of incest or rape can be fun for people who read those fics. But ultimately, it's nae good for you, says Uncle Gautama. And Uncle Gautama is usually not far off the mark, if you know what I mean.
Just a Buddhist thought:
In Buddhism, we try to be compassionate and loving in our hearts. That means that we neither dwell upon violence nor enjoy it. One of the key insights in Buddhist spirituality is that who you are and how you act is closely related to what you think. As a consequence, we need to work on our mind, our thinking. We need to make sure that our thoughts are compassionate, loving, free of clinging desire.
So, from a Buddhist perspective, actively seeking out incest fics because you get a thrill out of the dark, forbidden relationship is clearly wrong because you are indulging a desire to see people harm each other. You invite these fantasies into your mind and nourish them.
How would a Buddhist regard people who read incest fic? Well, non-judgmentally, with compassion and understanding. If they decide they need to pollute their minds, they will have a reason for doing it.
For the record, I myself continuosly pollute my mind with thoughts of anger, self hate, sarcasm, hate of others, petty jealousy. But seeing that I want to be a good Buddhist, I will need to work on that. Sigh. Revelling in anger can be such fun sometimes, just as revelling in fantasies of incest or rape can be fun for people who read those fics. But ultimately, it's nae good for you, says Uncle Gautama. And Uncle Gautama is usually not far off the mark, if you know what I mean.
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Re: incest
Date: 2004-01-14 01:26 pm (UTC)Hmm. I think 'adult' is a good word--acknowledging risks without passing judgment :).
Anyway, I don't think that anyone who posts anything on their own blog or livejournal has to constantly watch their backs because of some hypothetical 9-year-old who might be reading it. I think it's a bit ridiculous to expect that all adult discussion be kept under lock and key. Really, how is a kid going to accidentally stumble on an incest porn fic? (If he does it on purpose, well, he's already got incest on the brain, and will dwell on it whether he finds fic or not). He's not going to come across some porn writer's LJ/site merely by typing "Harry Potter" into Google, or even "Harry Potter fanfic". If he/she is a reader of clean, SQ-style fics, then he/she is unlikely to have porn writers on his/her friendslist, or even to know their usernames. It's a lot more difficult for this hypothetical kid to find this porn than it is for him/her to wander into Barnes and Noble and pick up Lolita or Summer Sisters or something.
they do not flaunt their turn-ons in the faces of those who would lack appreciation.
Hmm. I guess I don't consider posting something in one's own LJ to be "flaunting." I mean, if it was posted on FA or something, I'd agree.
because of sexual freedom, romance was dying -- because of the promotion of the lack of restraint, there was none of the poignant tension which most people seem to crave. (I can't find the article itself, but I'll try to find it.)
Is that making sense? I'm not always sure I'm coherent.
Of course it makes sense. I've heard the argument before. I don't quite buy it, though--if most people "crave" poignant tension, then they can create it quite easily by being restrained about sex, and if they're not restrained about sex then they obviously don't crave tension!. It's not quite fair, IMO, to limit one person's sexual freedom because some other person finds Victorian notions of sex romantic. That other person can live their life according to those notions if they choose, but other people are likewise free to do what they want. (I also can't help feeling that the old-fashioned "romantic" conventions disappeared for a reason--the people who were actually forced to live by these rules didn't seem to find them romantic, more like stifling and oppressive! But that's neither here nor there.)
*Phew* This is a tiring discussion, innit? Especially with the boatloads of snarkiness and rudeness and general wank that it seems to have stirred up.