can you deal with incest in fanfic?

[percival]

If 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.

Comments

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

Again, there's still a vast difference between an ad designed to brainwash and a piece of fiction designed to tell a story, and I still think the visual is much more influential in the case of advertising.

And I think I can say fairly confidently that the vast majority of ads actively repell me, and I don't generally buy things I see in ads.

Anyway, my point still stands: it is perfectly possible to be a critical reader/viewer and analyze what you see and read rather than blindly following it. People do that all the time; it's the people who don't think about what they see who are affected by advertising.

I find it fascinating that you essentially ignored everything I wrote, which was argued and supported, and replied with three sentences which didn't answer my argument and merely reiterated yours, but on the other hand I'm beginning to regret attempting to debate here anyway, since we seem to come from polar opposite views on who responsibility belongs to.

[swampfaye.livejournal.com]

Anything, however unlikely, is still possible

[carmarthen.livejournal.com]

What exactly is that supposed to mean?

You seem to want to filter the world; I cannot comprehend that.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Thank you for arguing calmly with somebody who indeed comes from a completely opposite point of view to yours. Now let me jump one step up and reply to some of the earlier posts.