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MORALFICTION

                                               Additions: July 7, 2000

So, there's this article in "SF Eye"
about Horror fiction.  A guy                  "Amoral Responsibility"
presents his manifesto fairly                  by Peter Lamborn Wilson
persuasively, but really his point             aka Hakim Bey
of view is pretty narrow.  He's
fallen into a trap, and I'll be                   (I didn't realize
amazed if he can take this anywhere.              this when I first
                                                  wrote this.)
He's decided that "Fiction
should be moral".  Everything
an author chooses to write is               And from Hakim Bey's
a presentation of the way                   "Critique of the Listener" (1992):
things _should_ be.
                                            "I share with the most
  Using erotica as an                       reactionary moralists the
  example, he takes the                     presumption that art can
  side that everything                      really affect reality in
  is fair game as long                      this way, & I despise the
  as it's consensual and                    liberals who say all art
  "loving".                                 should be permitted
                                            because--after all--it's
            (An idea popular on             only art."
             alt.sex.bondage, also.)
                                                 [ref]
So for instance, it's okay to
write about people playing
pretend rape in some kind of
bondage scene, but actual rape is
a no-no.  Would it be okay to
write about two people who get        There's also the
off together by reading each          common argument       (Tom Maddox
other stories about rape?             that art must         took this line
                                      be amoral,            on usenet a
   How many levels                    because didactic      few years back)
   of indirection                     fiction is
   do you need,                       inevitably boring.    DIDACTICS
   before it
   becomes                                This *also* seems
   palatable?                             too limited.

                                              You can't say anything
       I think Lamborn misses the             meaningful without it
       real evil of Horror: The               having some moral dimension.
       problem is not that it
       lacks compassion, but that
       it's inherently opposed to
       rationality.

             HORRIBLE_TRUTH


                                    And myself, I'm more inclined to argue
                                    that morality must be fictional.

                                               It arises from the same
                               DESPERATE       aesthetic principle that
                                               fiction comes out of.

                                               It must live up to the
                         Morality              same dramatic standards
                         should be...          that fiction should
          The "should"   as fiction            live up to.
          appears to     should be?
          presuppose
          a morality.

  This all must
  be circular
  reasoning...
  or possibly
  recursively
  defined?           UGLYBEAUTY

    True by
    definition?




           But I agree that
           the doctrine of           (A thesis perhaps only slightly
           escapism may              different from Lamborn?)
           well be harmful.
                                                          No, not that slight.
 Stories are relieved    The flip side                    Lamborn argues that
 from any duty to        is the notion                    fiction must be
 live up to the real,    that there are                   moral, I argue that
 and are deprived        no positive                      it must be real.
 from any sense of       outcomes in
 importance, any         life, there is
 feeling that the        no need to
 outcome matters,        struggle, no
 any feeling that        reason to try
 there's a point in      and live up to
 paying attention.       an ideal.                     Art and reality
                                                       should never be
                                                       opposed...
 "Hey, it's only         "Hey, you've got
  a movie."               to be realistic."

  TAKEN_LIGHTLY



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