[PREV - STUFF_UP_THE_CRACKS]    [TOP]

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 wrote
Essentially, he's taking the side                 this.)           
that "Fiction should be moral".                                    
Everything an author chooses to          
write is a presentation of the way       
things _should_ be.  Using erotica       
as an example, he takes the              
(conventional for asb) side that             (asb = alt.sex.bondage)
everything is fair game as long as        
it's consensual and "loving".             
                                    
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        There's also the
get off together by reading each          common argument      (e.g. made
other stories about rape?                 that art must        by Tom Maddox
                                          be amoral,           on the net 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

 
----------------- 
 
[NEXT - MANIFESTO]