Art Kills

One of the subjects that I have been tiptoeing around ever since I wrote the opening paragraph of MFoDB came creeping back to haunt me during my editing phase. There I was, staring at a page and trying to make a difficult decision. Do I re-write a scene to make it more socially acceptable or do I leave it as is because it is a part of the story, no matter how unpalatable the subject matter?

Before I go any further I must preface this little conundrum with my perspective on social issues within our society. Yes, there are a lot of terrible things out there and we all bear a responsibility to improve the world around us.

...but where do we draw the line with art?

There are a lot of unsavory aspects to society. Do we chronicle them, acknowledge them, ignore them, change them within our stories to negate their impact upon a reader who may be particularly vulnerable or scarred by something they may read? Do we attach a warning inside the cover that there may be scenes of particular brutality or questionable ethics in the following pages?

...or do we simply let the work speak the words and support the reader if they find something objectionable within?

I fully expect many readers to be downright offended by some of the content in my book. It's a story of people pushed beyond their psychological limits in a fight for self preservation. What would you be capable of doing to save your own life or sanity?

So there I was, trying to determine if I needed to pull back and edit some of the character qualities and scenes to make it less shocking. In the end I did compromise and altered a few paragraphs to make it a bit less paltry. In my own opinion it went a bit far. Did I do it because of outside pressure from the world that we currently live in? Not really. In this particular instance I edited the character/scenes because I thought it would distract the reader and draw too much attention to this one aspect/scene and put the focus on the wrong part of the story.

In another scene I faced a similar quandary. This time I let it be. I know the scene is going to get me some negative feedback but I feel it is integral to the tale that I am telling. So it is going to stay there. If someone reads it then tells me off and calls me a monster for writing that then I will completely understand the offended party and support them.

It's a complicated world to navigate for an artist. Obviously, there is no way to please absolutely everyone and someone is always going to hate our art. What do we owe more to society through our art? Do we owe it an effort toward improving cultural issues through our work by setting positive examples or do we owe it to society to be brutally honest about a subject and let the reader be appalled by it? Is it a hill that you, as an artist, are willing to die upon for your creation?

I have decided to let my art speak for itself and not water it down for a contemporary audience. Will people read my work and get a poor impression of who I am, as a person, from the words that I put down on paper? Probably. I believe, however, that my stories shouldn't be compromised by not wanting to push the reader far from their comfort zone. I will gladly fall on that sword if it is for an element within my story that I feel is necessary to the tale unfolding. Just know that if you hate my work I completely understand and support you for feeling offended by it.