I've read a lot of discussion over the past week about how many folks really desire to see some sort of trigger warning or age-safety rating on books. My knee jerk reaction was to say "Well, we have book categories -- aren't those good enough?" I mean, if someone sees a book listed as Adult Horror shouldn't they expect upsetting material as a part of the experience when reading that work?
Normally I avoid wading into comments sections on social media posts but I made an exception here and read the thoughtful (and surprisingly polite) conversations on these threads. It opened my eyes to a whole perspective that I had never considered... and this comes from someone who has battle depression and associative trauma from a divorce nearly a decade ago. These folks have very valid concerns about what they read and don't want to unknowingly wander into something that could be severely detrimental to their mental health.
Now on the other side you have authors who like to reserve certain parts of their books for the element of surprise, especially when a particularly triggering-type event could have a major impact on the plot. Plainly labeling that the book contains such material could potentially damage the reader's experience, removing the shocks and twists.
I have seen people clamoring for a rating system very similar to that of video games. My problem with that is video games tend to be dynamic, shifting, often open world experiences where the player dictates the action. When people watch movies or read books the reader isn't in control, the author is. Another fundamental flaw with suggestions for movie rating-like book ratings for content is that, whether we want to admit it or not, those ratings do take something away from the experience of watching the film. Unfortunately, a film is such a massive media event that it really is impossible to handle the marketing of a movie's rating in any other way. A whole family can watch a movie together, a whole family rarely reads a book, though. Literature is a far more intimate experience. It's personal, in your face and in your head in a way that few films ever will be.
So, again, what can we do about it?
Aside from the spoiler aspect, providing detailed content warnings on literary works would be very expensive. A certified third party organization would eventually be involved to verify the content of the book. Authors would end up eating the cost of this in a lot of cases -- not only independent and small publisher authors but don't think that even a large publishing house would be willing to eat that cost for all of their authors. If the authors don't pay for it, it will get built into the cost of a book -- making it more expensive. However you boil it down there would be damage to the literary industry. Also, films are subject to editing in order to be released. Would we really want to go down the rabbit hole of censorship in literature? Stores could only want to stock non-triggering material and that could lead to publishers and agents who are unwilling to include some content in books -- demanding that it be edited out before publishing.
That would be the death knell of the literary arts.
Yet, we must absolutely not disenfranchise people who are susceptible to psychological harm from our works.
So, I believe that (in an imperfect world) the least imperfect solution should be left in the community of readers. I would encourage readers to build forums to communicate with one another and even do their own logging of triggers contained within books to share with one another.
Also, I would HIGHLY ENCOURAGE readers with questions about content to seek out the author of the work in question (either through their social media page or via publisher) and just ask if something might be contained within the book.
Authors are surprisingly generous and communicative with their readers. We love the fact that people take an interest in our work and would have absolutely no problem taking time out of our day to alleviate your concerns. This way you can put your head to rest and we can preserve the integrity of our work.
It's not a perfect solution, but these ideas could go a long way to preventing someone from stumbling upon something in their reading that could be damaging to their psyche.
I am really interested in hearing thoughts on this.
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