Mini-rant

It's strange, sometimes, what upsets you in fiction. Strange the things that push your buttons. Usually, I don't tend to get upset at things if they're presented as a character's viewpoint (though I yell at characters plenty for them). I usually only really get upset if the story is set up in such a way to make something that offends/hurts me seem justified beyond the scope of the story. I mean, if the story is set up so that we're supposed to come away thinking such-and-such a thing is right.

(Conversely, I have no trouble with a story setting out to make a statement that, under some circumstances, a terrible thing may be necessary. Because, horribly, sometimes they are, if they are the lesser of evils. But. Lesser of evils is still evil. Necessity is not the same as justification. A character who chooses the lesser of evils out of necessity does not, in doing so, make themselves evil, provided they remember that it was evil. So long as they do not think they were right to do it. But that's ... Anyway. Moving on ...)

( On the issue of trust in fiction ... )