You’ve got some pretty dark characters—evil priests of a fanatical hierarchical religion; nobles who engage in human sacrifice to draw on dark powers; callous nobles in another book who rape and kill without a second thought; a repressive regime enforced by torture. Even your heroes aren’t all sunshine and butterflies. Do you ever get negative reactions on this from members? How do you navigate that?
Heh. Now THAT one I can answer. The biggest complaint I’ve had from readers is not about the aforementioned sacrifice scene (don’t worry, it’s not that graphic); it’s not the noble society in Mistborn, nor is the dark edge Kelsier has. It’s the fact that my characters occasionally curse. This has really bothered some readers, which I’ll admit, kind of dumbfounds me. I use only the most tame of curses (the Biblical swear words, you might call them.) The other things you’ve mentioned above are far more worrisome to me. It bothers me that people email me with outcries when a character says “damn,” yet don’t bat an eye at the fact that that same character just murdered someone in cold blood.
I’ve never had any comments on any of the things you mention, though that doesn’t mean that people haven’t noticed them. I’m honestly not sure what people’s perspective is. And, I don’t want to give the impression here that my books are incredibly dark. They are, however, sometimes a little violent. I’ve thought a lot about this issue. What do I want to do, how much do I want to show? Can I have a brutal oppressive empire without acknowledging the kinds of things that empire would do?
My books are about hope, in my opinion. Hope, struggle, and victory. I’ve tried very hard to keep graphic descriptions out of my books where I can, but I can’t always do so without undermining the story. And, the story comes first, for me.
A wise friend (an LDS writer) once explained that in his opinion, glorifying violence or sexuality comes when consequences are removed. The scriptures themselves don’t shy away from graphic content or descriptions (scalps on swords, anyone?) The important issue, however, is that the scriptures show the destructive effect that these things can have, even on the good people who are forced to engage in them.
So, I consider that my charge. I don’t sugar-coat my stories. However, I show cause and effect. A person cannot kill, in my opinion, even for good reasons without it leave them scarred.
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