Do we like reading about fictional rape? An affirmative answer would make us sleazy and voyeuristic, but it's a common enough fantasy and so present in our culture that to answer with an unequivocal no can't be right either. Yet it's conundrums like this that make living in rape culture so confusing. The proposition that we do indeed like it validates fears about our most debased impulses, that we (or enough of us) get off on violence at some primal level. This is hard news to hear, especially for women, who we know read for pleasure more than their male counterparts. Yet it also makes innate sense to the noir fan, who understands the irresistible pull of the ugly. Even I have my limits, and I read a lot of dark stuff. I put aside novels by Jo Nesbø, who I also admire for his psychological insights and natural way of building suspense, because I found them too violent towards women. I also put aside books by Pierre Lemaitre and M.J. Arlidge because I couldn't stomach them.
On Rape Culture in Crime Fiction
4 December 2017
Tags in Links Topics
Amazon
Authors
Bestselling authors
Book sales
Children's authors
Children's books
Children's publishing
Crime-writing
Crime fiction
Crime writer
e-books
Indie authors
Poems
Poetry
Poets
Prizes
Publishers
Publishing
Publishing houses
Publishing industry
Publishing world
Readers
Reading
Self-published writers
Self-publishers
Self-publishing
Writers
Writers' careers
Writers' craft
Writers' stories
Writing
Writing habits