Why don't readers understand 'fantasy'

[homeboundboy]

On two different story series I have written, I have had people email or comment "This would never happen. Someone would call the police, people would go to jail", etc.

Do other authors have same issues with their stories? Yes, I am well aware in the real world that if a teacher took a student as his sex slave that would lead to legal repercussions. But aren't almost all of the stories on this site complete fantasy? It seems people can handle werewolves sodomizing fairies but not situations that are close to real life?

Just trying to understand why some readers are so hung up on legal consequences of fantasy stories.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

Generally, stories set in the real world create the expectation that real world rules applies. If you story has werewolves and fairies, you get automatic suspension of disbelief. If it has teachers and students, I at least would expect the characters to act like humans act in their given culture, and I'd move on if the action became unrealistic.

In other words, you don't get to play the "It's Fantasy!" card if you're writing it like it's real world events.

A lot of my stories have fantastic settings - far future, fantasy medieval, etc - and then I don't face this complaint. If you really want to do unrealistic things in a real world setting, a note at the top of the story warning people ought to shortcut the complaints.

Or just keep doing what you like. Sure some people won't like it, but you'll get that no matter what you do.

 

[SecondCircle]

Depends on the story I'd say. There are times where readers have trouble discerning fictional storytelling from real life.

But I think we must also be aware of plausibility within our story. Suspension of disbelief comes into play, where you must write a story well enough that it is plausible within itself given what is believable within the world you've built for the reader. In "The Matrix" for example, it isn't implausible to believe a man could jump from skyscraper to skyscraper, given what fiction we've been provided in the story. As long as it makes sense within the story and is delivered in a fashion that is enjoyable to read, a reader will follow you down the rabbit hole.

It is up to you to decide which sort of reader the comment comes from. Either certain details in the story just didn't add up in a believable way and thus broke the reader's immersion, or the reader is simply being picky about the material given. Were I to wager a guess, I'd say it is the latter. They may be a little offended at the material you've given them and want to let you know that there are consequences for such elements in real life, just to bug you. Whittle this down to it's most base form, the comment might as well say, "I didn't care for what you wrote."

In any case, it's just a part of feedback. If the reader has a problem accepting that it's merely a story, that's fine. Not everyone will like everything we write.

 

[Handley_Page]

On two different story series I have written, I have had people email or comment "This would never happen. Someone would call the police, people would go to jail", etc.

Just trying to understand why some readers are so hung up on legal consequences of fantasy stories.

Some authors are so peeved about this problem that they include lines such as
"This is fiction; any resemblance to real life is coincidence"
in the Notes at the beginning of a story.
For example: this is Oggs:-
"This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons."

 

[sr71plt]

Since there is no universal "reader" to tag a reaction to, I'll use the answer I give to questions like this:

I don't know. Let's call them and ask.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

People are crazy, each in his own way. The trick is to learn where we're broken and avoid stressing it. And if that's not trouble enough, we're all wrong most of the time.

 

[oggbashan]

On two different story series I have written, I have had people email or comment "This would never happen. Someone would call the police, people would go to jail", etc.

Do other authors have same issues with their stories? Yes, I am well aware in the real world that if a teacher took a student as his sex slave that would lead to legal repercussions. But aren't almost all of the stories on this site complete fantasy? It seems people can handle werewolves sodomizing fairies but not situations that are close to real life?

Just trying to understand why some readers are so hung up on legal consequences of fantasy stories.

Some authors are so peeved about this problem that they include lines such as
"This is fiction; any resemblance to real life is coincidence"
in the Notes at the beginning of a story.
For example: this is Oggs:-
"This is a work of fiction. The events described here are imaginary; the settings and characters are fictitious and are not intended to represent specific places or living persons."

My disclaimer, quoted by Handley, doesn't stop me getting the same sort of comments.

I see them as a campaign by an anonymous, probably a single one, against the sort of femdom stories I write. The wording is similar and possibly to justify the 1 vote that usually appears at the same time.

Perhaps this anon is a self-styled 'Real Man' who can't see submission to a woman as acceptable even in a fantasy or as sex play.

 

[hadruprider]

There is one idiot anonymous troll who writes this almost identical comment on hundreds of stories. It's nothing to do with your story. He did it with my story. I just deleted his comment (you can do this via your home page though it's not immediately obvious).

 

[My I]

They do it for the same reason people go to the theater and spend the entire time trying to pick out every flaw instead of just enjoying the movie. It's what they do.

 

[sr71plt]

They do it for the same reason people go to the theater and spend the entire time trying to pick out every flaw instead of just enjoying the movie. It's what they do.

I did this for a few years, although with stage plays, not movies. I was a newspaper theater critic (on the side). It left me unable to just go to the theater and let the total experience wash over me.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

There are idiots that read stories here that think everything they read is a true confession. These are the same people who thought Penthouse Letters were real. There are a lot of idiots in the world. Ignore them. The have a habit of going away or disappearing. Where to, I have no idea.

 

[OmnislashXX]

Seems like you need a disclaimer for everything these days.

 

[SamScribble]

There are factual facts and there are fictional facts. Good writers strive to convince their readers that the fictional facts are as 'true' as the factual facts. Good sci-fi works because the fictional facts seem believable in the context. The same is true of good fantasy. But when a writer introduces fictional facts, clumsily, into a factual facts world, is it any wonder the reader protests? (Mind you, some readers would complain if their bum was on fire. Oh, well.)

 

[Hypoxia]

I can up-front disclaim that "this fictional story is a sick fantasy" and I'll get comments like "this is a sick fantasy". What can I say? Some readers are retards. Most (hopefully) aren't. Meanwhile, they read your stuff for free, and you don't get paid, so you write and post here for reasons other than material gain. If freeloading readers don't like your stuff, fuck-em. Do what makes you feel good.

 

[curiouschattycouple]

I don't mind folks asking if my story is true - I know that is what they want to hear but I've had some great conversations with readers about the stories in their heads that they want to play out for real.

 

[Handley_Page]

Seems like you need a disclaimer for everything these days.

Sad, but all too true.
It's mostly, I suspect, because of the legal system:
"You didn't tell me. . .", etc..
A good example is that famous 'hot' coffee cup.

 

[tomlitilia]

I'm guessing that most readers do understand that what they are reading is fantasy. It's just that the ones who don't are the most vocal about it.

 

[Handley_Page]

I'm guessing that most readers do understand that what they are reading is fantasy. It's just that the ones who don't are the most vocal about it.

The thought occurs to me that perhaps our writers are so good in writing that the line between fantasy & reality is a bit too blurred ?

 

[lovecraft68]

"They'd go to jail" smacks of an LW complaint.

Every fictional story has some suspension of reality, even if its minor details I have never read a book where there hasn't been a couple of moments of "Okay, if they could really do this....or if they ever did this, then what would really happen is..." but the key word is fiction.

Writing/reading is escapism and even in realistic settings its still fantasy. If it was 100% true to life you may as well be watching the news (but not fake news!)

People can't help projecting their real life experiences, dislikes and prejudices onto stories. The LW crowd in general hates women, therefore any story where the wife is not somehow punished is unrealistic and gets comments that are hundreds of barely literate words describing 'what would really happen'

Write for yourself, have fun and fuck the haters. You don't get paid here and they have no right to tell you how to write your story.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Most of us don't go to jail.

I read a story yesterday in which the killer revealed how he trained for his hits. It was plausible and disturbing to see how people exposed themselves to risk.

The end I saw a mile away, its been used before. Its clever but not new. The author uses it a lot in stories.

 

[RetroFan]

To explain this in the best way I can, think of a Venn Diagram.

The left circle represents stories that can happen in the real world, involving realistic situations and characters. The right circle represents fantasy, and can involve time travel, science fiction the supernatural, body-swapping and the like.

One can enjoy reading the real world stories from the left side of the Venn diagram, and simply change one's mindset and enjoy the fantasy stories on the right.

It is the area where the circles intersect and one encounters a story that is set in the real world, but the storylines are so unrealistic that they become ridiculous.

For example, fetishes about panties are common. A real world story might be a simple erotic couplings story that draws a great deal of attention to the woman's panties. A fantasy story might involve a man who is turned into the panties of the prettiest girl in the office for 24 hours. However, a real-world story set at a car dealership where an attractive young female salesperson gets poor sales results for the month and as punishment for her failings is ordered by the boss to hold up her skirt and allow all the men who work there to look down her panties is not realistic, and loses readers straight away. If the car sales girl was ordered to do this, she would get the hell out of there and call the police.

 

[sr71plt]

Just a note dropped in that has been voiced before--since I'm one not to be writing for the literalist or someone who needs everything spelled out for them but as one who knows these folks will read and comment anyway:

I continue to be amused by having aspects of my stories pointed to as unbelievable that, in fact, were the nuggets of "really happened" in a story where most everything else was made up.

 

[oggbashan]

Just a note dropped in that has been voiced before--since I'm one not to be writing for the literalist or someone who needs everything spelled out for them but as one who knows these folks will read and comment anyway:

I continue to be amused by having aspects of my stories pointed to as unbelievable that, in fact, were the nuggets of "really happened" in a story where most everything else was made up.

That's happened to me too.

I was writing about London in the 1960s and an apparent woman wrote from rural Mid-West America that behaviour like that was impossible at the time.

Maybe not where she was living but it happened in the Kings Road, Chelsea in 1960s Swinging London.

Another example is that stage nudity was supposed to have started with the musical Hair in 1967.

Sorry! It had happened before that in London in a Restoration Comedy. I even saw it in an Opera in 1965. Very artistic!

 

[SimonDoom]

My general rule as a reader is that I'm willing to suspend disbelief in a big way once in a story, and after that the author needs to work within the framework of that suspension and not keep asking me to suspend disbelief many times. But I can suspend disbelief about just about anything if the author is skillful.

What's funny is that the LW readers aren't willing to suspend disbelief in certain ways even though there are real world stories that prove it's legitimate to do so. They say things like "no couple that loved each other would do this" (not true) or "they'd all get STDs" (maybe, but people in the real world ignore this possibility all the time). But they'd happily read a story about aliens visiting earth or about time travel, so long as no wife got away with cheating or unprotected sex. It's a strange world here.

 

[Handley_Page]

Generally, stories set in the real world create the expectation that real world rules applies. [1]

If it has teachers and students, I at least would expect the characters to act like humans act in their given culture, and I'd move on if the action became unrealistic. [2]

In other words, you don't get to play the "It's Fantasy!" card if you're writing it like it's real world events. [3]

Or just keep doing what you like. Sure some people won't like it, but you'll get that no matter what you do.

[1] Why ? I think it merely creates a situation (a backdrop ?) upon which the story events happen.
[2] The whole point of our stories is that the described events CAN happen (but usually don't for legal or moral reasons?)
[3] Of course you can. It's not supposed to be so real!