Trigger warnings in stories

[Bramblethorn]

I truly believe that the responsibility rests on the reader to either read or not read. Whatever "triggers" may or may not be, the problem with them comes when life throws them at you willy-nilly. You learn to deal with them, or not. But in reading, if something "triggers" a negative response, put the damned thing down and stop reading it. Don't continue reading and then ask for sympathy when you're upset, offended, or whatever you want to call it.

That works well enough when the story builds towards a theme gradually, and the reader has time to think "this is going somewhere that's not for me, time to bail".

It doesn't work so well when the theme appears as a sudden twist, and by the time the reader sees where it's going it's already there.

 

[SisterJezabel]

That works well enough when the story builds towards a theme gradually, and the reader has time to think "this is going somewhere that's not for me, time to bail".

It doesn't work so well when the theme appears as a sudden twist, and by the time the reader sees where it's going it's already there.

Exactly! To the world, my ex was a god- simply amazing, best person ever. To many they still see him as this, despite him kicking me and being subjected to years and years of verbal abuse. If I were writing a story where the character was a wife-beater (for wont of a better term...) I would set the story with him being charming to those around him and that sort of story would draw people in. It's how writing works.

 

[Bramblethorn]

The last book I purchased way back when... what does that cover tell you?

You've only given me half the cover there. I'm missing the back, which often provides a lot of information. I've never read this one - I vaguely recognise the title as a Heinlein, that's about all I know of it. But okay, I'll post my guesses from the cover, and then we can see how I did.

Author's name: Robert Heinlein. Famous old dead white dude whose stock-in-trade was sci-fi, usually with a libertarian bent. Books usually include a sassy female character who's inexplicably eager to have sex with a male character who shares Heinlein's views on just about everything. I think he had a bit of fetish for redheads?

Title: "To Sail Beyond the Sunset". IIRC that's a quote from a poem about Ulysses late in life. I forget the author, but from what I recall it's set after his return home, but rather than be content to end his days in domestic bliss, he wants to go out and adventure again, seeking out unknown shores. Suggests this story's going to involve an older person who refuses to settle down when society thinks they ought to.

Cover art: 1987 painting by Boris Vallejo, famous old dead white dude SF/F artist, of a naked woman with loads of strategically-arranged red hair against a backdrop of stars, standing on a giant clam shell à la Botticelli's Birth of Venus. Plus cat. Strong "male gaze" vibe. Clam shell isn't visibly supported by anything, so I'm guessing this is probably artistic license/classical allusion rather than a scene that actually appears in the book. Venus is the goddess of sexual desire, so yeah, this is gonna be sexually thirsty Heinlein.

The cat isn't from Botticelli's painting though, so I'm guessing there is an actual cat in the story. It's looking at the redhead so I'm assuming she's the focus of the story more than the cat. Pity.

Hmm, from what I recall, 1987 was very late in Heinlein's career. Putting that together with the title and cover, that suggests the "older person refuses to settle down" arc is going to involve Heinlein reassuring himself that older people are still pretty great, interesting, and sexually desirable (at least, those who are smart and discerning enough to share Heinlein's opinions...)

So: sci-fi adventures of a redheaded MILF who fucks a lot even though conservative folk around her disapprove, favouring guys whose attitudes bear a suspicious resemblance to RAH's own. Probably gonna fuck some older guys.

My impression of Heinlein from other books, in particular "Stranger In A Strange Land", is that although he likes to think of himself as a great breaker of sexual taboos, it's in a very male-gaze-y no-homo sort of way - he's keen that women should overcome any inhibitions that prevent them from fucking guys (especially curmudgeonly author-type guys) but dismissive of same-sex attraction. So he's probably going to make a big deal about how sexually adventurous she is without ever entertaining a dalliance with another woman (give or take the possibility of a threesome for a guy's benefit, as long as the women aren't really interested in one another).

Likely to have a bit of libertarian pontificating, because when does late-career Heinlein not?

Pretty sure this is gonna be more than a little on the skeevy side, not in a good way. (I'm a redhead myself, but in my experience the kind of guy who makes a big thing about having a redhead fetish is the sort who makes me feel greasy just being around him.)

And there's a cat in it. I like cats, but not enough to overcome all the other clues that suggest to me that reading this is going to make me feel like I need a shower.

Since it's a trad-published book, I'd also have the option of looking up reviews/Amazon blurbs/etc., but let's stop there and check what Wiki has to say:

...a science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1987. It was the last novel published before his death in 1988. The title is taken from the poem Ulysses, by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

Check. Tennyson, that's right.

The book is a memoir of Maureen Johnson Smith Long, mother, lover, and eventual wife of Lazarus Long

...yep, definitely going to need that shower.

Maureen's adventures include a series of sexual encounters, beginning in [snipped in deference to Literotica's content rules - B]. Her story then encompasses [snipped - B], her husband, ministers, other women's husbands, boyfriends, swinging sessions, and the adult Lazarus Long/Theodore Bronson. Additionally, she continues a lifelong pursuit of her father sexually, encourages her husband to have sexual intercourse with their daughters, and accompanies him when he does; but forbids a son and daughter of hers from continuing an incestuous relationship, primarily for the sister's reluctance to share the brother with other women.

Check check check...

All of these are set against a history lesson of an alternate 20th century in which a variety of social and philosophical commentary is delivered.

...and, assuming that "social and philosophical commentary" is of a heavily libertarian bent, check once again.

So, yeah, there's a LOT of information even in that blurbless half-cover. I didn't pick a couple of the specific ways in which it was skeevy, the incest and under-age angles (and I hadn't read down far enough to see your mention of incest), but it looks like I got a pretty good sense of the overall tone of the book from that one image. More than enough to tell me that although there are quite a few Heinlein stories I've enjoyed reading, this isn't likely to be one of them.

And little, let's make the author feel good about his shit, blurbs aren't really warnings in the sense of what this thread means.
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Depends on the content. When they mention specific story aspects like "gore" or "bitter end", that's conveying much the same info as you'd find in a warning.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Okay, but that is something the every day Joe will be reading. This is when all is said and done a porn site. People come here to read about other people having sex in different combination or multiple combination. What kind of warning do the really need? Especially, when they are clicking on stories in specific categories... like Incest/Taboo, Loving Wives, Gay Male, what do they think they will find there?

I warn about the length of the story and in LW about which kind, BTB or RAAC or neither.

Other than that, the category says it all.

Nobody here's suggesting warnings for content that's already implied by the category; I'm not sure where people are getting that idea.

But I don't expect readers to guess that my Text with Audio story is going to end up with a guy being flayed alive. I don't expect them to guess that a Lesbian Sex story involves a girl being bullied for what she eats, or abused by her parents, or CNC play. That's the kind of thing where a warning might be helpful.