"Character Death" warnings and why I don't like them

[emmagrant01]

maeglinyedi recently posted one of her pet peeves about what people warn for in fic, and it got me thinking about what mine are.

And hands down, no questions, the biggest one is people warning for character death.  There are several reasons I don't like this warning, listed in order of importance.

1. It is a SPOILER for the story!  If you tell me someone is going to die, then you've already given away the ending.  It descreases my enjoyment of the story significantly, because I spend the whole time reading wondering who it's going to be.  (This was true for me when I read OOTP too.)  In other cases, it ruins the story to the extent that there's no point in reading it.

To highlight the spoiler issue, let me use a film as an analogy: at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan, we see an old man visiting a cemetary, which fades into a shot of Tom Hanks about to storm the beaches of Normandy.  So we're set up to believe that the old man we saw before was Tom Hanks, and we spend the movie wondering if he's going to find Private Ryan or not.  So when the Hanks character dies, it's a surprise, and it's one of the most powerful moments in the film.  It makes the ending, where Ryan is kneeling at a grave and praying that this sacrifice was worth it, work.  If you went into that film knowing that the Hanks character was going to die, it would be a different, less emotionally powerful experience.  Or worse, if you just knew that someone was going to die, it would be distracting; you wouldn't get the same enjoyment out of the film.

Authors put death in fics, films, and books because it's part of life.  Moreover, it generally sneaks up on people: they're happily going along, and then someone dies and their world is shaken.  There is often not a warning.  I don't want a warning.  I want to be just as surprised as the characters were.

2. I think that authors warn for such things because they have been or are afraid of being flamed if they don't.  Now think for a moment about what that means -- a small group of readers are demanding that a writer tell them in advance what they might not potentially like about her fic.  Does that make any sense at all?  First of all, why would anyone want to tell people they might not like their fic, in advance?  But second, doesn't that sound a bit too much like conservative groups demanding that networks and film studios more carefully censor material that may be considered offensive?

Readers need to take some personal responsibility.  If you read a well-written fic that contained some content that disturbed you, that's your problem, not the author's!  It's not the author's job to hold your hand and reassure you that the fic will turn out exactly the way you want it to.  If you want a different ending, write your own fic.

3.  There is no other form of media that is required to warn for character death in advance.  If I go to Book People and pick up a few novels, I'm not going to see a warning on the jacket for character death.  In fact, there would probably be a public uproar if there were such warnings, from authors and readers alike.  Film trailers don't contain warnings for character death, either, for exactly the same reason.  Why should they spoil the story for their viewers? 

I understand that some people don't like to read stories with unhappy endings, but it isn't my responsibility as a writer to list off every possible thing you might not like about my story.  I write the story I want to write, and I post it.  People  will read it or not, for a variety of reasons, and I have no control over that.  But in particular, I can't predict how a reader will react to my story.

So what do you think? 

ETA: Oh, and if you haven't seen Saving Private Ryan in the six years since it came out, I have indeed spoiled it for you. Just for future reference, how many years have to pass before it's okay to talk about how a movie ended?

PS: Oh, and Darth Vader is Luke's father! Damn, I did it again. Silly me. :-P

Comments

[starkittyn.livejournal.com]

You know I scrolled through the entire comment list and there's a lot I agree with. I think your point is well taken except for one thing - using your example we know two things about the movie before we see it. We know that it's a war movie and we've probably seen the trailer as well that hints (iirc) that *somebody* dies in it. As much as I like Tom Hanks in general, as well as several costars in the film, I didn't go see it because I don't care for war films nor for those in which somebody dies and I cry for an hour afterwards.

I'm probably too sensitive about that kind of thing and have learned to censor what I see or read in order to spare myself that type of discomfort. I don't go see horror films for the same reason.

In general, fanfic is romance - or at least pairing-centric. It's assumed most of the time that if the two people paired up are not happy that they are at least in some state of ust, love, smut, etc. That's what I *personally* enjoy about it. Therefore, I prefer not to read certain types of dark!fic and fic that features character death of one of the pairing partners.

Perhaps a suggestion here would be to warn for character death of one member of the pairing. I mean, if I'm reading Harry/Draco and Voldemort gets it, I'm not going to cry. If I'm reading the same and Bellatrix or Crouch Jr dies, again, not going to be upset. Those are assumed to be the "bad guys".

I can see that warning for character death is a spoiler, but since I have no trailer and no way of knowing what the fic is going to contain except by warning or by summary, I prefer to be warned so I can make a decision about reading or not reading.