"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

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

I think labelling fics by genre is plenty of information for a propsective reader. Saying something is fluff, or angst, or kink gives me plenty of information. Along with a decent summary, it's just as much information as I'd have walking into a movie or buying a book.

I've warned for drug use in the past, and I wonder why I did that now. I must have thought people would want to know, but it seems silly!

[charlotteschaos.livejournal.com]

It's a fine line. You want to be courteous, but you don't want to give away the farm either. Ironically... if I saw an HP story that warned for drug use, I might be more likely to read it just to see how that played into it and whether the author was creative enough to make magical drugs vs. the standard Muggle drugs.

By the same token, warning me that there would be a Character Death and it was someone I wanted to see dead like say... Umbridge... I'd be more likely to read that too ;)