Should You Be Responsible For Your Subtext
Whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.
Philippians 4:8
Okay so for context: I am currently writing a book…2 books…3 books I think (okay so, I have at the ideas for at least 5 ideas running in my head and for some I have written the first paragraph for and I am very proud of), that means that when it comes to making sure that I don’t mess up anything I am working 5 times as much (especially since the way the world works one mess up can end your entire career even before it starts). Unfortunately, with how writing works there are some times that what you write might end up creating some…odd meanings and symbolisms that people create from your writing and not all of them will be good.
This is like when people (especially English teachers, sometimes a red shirt can just be a red shirt…I mean sure one of my characters shirt colour has a deeper meaning but that is not the point) who look at things like the clothing the characters are wearing, the colours those cloths are and the weather and all of that. I mean I get it the writers have complete control everything that happens in the book or what ever medium they use so that must mean that everything the author puts down must be on purpose and must have a meaning right?
Well, I am here to say that is wrong…mostly wrong.
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While it is true that authors do have godlike powers over everything they make (and can decide to kill characters that don’t do what you want them to do every time you try to write them…like the vengeful god the suppressed god-complex we all have wants us to be) we aren’t perfect beings and even after several editing processes we can miss somethings that end up creating a bunch of weird subtexts. Sometimes there are some story elements that are just so cool or nuance or help grow your characters and world that when taken outside of the story world and looked at from a real-world context create some uncomfortable context (like how when I was younger one of my story arcs might have been kind of…problematic). Also, there is that one problem with how some things in one part of the world can have a completely different and horrible meaning in the world, like how the swastika is a Nazi symbol that originally meant something else entirely in the east.
So, with most people not being perfect beings and some things not translating very over international borders should authors really be held accountable for the subtext that their books have?
I honestly believe that they shouldn’t. I mean sure when they have been made aware of the context they can learn and not do the same thing again…or find a new target demographic (people are different will have different reactions to that). The thing is that while overt themes are something that the author has absolute control the subtext that people get from that is entirely up to the 6 billion people that are in the world and while most will have the same image and that image might be the image you want to convey. Other times the image can be something so distorted from what the author intended that a happy gummy story can end up having deeply intrinsic fascist themes somehow.
Just avoid the major issues like suggesting that Nazis or fascism was right, or even worse (according to all the people who critiqued Attack on Titan) not having a stance at all on this subject. In case you end up in that situation just make sure that if you do end up in a situation like that…good luck you have stepped on a mine field that I won’t even touch.
I mean sure in the end it would be great to write or tell a perfect story that doesn’t offend anyone and makes everyone like you, but people (even people in the same group or demographic) are not the same and you will always upset people no matter what you made and people who consume these works sometimes a red shirt is just a red shirt.
So…um, don’t be afraid to create.
