first series a bad idea for some people to read?

[TheGryphon]

As a survivor of Rape myself, I found it easier to read of Lena's rape, than to watch (and listen to) a rape in a movie. My imagination apparently protects me better than some "in your face" director's idea of a rape.

In the "Millenium" Series, the heroine is raped (she's the "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.") As in LFB, the rape is a very important plot point. When one understands the victim's history, their future behavior is more believable (and forgivable?)

Again, it was much easier to read about than watch in the movies (I saw the Swedish films on DVD recently.) I had to hit the mute button and walk out of the room during those scenes. Just too traumatic for me.

If you know of someone who has been raped, it would be a good deed to warn them of rape scenes you know of before they read a book (or see a movie). "Fore-warned is Fore-armed" as my Grandfather used to say....

Some women will go ahead and read (or watch) once they're prepared. Other women may still be too fragile to re-live such trauma.

[Tefazipipo]

I'm sorry to resurrect this thread, but it is the one I found with a suitable title.

It's just I was in a discussion with someone about books they loathe and characters they loathe. I explained that, to me, the difficulty sometimes lies in the one thing that someone knows about a story that then rises above anything else, so they don't care about anything written beyond it. I gave this series as the example, because frequently when it comes up someone will say "That one about the leper who rapes a girl and her daughter falls in love with him? Eeeew."

Turned out the person I was chatting with feels that way.

[Orlion]

My views of how to handle this situation have changed over the years. Now, when I recommend the books, I make no mention of Lena's rape. They'll find out about it soon enough.

As far as people not being able to finish it because of it, they get a shrug from me, different experience for different people. If I find out they enjoy reading/watching things like Walking Dead, Dexter, Saw, Hostel, Game of Thrones, Hunger Games, etc., they then lose all my respect and any future recommendations.

If they say no one should read such garbage because of that scene, I ask if they have ever read it. When they invariably answer in the negative, I give them a variation of the phrase: "Then shut it."

Essentially, people who can't read it for any reason of tastes in literature: that's fine. The reading experience is subjective. Those who just can't let people have their subjective reading experiences: those are problem folks.

[Major Isoor]

I've recommended the series many times over the years, but I've always warned my friends about that scene.

I would still make the recommendation, but tell her about that scene first. Let her make her own decision.

Yeah, this is more or less what I told a friend of mine, after I told him that I was currently reading a pretty good series, which got him interested in it. Although, I didn't state specifically what happened, (not that there was a rape; just that there was an 'encounter' that may put him off, but that he should keep going, and tell me when he reached that point, where I'll just say that he never forgives himself, and that it's a fairly key event in the First Chronicles, sort of thing, similar to what Orlion initially said) as I don't want him to be put off before he even started the series - hell, I was almost put off when I first read it, especially since it was right at the start of the book, so I had no idea if crimes like this was just a "one-off", or a more regular occurance in the Covenant books. Thankfully I decided to keep going, and am now waist-deep in the Second Chronicles, and loving every page of it! (in a 'Dear lord what's happened to the Land!? Woe is me!' kind of way! )

As to what Orlion posted above this, I dunno, I still feel inclined to give it at least some form of mention/hint, and say that it's not in anyway justified or dismissed/accepted by the author, especially due to the fact that it takes place right at the very start of the First Chronicles, as opposed to if it happened later on even, in Lord Foul's Bane, still. Since the fact that it pretty much happens on page one would most likely be a good deal of the shock of it, (I don't mean most of the shock, but a relatively sizable portion, still) since then a fair few of the readers - myself included, just the other week - will no doubt wonder if this happens again, etc. But yeah, as I've said, I've only recently read the books, (I'm currently mid-Second Chronicles - so don't spoil anything! ) so I haven't really had a lot of time to reflect and refine my opinion on the matter, like you have.


(And typical; it's only my second post, and I've already jumped into a hot-topic kind of issue! Heh)


EDIT: vvv Oh and yes, I agree with that also, before anyone may think otherwise!

[Cambo]

A friend of mine couldn't get past the rape to read the rest of the series. *shrug* Her loss. You're right, Orlion, people who judge others for enjoying the series based just on that scene are idiots.

[peter]

I think this kind of misguided reaction is pretty limited in both it's frequency of occurence and it's reach when it does occur. Most people who have fallen by the wayside in attempting to read LFB have done so because of finding TC's trek across the Land with Atiaren (spelling?) too drawn out to hold thier attention. The rape scene is neither graphic or explicit to the point where it would of itself stop someone reading the book unless they had built up a mental barrier against reading a book where the central protagonist was a rapist - the first book of the Gap series was IIRC much worse re Angus's treatment of Morn. Donaldson never pretends that TC is a particularly nice guy - whether he can ever achieve redemption in the eyes of the reader for his attrocious act on Lena is a matter of opinion and really for the individual to decide. But to refuse to continue to read on after this scene.......hem........sounds a bit like a 'get out of jail' card to me.

[halfhanded]

I got someone to read the series, and he definitely wasn't the kind of guy who would normally read "fantasy" books. But I did tell him, from the get-go, that he wasn't going to like the main character at first. In fact, he might even DISLIKE him.

That did the trick, and he would come to me and tell me how he felt the main character acted. But he kept reading....