Devil's plaything in my hands

This is harder and harder for audiences to grasp, and I sympathize, honestly, because we have become more keen over the last couple of decades, and we've noticed how many stories have been sold to us as an ideal we should reach for that would be harmful to us if we did so - stories intending to propogandize values centered around control or subjugation

but you have to learn to recognize when that's what is happening and when a work is simply clumsy, indulgent fantasizing shared with others, and how to settle your jerking, trigger-happy reflex when you notice something in a work of fiction that shouldn't be emulated in real life. That's not what fiction is. That is not, at base, its purpose or intent.

recognizing that a situation would be abusive if it were real does not mean that all stories where those situations happen are inherently ABOUT abuse. Unless we have reason to believe the writer is indeed trying to propagandize societal control on some level, then the story is about what the writer says it's about, because it's not real

there's no one with agency involved, there is only what the fictional fantasy writer wanted to happen in their fictional fantasy world. You being able to identify "if these two people existed this relationship would be abusive" doesn't change the intent of the text. It's GOOD that you can identify that! It's actually excellent! It's a necessary component to experiencing fiction and keeping yourself safe in the real world, but it doesn't change the intent of the text

You are absolutely, Capital R Right: if these people existed and treated each other this way, it would be abusive. But they don't exist. They are Anne Rice's Barbies, and she makes them kiss rough and mean and murderous and underage and incestuously, but through it all they remain Barbies, and she had zero responsibility to explicitly designate those Barbie relationships as abusive for the benefit of a reader who feels like they can't trust a text unless it spells things out for them in real-world morality parables.

This is harder and harder for audiences to grasp, and I sympathize, honestly, because we have become more keen over the last couple of decades, and we've noticed how many stories have been sold to us as an ideal we should reach for that would be harmful to us if we did so - stories intending to propogandize values centered around control or subjugation

but you have to learn to recognize when that's what is happening and when a work is simply clumsy, indulgent fantasizing shared with others, and how to settle your jerking, trigger-happy reflex when you notice something in a work of fiction that shouldn't be emulated in real life. That's not what fiction is. That is not, at base, its purpose or intent.

recognizing that a situation would be abusive if it were real does not mean that all stories where those situations happen are inherently ABOUT abuse. Unless we have reason to believe the writer is indeed trying to propagandize societal control on some level, then the story is about what the writer says it's about, because it's not real

there's no one with agency involved, there is only what the fictional fantasy writer wanted to happen in their fictional fantasy world. You being able to identify "if these two people existed this relationship would be abusive" doesn't change the intent of the text. It's GOOD that you can identify that! It's actually excellent! It's a necessary component to experiencing fiction and keeping yourself safe in the real world, but it doesn't change the intent of the text

You are absolutely, Capital R Right: if these people existed and treated each other this way, it would be abusive. But they don't exist. They are Anne Rice's Barbies, and she makes them kiss rough and mean and murderous and underage and incestuously, but through it all they remain Barbies, and she had zero responsibility to explicitly designate those Barbie relationships as abusive for the benefit of a reader who feels like they can't trust a text unless it spells things out for them in real-world morality parables.

Machetes and big fridges

Oh my god, how do I even pick one?!?!

Beloved, beautiful boy, lover, boss... any and all of these will send me to the fucking moon.

The adaptation of any of Armand's 80s antics (I'm talking blenders, calling Paris, street interviews, telescopes, bathing and shaving a sleepy Danny, etc. etc.) will cause my soul to start ascending.

Pompeii and the first blood sharing moment would make me leave this astral plane. And a mention of Night Island would kill me dead.

When they finally kiss, you'll hear me screaming from the other side of the world. When they finally fuck, they'll hear me screaming from space.

And of course THE BELT LOOPS.

Oh my god, how do I even pick one?!?!

Beloved, beautiful boy, lover, boss... any and all of these will send me to the fucking moon.

The adaptation of any of Armand's 80s antics (I'm talking blenders, calling Paris, street interviews, telescopes, bathing and shaving a sleepy Danny, etc. etc.) will cause my soul to start ascending.

Pompeii and the first blood sharing moment would make me leave this astral plane. And a mention of Night Island would kill me dead.

When they finally kiss, you'll hear me screaming from the other side of the world. When they finally fuck, they'll hear me screaming from space.

And of course THE BELT LOOPS.

Baby want smoko