i hate moralizing in fiction but deeply value moral seriousness. very different things for me. the former exists in abundance and the latter is in short supply.
moralizing - having decided a moral lesson in advance and the fiction merely becomes the vehicle of lecturing the audience, and its goal to ensure their mastery of this lesson. no questions need be asked, because all answers are assumed known. moral seriousness - records a sincere grappling with difficult questions, taking opposing views seriously (which can arrive at condemnation - but first there must be an argument, rather than dismissal of them out of hand from a stance of superiority) inviting interlocutors to do so as well. can arrive at a very firm and clear and strident moral message, even, and often preferably! but the humility and curiosity of an accounting of the struggle, both on part of characters and the author, is very key to me, for what fiction can do, what it has uniquely to offer.
