Charles Finch's Blog - Posts Tagged "bad-language"
Sex, language, and Lenox
One of the reasons I love the period I write about, Victorian England, is that there were no CSI units back then. No UV light scans, no electron microscopes, no "zoom and enhance." I've gotten so tired of that aspect of crime fiction and crime drama in the last decade.
Especially because that style's often employed by the same writers who favor ultra-violent crimes. If there's a point to it I think an author is wholly entitled to show us violence, but too often to me it feels like simple sensationalism, the shock dulled by repetition, the crime's psychology less important than its ornate, grisly description.
I know that one of the reasons people find their way to the Lenox mysteries is that they don't use this kind of violence - or, for that matter, much sex or bad language. I think there was a single "fuck" in one of the six Lenox books, used for comic effect. Each book has six or seven "damn"s in it too, but I can't imagine many people are angrily returning the book to the bookstore because of those.
But here's where I start to worry a bit about losing my audience. Because my first standalone novel, "The Last Enchantments" does have sex and cursing in it, in pretty healthy doses. Not on every page - but a realistic amount, for a book about student life. What's more, though the book isn't totally autobiographical, it's in the first person, which I think may make readers who are accustomed to my books about Lenox pause for a moment.
Ultimately, of course, I can't help whether or not people decide to reject my non-mystery work because of those issues. At least I can say, however, that the choices I've made are never sensationalistic - no splayed-open corpses are going to turn up in the next Lenox book. Where "The Last Enchantments" gets a little riskier than the Lenox books, it's for a reason, something I've carefully thought through. Hopefully people will understand that and stay along for the ride.
What are your deal-breakers? Sex? Language? Violence? Do you favor books with a gentler tone? Or do you read all over the map, the way I do? I'm curious to hear people weigh in.
And if hearing that "The Last Enchantments" has sex in it makes you want to read it MORE, add it here!
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
Especially because that style's often employed by the same writers who favor ultra-violent crimes. If there's a point to it I think an author is wholly entitled to show us violence, but too often to me it feels like simple sensationalism, the shock dulled by repetition, the crime's psychology less important than its ornate, grisly description.
I know that one of the reasons people find their way to the Lenox mysteries is that they don't use this kind of violence - or, for that matter, much sex or bad language. I think there was a single "fuck" in one of the six Lenox books, used for comic effect. Each book has six or seven "damn"s in it too, but I can't imagine many people are angrily returning the book to the bookstore because of those.
But here's where I start to worry a bit about losing my audience. Because my first standalone novel, "The Last Enchantments" does have sex and cursing in it, in pretty healthy doses. Not on every page - but a realistic amount, for a book about student life. What's more, though the book isn't totally autobiographical, it's in the first person, which I think may make readers who are accustomed to my books about Lenox pause for a moment.
Ultimately, of course, I can't help whether or not people decide to reject my non-mystery work because of those issues. At least I can say, however, that the choices I've made are never sensationalistic - no splayed-open corpses are going to turn up in the next Lenox book. Where "The Last Enchantments" gets a little riskier than the Lenox books, it's for a reason, something I've carefully thought through. Hopefully people will understand that and stay along for the ride.
What are your deal-breakers? Sex? Language? Violence? Do you favor books with a gentler tone? Or do you read all over the map, the way I do? I'm curious to hear people weigh in.
And if hearing that "The Last Enchantments" has sex in it makes you want to read it MORE, add it here!
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
