Taboos

Scott Hardie | May 3, 2002
I was just thinking about something my fiction workshop discussed earlier this semester: What is taboo any more? We've read stories about all kinds of violent crime, self-mutilation, bizarre sexual fetishes, and so on. I personally wouldn't even say that barstool fetishes are taboo any more, at least for a writer to write about. Unusual yes, strange yes, but "wrong" no. So my class tried to say what was still taboo, and they couldn't do it. Just as the discussion ended, I realized one thing, but it was too late to say it.

Saying false things about ordinary people. If you want to say that George W. Bush snorts crack and has sex with goats, you can do that; it's satire. He's a public figure. But if you grab a phone book and pick a random name out of it and say that Stephen K. Missoll of 123 Waverly Street snorts crack and has sex with goats, well, you're "wrong" to do so. That's slander, and you'll get a lawsuit, but beyond that, society will frown on your action, and that makes it a taboo. I think.

Any other ideas? Keep in mind two things, that it must appear in a story or film and not in real life (you can get away with murder on a page), and that society must deem it "wrong" and not just weird or unusual.

Jackie Mason | May 4, 2002
[hidden by request]

Kevin Fiore | May 4, 2002
Incest is still Taboo.

Scott Hardie | May 4, 2002
I dunno, I disagree, but it's a matter of perception. Rent the movie "Happiness" by Todd Solondz (the Family Video in Macomb has it in the $1 section) for some shattering of taboos.

Hey Chosen One, would you like to be an author? Send me a password in email if you're interested.