Accepting the Difference

Unit: Professional Writing and Presentation 212 - Fakes, Frauds and Fictions.
Final Essay (1800-2000 word limit)

Accepting the Difference - Fiction's Non-Obligation To Include a Moral Core

Writers of non-fiction have an understandable obligation to publish the correct facts. Fiction is not always about being correct; it is far more interested in the telling of an entertaining or otherwise engaging story. Thus, fiction writers, while often required to adhere to laws of physics, mathematics and language, are also given the freedom to bend these rules. Fiction writers, then, should be allowed the freedom to explore ethically contentious subjects without the obligation to provide readers with a moral core to follow.

Works that present themselves as fiction should not be mistaken for factual events, even when given actual settings. The Maquarie dictionary defines fiction as something that is “something feigned, invented, or imagined; a made up story.” (451) While it is possible for a reader to become passionately caught up in a work of fiction and to believe in it, it should remain equally possible to remember that it is not a portrayal of reality. For example, it should be fair to argue that although the majority of comic books are set on a recognisable Earth, most intelligent readers of this material also realise that the presented scenarios and characters are purely fictitious. If readers can assume this much for themselves, it would be fair for a writer to believe that any facts will also be recognised as at least partially fictive. In defining science fiction, Adam Roberts reminds us that:

It is equally impossible, in strict scientific terms, to manipulate DNA to create dinosaurs in the ways required by Michael Crichton's book Jurassic Park (1993), or to design spaceships that can travel between the stars like Star Treks's USS Enterprise. But it is part of the logic of SF... that these changes be made plausible within the structure of the text. This means that the premise of an SF novel requires material, physical rationalisation, rather than a supernatural or arbitrary one. (5)

These material and physical rationalisations are accepted by the readership to be real facts as far as the novel is concerned, despite these “facts” being implausible in the real world. This presentation of untrue “facts” is not considered immoral, as the work is recognised as fiction. Writers of any work, whether fictional or not, should be allowed to expect that their readers have the capability to form their own opinions.

Fictional stories that present themselves within historical settings should still be considered fiction, not fact. Helen Demidenko's story The Hand That Signed The Paper was one such fictional story given an historical backdrop. Despite taking place in a recognisable spatial and historic setting, Demidenko made sure to note at the beginning of her novel that “what follows is a work of fiction.” (vi) “Yet rarely has a first Australian novel been more reviled,” Robert Manne muses. “Its detractors – which include not only almost all its Jewish readers but significant sections of the political intelligentsia – see in it little but moral vacuity, vulgarity, historical ignorance.” Because of its historical setting, The Hand That Signed The Paper is considered a factual commentary on the Nazi invasion of the Ukraine and is therefore considered to require a moral core. Her work is out of line with the popular “politically correct” view that portrays Jews as the victims. As Aiofe Dare determines, political correctness “is seen as a prohibitive force, impeding on our right to freedom of speech and paradoxically aims at 'enforcing tolerance.'” (7) Had Demidenko written about a fictional holocaust in a fictional setting, without the possibility of claims of historical inaccuracies, her work would most likely not be seen as immoral. The change of setting should not constitute an inclusion of a moral core if the story remains self-declaringly fictional. Demidenko herself “defends her style of writing by arguing that it is not the author's responsibility to provide 'ethical signposting' or 'to do the reader's thinking for him.'” (Gardner) The idea is simple enough – if a reader does not like the material, they are free to put it down and are under no obligation to accept it as historical facts.

In Western society it is deemed immoral to tell a humanistic story from the perspective of those considered 'evil.' However, morals of anti-discrimination are ignored in order to continually construct negative portrayals of these 'evil' groups. Demidenko's story caused controversy as it was perceived to contain “overt anti-Semitism,” and “purports to demonstrate nothing less than a causal link between the grievous suffering of one nation and the attempted genocide of another.” (Manne) It appears, though, that these themes caused outcry only because they explored the side of the story that few people wish to see, fictional or not. Dare's essay on the Nazi past in contemporary German fiction states that “the standard 'political correct' view on the past is assumed to be one which focuses on 'Germans as perpetrators.'” (2) This view ignores the suffering of the German people and their subsequent guilt over their involvement in World War Two. The preferred view is that Germans are all Nazis and thus are all evil. This carries over into popular culture, ranging from literature, film and the new rise of computer games, where Nazis and Germans are continually portrayed as monsters, mindless fools or scapegoats for fictional events designed to imitate the end of the world. However, the continued negative portrayals of the German people and Nazi antagonism must be considered immoral, serving only to create a wider sense of discrimination and misleading information. For example, the popular computer game BloodRayne associates the Nazis with voodoo, experimentation with undeath, demon worship and the resurrection of the devil. Each of these areas carries their own negative connotations within modern Western society, which are then linked to the equally negative ideas associated with Nazism. It would have been simple for the writers at Terminal Reality (game producers) to create a unique group of antagonists, as they have demonstrated with their creation of the protagonist group, the Brimstone Society. Why this has not been done is uncertain, as the game is more likely to gain advantage from a completely fictional setting, rather than suffering. However, it is widely accepted that the Nazis were evil and it appears far from immoral to continue blaming them for anything evil or negative that new writers can come up with. If a writer attempts to portray a humanistic Nazi or German, they are instead considered to be insensitive to those who suffered in the holocaust and are believed to be lacking in morals or ethics.

There should be no obligation to provide a moral core to work that is published in a society that often rejects these morals. This rejection seems more likely in works that are morally contentious, as these are the issues that are sometimes violently debated even outside of fiction. Children's television often uses fictional moments to explain social working to its viewers. Play School is one such program and in 2004, caused controversy over its depiction of a child with two mothers. As “childhood is traditionally seen as a time of innocence; in the past, representations of romantic love and eroticism were simply dismissed as irrelevant and invisible to children, as long as they remained relatively veiled or did not encompass the portrayal of an identity or lifestyle,” (Hall) a discrimination-free text depicting homosexuality was considered wrong. Other texts attempting to portray homosexual families to children have also come under scrutiny. Donald E. Hall believes that “although homoeroticism has long been a part of literature for children, it is only in recent years that lesbian and gay identities have been honestly portrayed.” Thus, with this recent exploration of homosexuality, comes public backlash. This backlash ensured that gayness was “roundly reprimanded for daring to breach its allocated, regulated ghettofications of 'serious social issue' or straightertainment.” (Pratt) While these stories have attempted to provide a moral core with a message of acceptance, areas of society publicly and loudly reject this core, preferring to leave homosexuality unspoken of - “allocated” to the background of society, where it most can pretend that it doesn't actually exist, just as German people have been “allocated” the position of perpetrators. This speaks of discrimination against sexual diversity, which can only be taken as immoral, but is the majority's preferred state of mainstream media. With this rejection of a moral core ultimately comes not only discrimination, but also a differing set of moral values.

Morals are individually defined and a writer with little chance of covering all perceptions should not be obliged to include a moral core. Demidenko's novel is considered immoral by those who believe that she is insensitive to the survivors of the holocaust. However, it is equally possible to believe that her work contains morals of accepting that evil deeds are performed by men and not monsters; that perhaps it is time to inspect what provoked such horrors and to forgive a people that is no longer responsible for them. Play School's now infamous “Through the Window” segment holds a moral of accepting all sexualities and lifestyles at its core. However, some might see it as immoral to expose young children to what is still generally perceived as a social abnormality without a proper understanding of the issue. If morals are subjective to individual readers, then no writer can appease all outlooks simply by including a moral core. Thus, fiction writers should be given the freedom to write from whatever perspective serves their literary needs, regardless of their content. Can fiction not also be used to explore different moral issues and expose readers to values different to their own, not only helping to spread diversity but also raising questions about human life?

Fiction authors should suffer no obligation to write a moral core into their work. These are not the traditional fables, that contained “a moral to the story.” In a society that attempts to promote diversity it is most likely wrong for writers of fiction to continue to champion one set of morals and ethics over another. It is however, impossible to cover all morals in a society that attempts to embrace many different values. Fictional stories are, by nature and definition, made up. It is possible for fiction writers to create whole societies with moral codes that we would perhaps find warped, yet stories centering around these codes are considered merely entertaining – not immoral, not dangerous and not factually incorrect. Furthermore, a writer should not be obliged to include morals in his work that society will only reject and scorn. It seems that stereotypes are preferred and that anything that strays from popular view is labelled immoral for not supporting mainstream social ideologies. This comes even at the expense of moral cores that promote acceptance and anti-discrimination. If fiction cannot be used to explore morally and ethically contentious subjects from all angles, even those that are considered immoral by some, then writers are suffering no more than censorship and readers are losing some of the greatest entertainment they will know.

Works Cited

Dare, Aiofe. Contemporary German Fiction on the Nazi Past. Leeds German Undergraduate Web- journal. June 2006. University of Leeds. 2006. 8 October 2006.
<http://www.german.leeds.ac.uk/studentejournal/DareGermanLit1990s.pdf>

Demidenko, Helen. The Hand That Signed the Paper. NSW, Allen & Unwin: 1994. 1-22; 86-93.

Garnder, Dr Paul. Media Summary of the Demidenko/Darville Affair. 18 September 2006. The Nizkor Project. 13 October 2006.

Hall, Donald E. Children's Literature. 2002. glbtq. An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture. Ed. Claude J. Summers 23 May 2006. New England Publishing Associates. 8 October 2006.

Pratt, Murray. Intrusion, or Where to from Queer? April 2006. Australian Humanities Review. 2006. 18 October 2006.
<http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/AHR/archive/Issue-April-2006/pratt.html>

Roberts, Adam. “Defining Science Fiction” Science Fiction. London: Routledge, 2000. 1-7; 28-30.