Suicide in Fiction

[Mellohwa]

and I don't glorify suicide, trust me. It ruined everyone's day in the book.
couple books later, the two MC's are *still* dealing with it.

woowww? which book, I want to read itt

If we, as writers. refrain from writing *anything* that *anyone* would file a complaint against? We would have precious little left to write about. i would say we could write recipe books, but... there would be complaints from the "carbs" people. No red meat, god forbid. Sugar, oil. MIlk, eggs, bacon... all get complaints. Hell, can't even write recipe books if all complaints are censored.

Its in my synopsis, murder and suicide are dealt with in the text. I labeled it "adult", and it got among other tags a suicide tag.

mn, you have a point.

 

[TinaMigarlo]

woowww? which book, I want to read itt

the Third Time is the Charm: the Bad Stuff

Five years ago, something unimaginably horrific happened to a sweet and innocent 14 year old girl. In many ways, what followed for the next four years was even worse. When she finally escaped, she naturally thought she had left the nightmare behind. It didn't take her long to discover the tragic...

www.scribblehub.com

 

[seavmun88]

ain't any need for suicide to be depicted. I'd rather see a rocks fall, everybody dies scenario. Suicide in stories are way too risky of being problematic for one reason or another. Ten times as much if it's an isekai protag who self-exits before getting their cool OP perfect new life in the skimpy catgirl world.

 

[Th3Breadnought]

I think it's possible to pull that off, but I can see easily how that could veer into normalization of suicide for those who are struggling and need help, and loss of empathy and urgency for beoader society leading to more of a "shit happens, what can you do?" approach, even though I'm much more of a 'is this qualitative writing?' than 'you ought not to do this or be allowed to do this' person.

I think you have a sharp point about the perception of "suffering being rewarded through escape rather than confrontation" and that's something that I have a strong aversion to when I see it endorsed rather than interrogated through the plot and character development. I'm a 'hold complexity' person who believes two things can be true at once: adversity creates strength and adversity shouldn't be the result of negligence, exploitation, etc.

The story I'm writing deals with suicide as a modern/near-future matter of relevance. The main character helps ghosts move on, and many are the ghosts of suicide victims.

I disclaim in Chapter 1 that there is suicide subject matter, and that I won't depict acts of suicide on page- not even because I think I ought not to, more I just don't think it serves purpose other than being edgy with a sensitive topic- and I try to strike a balance between empathy for the struggles and circumstances that led to those ghost's decisions in life and not endorsing suicide. As well as having my protagonist interact with them genuinely (sometimes awkwardly, he's 19 going on 20) not as a quip-lord.

And my story treats suicide as a symptom of a tragic mental health crisis, not a punchline.

So I think it all comes down to intent and how an author portrays it. But for me, it's kind of like sexual violence (which I'm not interested in depicting) - a salient, sensitive, tragic reality that I don't want to police in creative expression, but that I think ought to be handled with real care and purpose to avoid being edgelord shock value that manages to be both offensive to people who've experienced real suffering personally or 2nd hand, and ineffective in bringing thoughtful attention to real societal issues.

 

[KaorimoHutsuEnaka]

Se una storia inizia o finisce con il suicidio, implicito o esplicito, non si rischia di romanticizzarlo?

Faccio fatica con le storie in cui la morte è l'unica via di salvezza o di un nuovo inizio, come quando un protagonista si è suicidato e poi si è reincarnato in un mondo migliore o con un inizio migliore. Oppure un protagonista deprimente, un protagonista tragico, trova la pace alla fine della storia attraverso la morte, e non solo il protagonista, ma anche altri personaggi.

Ma mi è piaciuto il modo in cui la tragedia e la depressione venivano mostrate in queste storie.

Forse sono solo un po' ipersensibile, ma può essere sgradevole, come se la sofferenza potesse essere ricompensata solo con la fuga piuttosto che con il confronto. Ma ovviamente credo che le storie debbano godere di libertà creativa. Anche se mi ha fatto ricordare ciò che studio in filosofia dell'arte: l'arte riflette la moralità di chi la crea? Forse questo thread è un po' simile a quello di OtherSlater sull'approvazione. Quando la narrazione passa dal descrivere all'approvare?

Come lettore, cosa ne pensi? Le storie dovrebbero affrontare questo aspetto in modo più responsabile, o è accettabile una semplice precauzione nella descrizione del romanzo? :miaooooo: A dire il vero, mi piacciono le storie con temi come il suicidio, o meglio, che ruotano attorno ad esso, senza la parte che ho menzionato sopra. Qualche consiglio?

P.S.: mi scuso per la mia ignoranza se questa non è la sezione giusta.

I onestly think that suicide in stories are have to be...censored... Sometimes. Like in a novel I read when I read about the suicide of the protagonist, I was like "I think i am going to be sick". Soo, suicide have to be not too much graphics, in my opinion, but I think sensitive person think the same thing