My Little Pony LIV:E Long and Pony!

[Deadly]

And it still doesn't justify people being -sick-.

The problem is, whether something is sick depends an awful lot. Brutally murdering your best friend is certainly sick and wrong, but exploring the idea in a piece of fiction or art is not inherently sick or wrong.

I am personally of the clear opinion that nothing is taboo in fiction. Nothing is off limits. There are certainly things that, if you're at all concerned about writing something worth reading, need to be handled with extreme maturity and care. But nothing is so sick that it can not ever be explored in fiction.

If I wanted to write a story from the perspective of a foal rapist, I would be well advised to think carefully about what I'm setting out to do, but nothing should stop me from writing it and if my intention is to make people think, to horrify, to provoke controversy I don't see anything necessarily wrong with that.

Very few people would be able to pull off such a story I'm sure, but that shouldn't stop them from trying because you never know who will pull it off. Sometimes talent and success comes out of nowhere, from where or who you least expect it. Also, just because you're a great and successful author in other areas doesn't mean you could pull it off, but a totally unknown person off the street just might manage it.

Forcing people who have no interest in such a story to read it would be wrong, of course. And certainly the Internet can be a little too good at throwing such things in everyone's faces without regard for their feelings or wishes. The "welcome to the Internet, deal with it" response is a really bad and damaging mindset, IMO. Sadly it's not something I'd expect to change. The fact is, the Internet is just a medium, it just reflects the outside world. If we don't see this kind of stuff in real life as often, it's because it doesn't spread as easily and because of the lack of anonymity, but it's still there.

I also want to make a point for the actual moral value of these kinds of stories. Maybe not Cupcakes, because it's a poorly written piece of shock-fiction intended only to provoke, but gory horror involving characters with which you might feel empathy, in this case namely nice, innocent pastel colored equines. I remember vividly as a kid reading a comic series, I can't remember the name or a lot of details, but it was full of gore and monsters, blood and guts everywhere. It was awful, actually, and I'm not sure why they were freely available at the library for kids to read, but then maybe I really do live in a very liberal country where that sort of thing doesn't cause any great outcry.

Anyway, there was one scene in one story in all those comics that I still remember. It showed a kid who had become a werewolf, and his mom was calling from downstairs that dinner was on. And the story left off at that, with his wicked werewolf-smile as he said he was coming. You could imagine where it was going to lead. Just the thought of that was awful and hurt, the thought of him becoming a monster and eating his own mother. And it stayed with me, like many things, and I like to think it made me aware that I care for other people, I like to think it shaped my empathy in some small way by making me aware, making me feel, making me think and remember.

That's what I think the value of tragedy and horror and even gore is. It makes us feel and makes us think, it stirs the deepest feelings in us, if it's done well. It may not be something you enjoy, but it can be powerful and it can be positive for many people.

See, what exactly -is- Gorn? I thought I knew what Gorn was, but if this is it, then I don't know.

I don't know what the original or official meaning of that word is, personally I just use it to mean anything that is needlessly gory for the sake of being gory which describes Cupcakes perfectly.

.... this all... I don't have a respone for this.

Hm... maybe I do. And that response is that it makes me think.

Anarion, you make me think. Thank you.

I feel like some things are best left alone, but you are right...

That's what these things do. They make you think

Never touching that story. I wish I was the kind of person that wasn't so easily bothered by such things... alas, Will is my weak save.

I don't think it's bad that you're touched by these stories. As I note above, that's the point, actually. You want to be touched by them, you want to cry. At least if you're like me.

I wish I could have been touched by Cupcakes, because it could have been a great story if it had been more than just an exercise in gore and shock. There's real tragedy in there, but it's never realized. It could have made me cry, if it wasn't because it was so awful it made me laugh instead.

Not much of a premise, if you ask me.

On the contrary, I think Cupcakes had a lot of unrealized potential, as I've said above.

I feel like that would be giving it far too much credit. There are ways to go that far and that deep without being sickening, me thinks.

I'm not giving Cupcakes any credit. The Lecter books are, I'm sure, infinitely more clever. Also the gore is much more spread out, I'm sure. That was my point really, for a story like this to be good it needs more than just gore. You don't have to throw out the gore, you just have to distribute it right and not let it be the whole of the story.

.... what in God's name makes you think that a talentless hack with no experience or skills who can barely stomache the plot could even remotely pull off the psychological tale of a mind's descent into entropy and the horrid ramifications there in, especially when a writer with far more experience and talent, as well as a better handle on such a would, believes they couldn't?

See above. Very few people may be able to pull it off, that's right, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't make the attempt, because otherwise you won't find that one in a million writer who can do it.