Fictional Morality

As a writer of fiction, I am mindful that my stories should be moral. I do not mean in the terms of reality, which do not apply.

My Black Death series is about black women who serial kill young white women… and get away with it. My Sorcerer trilogy is about a sympathetic Nazi who uses magic, technology and armed force to commit mass-murder. My novel The Wayward School for Girls uses little girls as nameless baddies… and they are slaughtered in droves.

The moral of Black Death is that if you are insignificant, your death shall be inconsequential. The moral of the Sorcerer trilogy is that “fired up for” or “cold against” are righteous in the eyes of the Lord. The moral of The Wayward School for Girls is that learning is not thinking.

The “racism” of Black Death and the “fascism” of the Sorcerer trilogy and the “pedophilia” of The Wayward School for Girls are disturbing, perhaps. I did not write them to be shocking or offensive. I wrote what I wrote in all sincerity, to tell stories as waking dreams.

As a society, we are obsessed with racism, politics and pedophilia… so those are what are on my mind when I write fiction. I sublimate the anxiety into inspiration.

Social commentary is propaganda. Certainty that your politics are inarguably right does not change this. On the contrary: It means your fiction is shameless propaganda, not a good thing.

My stories are waking dreams. I write them to learn from them. I articulate my thoughts and feelings. By doing so I bring order to the chaos. What was muddled becomes clear. I share what I write to inspire as I was inspired.

I am often snubbed because my themes are supposedly immoral… as if the evils of the world can be erased from reality by erasing them from the pages of fiction.

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