Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Authors can take the diversity thing too far, though. Mercedes Lackey in particular seems intent on having gay characters in every book she writes and rams their sexual orientation down the reader's throat even when it's totally irrelevant to the plot, which becomes somewhat tedious after a while.
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But there's lots of tedious character traits, habits, descriptions, and flowery infodumps which are totally irrelevant to the plot that get rammed down readers' throats in most stories/novels--always has been. So why on earth should "diversity" be held to such a high "
must be plot relevant or leave it out" standard when little else is?
Not wanting to read books with irrelevantly gay characters is fine and dandy (in the sense that everyone is free to dislike what they dislike). Just don't try to fool yourself into believing that it's for reasons other than your own personal hangups/dogma/preferences (which we all have). The whole "not plot relevant" thing simply doesn't wash. As readers of novels, we gobble up things that aren't plot-relevant in bulk. Often times without decrying it to the world.
I also think people make the mistake of believing there has to be some sort of agenda behind "diversity." As if it couldn't
possibly be that diverse authors are just writing what's near and dear to them and it's resonating with diverse readers.