Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
Why does the genre matter? Aside from books for very young children, it is difficult to think of a genre that doesn't kill people as a matter of course. So why do animals get special treatment?
(I'm guilty of the special treatment too, but I do find it an interesting phenomena.)
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Nothing "special" about it; we typically don't just kill off small children in books, either, because they are dependent upon us, as are animals. You can kill off a dog, sure--but you can also kill off some readership. We all know that there's a demographic that won't tolerate what they perceive as "gratuitous cruelty" to animals, and you risk that reading demographic by including it--whether YOU think it's gratuitous or not.
(FWIW: I struggled with this, in a particular story/plot for which I'd had high hopes. Basically, the plot line
required a particular act, or you couldn't get there from here. Long story short--ha! See what I did there?--I abandoned the book. Despite whatever I may have owed to "the integrity of the story," I couldn't, when push came to shove, write it. I mean, I could have--but I'm not sure that it ever would have been solidly written, given all my misgivings about it, both my own and any prospective readers'. And that would have been the greatest sin of all--include it because I couldn't see how NOT to, but then do a botched job of writing it. Ick.)
Hitch