Quote:
Originally Posted by haertig
A book that mentions covid in passing is fine. A book that centers around it would not be to my taste, and would probably be abandoned if I accidentally stumbled into reading it. A book that tries to exploit it ... immediately to the trash heap for that author.
To further clarify, a book about a generic pandemic is OK (as long as it's not obviously about covid, without mentioning covid). A book that mentions covid by name, in more than a brief passing sentence, is in the exploitation category IMHO.
I don't think my views on this will change during the remainder of my life. I view exploitation of covid the same way most of us view racism, misogamy, antisemitism, etc. I just don't care to read about that stuff.
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Why do you think "mentioning covid by name" more than briefly is exploitation? I can certainly understand not wanting to read a book that focuses on covid, or any other personally unsettling events--it took me 20 years to read a novel that used 9/11 in its plot--but I'm genuinely curious about why you'd define it as exploitation. Are novels that focus on the Spanish flu exploitation? What about novels set during WWII and the Holocaust? Why shouldn't writers use real, painful events to perhaps help readers gain a deeper understanding of them?