For the sake of clarity, let’s define taboo.
Taboo, as defined by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary.
1 : a prohibition against touching, saying, or doing something for fear of immediate harm from a supernatural force.
2 : a prohibition imposed by social custom or as a protective measure.
I think the second definition suits the purpose of this essay better, but they amount to the same thing. Just draw a parallel between supernatural force (God, Goddess, whatever) with social custom, which is established and enforced by government, an Earthly higher power, if you please.
Now that we’ve caught it, pinned it down and put it under glass, we can move forward with a little more authority.
Even keeping the definitions in mind, the actions, ideas, and philosophies considered taboo vary greatly depending on age, religion, or culture (even sub-culture).
In a country governed by the Muslim law of Shariah, a woman caught walking down any city street with her hair or face showing would be guilty of breaking a serious taboo. Such a taboo breaker might find herself shot or stoned to death in public, and to frenzied cries of Allah Akbar, in very short order. In the western world, most of the heads to turn at a public display of near nudity would be with an appreciative eye, or if the head happens to be attached to the body of a religious person, mild contempt, but no public stoning would ensue. A woman walking down the street in a bikini top and short-shorts is almost as innocuous as you or me grabbing a bacon cheeseburger at the Mickey D, which, incidentally, would be very taboo for anyone whose religion requires a Kosher diet.
In some cultures, it’s fine to have multiple wives, some as young as thirteen years old, while in the Western world, such folks are branded as weirdoes, perverts, and monsters, and are locked up in prisons where even the most violent and depraved offenders look down on them as scum.
Here in the good old USA, an often-practiced pastime called Cow Tipping (if you’ve never heard of Cow Tipping, Google it – it’s amusing, in a juvenile kind of way) while not embraced, is not considered a Karma-tarnishing blasphemy. I doubt that any young Hindu males, no matter how bored, would consider cow tipping an amusing way to kill time. I also doubt that you’ll ever see Cow Tipping for Dummies on the bestseller list in India.
In some cultures, having sex with your livestock (or maybe your underage cousin) is a perfectly acceptable alternative to the sin of masturbation.
Therefore, to narrow our scope, I’ll stick to taboos of Western culture, where eating that bacon cheeseburger is a perfectly acceptable lunchtime activity, and having a bounce with your favorite goat is not.
Murder – virtually every horror, suspense, thriller, and mystery ever written deals with murder.
The examples listed delve into their various taboos with different depths and levels of finesse, but they are still taboo subjects that are already widely explored through fiction. If we all took the time to list another hundred taboos I’m confident we could find examples of them all in modern fiction.
To me at least, this begs the question, are there any taboos left untouched and unexplored?
Which is more important to you, as a reader, taboo-breaking, or story?
For me, the answer is story. You could write a fifty-page chapbook detailing a scene of angry necrophiliac sex, but without the context of a good story, sympathetic characters, or good writing for that matter, would it be the least bit interesting?
The moment in Brian Keene’s The Rising that stands out clearest to me, even a year or two after reading it, is not the narcissistic Ob standing naked and rotting in front of a mirror, admiring its new body, or even the image of maggots dripping from the tip of a zombie penis. The Rising’s most memorable moment for me is the final scream as the questing father finally discovers what has become of his son. Other scenes of violence and rape throughout shape and define the story, but they are not the story.
Taboo breaking is often a very vital part of fiction, but only within the bounds of the story, and it is quite possible to write a good story without slaughtering a single sacred cow.
As always, your comments and opinions are more than welcome. Well stated, opposing viewpoints have shaped and changed my opinions in the past, and they may do so again.
So, which is it? Taboo or not taboo?
Brian Knight
16 Comments, Comment or Ping
Teresa
Story, of course. Without story aren’t we back to the discussion of ‘poop on a plate’ gussied up and repackaged as breaking a taboo?
Beastiality is preferable to masturbation? where? That’s just damn weird!
Sep 23rd, 2006
Frank Wydra
Hey Brian, interesting topic.
Though you don’t label them as such, you break taboos down into what I would call “style” and “subject matter” taboos. And while breaking style taboos sometimes add to the story, as in Gibson’s “Neuromancer,” most often they do not.
Subject matter taboos, on the other hand, evolve. Kate Winsor’s 1944 novel “Forever Amber” was banned at the time of publication because of Amber’s promiscuous behavior and bare breasted romps at the English Court. Today Amber’s behavior is commonplace among many progressive women. However, I suspect it would be considered an outrage were Laura Bush or Hillary Clinton to act as Amber did. So, the taboo is not only of an action, but also a context.
So, too, for the other taboo’s you note (Murder, rape, etc). In most of these cases the outcome of the story is to show that the subject matter in question leads to undesirable consequences. Groundbreaking taboos would be where these same acts produce favorable outcomes and are positioned as desirable and acceptable behavior. In these cases, as was the case with Amber, the breaking of the taboo is as important as the story, for it posits a new social behavior that may or may not eventually be accepted as the norm.
Therefore, given context and norms, there will always be taboos for us to break.
Frank
Sep 23rd, 2006
Jack Haringa
Frank: Actually, I think the distinction Brian is making is between taboos, which are social conventions with a moral weight, and stylistic conventions. It’s not “taboo” to to eschew proper punctuation; you’re not going to be ostracized or imprisoned as a result. And even successful writers do it: Cormac McCarthy is a perfect example.
Stylistic (e.g. spelling, grammar, punctuation) conventions in writing have been adopted to make reading and communication easier. We’re trained from an early age to see punctuation marks as clues to changes in voice, tone, subject matter, etc. Breaking those conventions for the sole purpose of “shocking” a reader does nothing more than make the story a nuisance. Readers aren’t shocked by that behavior–which they would be if it were actually taboo–they’re just irritated.
Jack
Sep 23rd, 2006
David Niall Wilson
I personally think it’s a matter of degree and focus. If you have something that is “in a story or novel” and you work the outrage, disgust, whatever out of it you are trying to achieve without shifting the focus so that it seems to be a story about the ‘taboo,’ then this rarely bothers me. When you write a story about some deviant practice for the sake of writing in detail about the deviant process, it isn’t ground-breaking, it’s more an exercise in baser instinct, and without much literary merit. The most powerful prose, for me, deals with strong emotion and painful issues without being so explicit that it makes the reader ill, repulses, or alienates the audience. While this might be memorable, the thing it makes me remember is never to read any more such crap (lol).
David
Sep 23rd, 2006
John Skipp
OH, YOU GUYS…!
Brian, my friend: You’re a cool, smart cat, and I know what you’re getting at — and I like the intro statements on taboo relativity — but I’ve got to suggest that your question might not be entirely framed correctly.
To ask “What’s more important, breaking taboos or telling a story?” is kind of like asking “Which do you prefer, a blanket or some dumplings?”
I mean, a rousing case could be made for any or all of the above — I, myself, like stories, taboo-breaking, blankets AND dumplings — but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s kind of a lop-sided question.
And weirdly polarizing, for no good reason. (”STORIES are better!” “No, TABOOS are better…for BREAKING, I mean!”)
The central question, I think — the one I always like to ask, cuz it’s the one that gives me ACTUALLY USEFUL ANSWERS — is “Why?”
Why are you telling stories?
Why are you breaking taboos?
Are you telling stories because you’re trying to share knowledge and wisdom? Because you love to escape inside them? Because you want to be part of a long tradition? Because it’s fun? Because you can’t help yourself?
Do you KNOW why you do these things? Are you trying to find out? Is this an exploration?
Or do you not really care to look into it that deeply, and would rather just DO IT, without all the navel-gazing?
These all strike me as pretty legit questions.
Now let’s wage a similar inquiry, on the taboo-smashing side.
Why do you like to break taboos? Because you want to share “forbidden” knowledge and wisdom, and help illuminate the world? Because you just like to piss people off? Because it makes you feel tough? Because it’s fun? Because you can’t help yourself?
Do you KNOW why you do these things? Is this an exploration? Or is it more of an unexamined, “Hey, I like what I like! BITE ME!” kind of thing?
And by the same token: if you DON’T like breaking taboos, WHY NOT?
Does crossing the line make you nervous? Do you think it’s just rude, and in bad taste? Are you trying to stave off the coarsening of the culture? Is it a moral issue? Are you squeamish? Do you have secret thoughts and shames that you don’t want to see exposed?
And for that matter, WHICH TABOOS? Is tearing off your burkah, or challenging an orthodoxy, essentially the same as taking a public dump?
As you can see, this is complicated stuff. And very personal stuff, as well.
All of which is my way of saying that I don’t think you asked the right question.
So…anybody wanna hang out under this blanket with me? It’s nice and warm, and the dumplings are FANTASTIC!
Yer pal,
Skipp
Sep 23rd, 2006
Sully
The right question for me — to chase down Skipp’s point — is to whom are you writing? The audience isn’t static in the matter of creative choices. Different strokes and all that… Teresa’s point that we’re back to talking about Blue Plate Poop resonates with me, as does Jack’s that a lot of straining to break the rules most often just makes the story a damn nuisance. But that’s just another blind’s man’s POV on the carcass of an elephant. We are describing our personal tastes. I weigh in personally where most of you seem to be — for the primacy of story — but whatever is is. Skipp, with his usual psychological acumen, really provides a lot of alternative motivations and reader dictates. They don’t fit me as a reader much, little more as a writer, but then I’m still growing or shrinking. Annoys me that all readers aren’t on “the same page,” so to speak, when it comes to maturity, experience and preferences. Hmmm. Maybe maturity isn’t the right word. I use it here to reflect that readers change their idea of what is good or interesting as they go through life. Don’t think I want to plant a flag on any mountain during the journey and say “this is it.” Maybe on my deathbed. Now that poses an interesting question for me. What would you want to read on your deathbed, if that can be predetermined (the reading not the deathbed)? Three Little Pigs? Bible? “They lived happily ever after…”? I think I’d still be looking ahead to the next adventure. Give me “Once upon a time…”
– Sully (Thomas Sullivan)
Sep 23rd, 2006
Brian
Ah, great responses! Everyone, Mr. Skipp especially, has given me a lot to think about.
Short answer, John, is that I don’t mind taking on any taboo subject, if the story requires it, but I don’t get into a story thinking about which taboos I’m going to tackle.
Your comments on motivation are something I’ll have to consider very carefully. My primary motivation for writing is escapism, and because I love stories, but I’ve never taken the time to delve into any deeper motivations. I have a feeling if I keep an open mind I can walk away from this with more than I had to put in.
Skip and Sully have swayed me a little for sure, but I’m still a story guy first and foremost.
Thanks!
Brian
Sep 23rd, 2006
Janet Berliner
How about an anthology. Each story has to deal in some way with a taboo. Theme. Catalyst. Die to preserve it. Die to end it. And so on. One taboo to a writer. What fun digging to find the roots. But no poop on a plate. Only stories need apply.
Janet
Sep 23rd, 2006
Brian
Not a bad idea
Sep 23rd, 2006
Teresa
Cool idea Janet. It could be called ‘Taboo-ula rasa’ (tabula rasa) A fresh look at old taboos.
Ya, OK. I’m leaving now.
Sep 23rd, 2006
Janet Berliner
Clever Teresa. Go out and pitch it.
Sep 23rd, 2006
Teresa
You pitch it. I would know where to begin.
Sep 23rd, 2006
Teresa
That should be, I wouldn’t know where to begin. Mind you I can think of one story I’ve read that might fit the theme.
Mirrors by René Beaulieu in the Canadian anthology Tesseracts Nine (a story that deals with iincest)
Sep 23rd, 2006
Janet Berliner
Teresa: I wish I hd the energy, let alone the time. I enjoy editing anthologies, but the pitching takes the kind of time and effort my health constraints can’t handle. J.
Sep 23rd, 2006
Teresa
I have zero experience with any of this. I do have time though…
Sep 24th, 2006
John B. Rosenman
Not using quotation marks is TOO breaking a taboo, and I’ll flunk any of the dirty little rotters who dare to do it in my class!
Hmm, sorry I lost my cool there. Been grading papers all weekend.
Nice blog, Brian, and the Skipper does make some good points. Sometimes it isn’t either/or, though usually STORY is different from TABOO. And usually STORY is more important. But then, some stories and novels are so much about the taboo, that to remove the taboo would be to destroy the story. Think of Huckleberry Finn, for example, where Huck helps a grown-up slave to escape and debates and debates with himself about whether he’s right or wrong and is going to hell.
Sep 24th, 2006
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