Wednesday 22 January 2014

Talking Point: On V.C. Andrews And Enjoying Problematic Things


I've got my next Garden of Shadows recap ready to go but something has been playing on my mind today which I wanted to get out there before I continue with that little project. This post is very much me trying to clear my own head and figure things out for myself, so hopefully it makes sense. I'd really like to start a discussion and get everyone's opinions on the matter.

As I get older and learn more about the world, and notably spend more time on social justice hubs like Tumblr and Twitter, I become more aware of the problematic aspects of a lot of pop culture. It can make it really hard to enjoy sometimes, but I think it' important to be sensitive to these issues.

Take Flowers in the Attic. Having loved the books as a kid, I excitedly watched the movie and live-tweeted my snark. It was a lot of fun. I didn't make any direct jokes about incest - but many did. This was triggering for some people, as author C.J. Redwine eloquently writes here. Her post really made me think and is the main reason I'm writing this post. I could completely understand her point, and that this kind of abuse is no laughing matter.

It got me wondering about Flowers in the Attic, V.C. Andrews and indeed pop culture as a whole. If jokes about incest and abuse are bad, does it make it wrong to enjoy movies and books that feature them? V.C. Andrews' bread and butter is incest and abuse. The plots are wrong on so many levels and yet I - and many others - love (or perhaps more accurately, love to hate) these stories. I wouldn't say they glorify abuse, but they perhaps sensationalise it. These are by no means serious reads - you go to them when you want something trashy and fun - and yet they are about very serious subjects. Sure, they can still be very emotionally affecting and horrifying, but the melodramatic nature in which they're written and the over-the-top characters definitely lend themselves to the snark that colours many people's reactions. Including my own.

So. As I said I loved the Flowers in the Attic movie and have really enjoyed revisiting the books and recapping them. But I in no way want to make light of the subject matter or suggest it's something to make fun of. Some truly awful things happen in these books. And they're awful to read about. In the recap I've got in my drafts at the moment (which I wrote yesterday), I talk about how horrific it is to read about Olivia being raped. But reconsidering it in the light of Redwine's post made me really question the fact that I enjoy these books nonetheless! Obviously I am far from the only one who likes them, so they must appeal to something in many of us. I'm just not sure it's necessarily the best part of human nature.

On the other hand, perhaps these stories of abuse can allow people to empathise and understand such issues in ways they wouldn't otherwise. They certainly reflect the very nasty effects of abuse, as well as things like gender inequality. I know my own reaction is always very much along the lines of "this is awful, this is wrong, these people are the worst!", and perhaps in a way such pop culture is compelling because it allows us to more clearly define and communicate what IS problematic. There is something cathartic about reading these stories, exploring what is dangerous, taboo and scary from the safety of a book. BUT I say this as someone who has been fortunate enough to have never suffered abuse of any kind. So I wonder what effect these stories have on survivors of abuse. I would hate for my catharsis or especially my entertainment to come from something that hurts others.

So basically I'm confused and unsure and questioning a lot of things and I'd really like to talk about it with all the crazily smart and sensitive people who I am lucky enough to have read my blog.

Let me know what you think.

13 comments:

  1. I'm neither crazily smart nor sensitive, but I'm commenting anyway ;-)

    What I realised the other day is that VCA novels makes me feel better about my own family in comparison. They're far from perfect, but nowhere near as awful/creepy as VCA families.

    Besides there are enough books in the world about characters who have better lives than the readers. Readers need that "it could be worse - this is how worse" message, and I think that's what VCA books provide.

    Yeah, there's all kind of shaming. But I think that's to heighten the horror tone, to feel like a prisoner in your own home/life. It's not a guide to say "it's totally okay to shame people" - usually the characters who shame/slam others usually die tragically in the books, rather than dying of old age or whatever. They're in accidents, or suddenly get a stroke/heart attack/fast-killing cancer. Or they get murdered. Basically, the shamers don't get happy endings.

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    1. I think you are both those things! You make a good point, I think that is what draws a lot of people to VC Andrews and the like. And yes, the bad guys are always punished aren't they. There's satisfaction in that.

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  2. I feel like I missed out on an essential piece of childhood by not reading Flowers in the Attic as a kid. I remember picking it up around age 12 but couldn't get into it.

    BTW...I'm off to Australia tomorrow! Hard to believe the trip is already here.

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    1. Ha it was definitely an experience as an 11-year-old.

      And YAAAAY! So exciting! Hope you love it x

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  3. Great post! Thus far, I've only read the Dollanganger series, though I have more on bookshelf to get around to reading. I think it's the car crash or train wreck psychology... it's so frightening and horrific you just can't turn away you have to look.

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    1. It is definitely the kind of thing you're horrified by but can't look away from.

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  4. I think the very fact that you worry about this means you're okay...

    I work with high risk ex-offenders in my day job and so many people want the minute details of every case. It's like fascination of the awful. It doesn't make them bad people though - it's human nature to want to peer through the window at a life that's (thankfully) completely alien to them.

    I read Flowers in the Attic when I was too young for it, 12/13 or so - I used to hide it in my pyjama drawer so my Mum wouldn't find it!

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    1. Thanks Hanna. "Fascination of the awful" is a good way to put it.

      Mum knew I was reading them but I'm not sure she knew the content! lol

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  5. Well written post, and it definitely is timely with the airing of the movie.
    Its the ultimate guilty pleasure in the true sense of the word isn't it! That chuckle and snigger at the core content that is VC Andrews' work.
    But why?

    I came across this too when watching 'How I Love Now' and I tweeted hey.. um.. good movie but has anyone talked about the incest btw?
    It just seemed like such a casual throw in. Girl goes to England to live with her cousins, she's pretty cranky, except for that huge crush on handsome older cousin, and oh! He loves her too!

    So.. do I still enjoy the movie, or does it get negatory points because of that? I'm TORN!!

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    1. Thanks lovely. RE: How I Live Now, I've heard a few people really put off by the incest. For me consensual incest in fiction doesn't automatically bother me - eg. Game of Thrones. I guess it depends on the person on whether it takes away from it or not. I'm curious about that book/movie!

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  6. Hi! Fellow Andrews recapper here.

    For me, it is kind of impossible to deal with the way these books trivialize rape and incest. I get through by trying to focus on the ham-handed way these subjects are handled and making that the source of the humor, or by making fun of my own reactions and frustration. Don't make fun of the incest; make fun of the book for the way it treats incest.

    TW: ABUSE DISCUSSION BELOW






    On a more serious note: I am a survivor of abuse. My abuse was ongoing at the time I read these books, when I was ten or eleven, and to be frank, these books hurt me at that time. They made me question my own responses to what was happening by glamorizing and sensationalizing abuse. To be frank, they made me wonder if I was either taking this all the wrong way (Cathy Dollanganger's "rape as a form of flattery" statements) or that I wasn't really hurt because I wasn't damaged enough (maybe I should be driving off my cat and tearing up my male paper dolls?). These, unfortunately, were messages I was getting from a lot of other media of the period as well. And to be honest, as a survivor it makes me feel better to challenge these depictions, to dissect them, to point out why they are bad and wrong and damaging, and to occasionally just rip 'em a new one. I want these dangerous tropes to become so openly ridiculous that no one can ever take them seriously again.

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    1. Thank you for your comment. I think you are spot in regarding making fun of the way the book treats these subjects, not the subjects themselves. That helps a lot.

      I am very sorry about what you went through and that these books (and other media) might have done you more harm. But I admire that you are challenging and dissecting them and helping the current conversation to progress and become less harmful. Now I am off to read your blog!

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  7. I've thought about this in terms of reading books about outlaw motorcycle gangs etc.

    I think most of us like things which contain problematic elements. Usually in spite of the problematic elements rather than because of them. I think, as long as we are becoming aware (I say becoming because it's a journey) of what is problematic and why and call those things out appropriately, then there's no problem with enjoying the book, tv show, movie, game etc. everyone has their own personal limits but I think as a standard proposition it's not wrong to enjoy things that have problematic elements. But that's not at all the same as saying the problematic elements don't exist or are trivial and everyone should just "get over it". That's quite a different thing of course.

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