Does dystopian fiction translate to all cultures? A thoughtful essay by Mark Lawrence.

Ok, this whole thing is fucked-up and I've wanted to punch that lawyer in his smug face for the last day or so. But god...

"The death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they rape, they won't leave the girl like we did. They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say, 'Leave her, she won't tell anyone.' Now when they rape, especially the criminal types, they will just kill the girl. Death."

It's all atrocious, but this, this is the most fucked up thing I've ever heard someone spew from his mouth. This is so wrong on so many levels. How the fuck do you even deal with such an excuse of a human? Fuck you! Fuck all of you! And fuck the death penalty. Have them imprisoned for life.

Mr. Lawrence, it's not your job to change your work because someone brought up in a culture that would reinterpret your intent in the worst way imaginable, might do just that. Sorry, getting populistic here, but with that kind of thinking, there would be quite a few texts up for a rewrite or even ban, including a few popular religious ones. And those are a whole lot more inciteful and lead and lead to a whole lot of deaths. But we're not doing that, and that is a good thing or we'd undermine everything free speech stands for. There can't be selective censorship.

In the same vein, I've never liked the idea of self-censorship just because someone might get offended out of an elevated sense of political correctness, so I won't endorse it for fuckheads that read it with another than the intended mindset either.

I can understand that this hits you. It's your work, but it always comes down to intent, doesn't it? Was it your intent to give possible fodder to those lowlifes? Obviously not. You thought that it would be read the correct way, because you couldn't even imagine that there could be a wrong way. End of story. Not your problem, but thanks for addressing it.

/r/Fantasy Thread Link - mark---lawrence.blogspot.co.uk