Have you ever had strong emotional reactions from reading fiction?

[BobTheNinja]

I've had a couple fairly visceral reactions to certain stories (or rather certain scenes within them). My latest one actually came today when I was reading a Worm/Exalted quest on SB, when Solar!Taylor experienced her limit break while fighting Bakuda and her ABB flunkies. She basically became an emotionless murderbot, killing even the minions who tried running away as if it were the most reasonable thing in the world to do, simply because she "didn't give them permission to leave". Worse, she showed very little remorse or horror at what she had done after it was all over.

This was right after she went the distance to ensure that nobody, not even the Wards or New Wave members, sustained serious injuries during the Undersiders' bank robbery. She even told off freaking Glory Girl off for her lack of restraint!

...It was so deeply disturbing that I actually had to step away from my computer to cry. I still feel mildly depressed even now. It makes me think that I should get away from Worm for a little while. The problem is that the setting is so freaking interesting! And what's worse is that I'm not finished with the series yet, (up to Ch. 10.5 I believe), and I know from the other SBers that everything just keeps going downhill from here. and that I'm probably going to hate most of the characters before I'm done.

 

[Smuthunter]

If you know this to be the case then it's probably best to step away from the story and find something else to read. Stories are supposed to be entertaining; if you aren't entertained by what you're reading then don't force yourself to sit through it.

 

[BobTheNinja]

If you know this to be the case then it's probably best to step away from the story and find something else to read. Stories are supposed to be entertaining; if you aren't entertained by what you're reading then don't force yourself to sit through it.

Click to shrink...

That's sort of the problem. Despite the darkness of Worm, now that I've been reading into it, I really want to know what happens next.

Still, it would probably help to pace myself and stagger the readings with some other, less dark media.

 

[WyldCard4]

I've had to step back from what I was doing before. Sometimes completely change the kind of media I was consuming for a while.

Admittedly, right now I've recently been writing horror/torture porn short stories, so I'm rather far from that feeling as of now.

But really, fiction is supposed to cause strong emotional reactions. If the emotional reactions are too strong, feel free to step away for a while. Our minds are like our bodies, they react to stress in their own ways. There's no shame in finding something too dark. We all have our limits.

 

[UrsaTempest]

Not as much, no. I always read anything several times - the first is to find out what the hell it is about, the second is to filling out the detail, and the third is for further clarification. So, I get the idea that Taylor went limit break, so, well, I just kinda skip it.

 

[Peanuckle]

I just can't convince myself to leave well enough alone. I'm always looking for new stuff to read when I finish what's available, so I click on this stuff thinking I can take it this time.

I'm usually surprised. I don't break down or anything, but I do feel revulsion at the story and pity for the characters.

I don't understand how people can get off to rape, torture, abuse and all that shit. They totally destroy the characters and then talk about how well-done it was, or how they could do worse things. It shocks me, especially to see people who've written happier things produce this kind of material.

I know exactly what you mean when you say "I really want to know what happens next." Fanfiction is sort of a Continued Story, so it's easy to internalize what happens as a sort of head-canon. When shitty things happen, it's like it happens for real and it tears you up inside. I've re-read Hope a bunch of times now to get the happy vibes going. Doesn't help that people like torturing my favorite characters.

As for that particular story, Taylor's limit break is the worst part as far as actions go. Also, that sort of madness is one of the key points about Exalted. With great power comes great consequences.

 

[BobTheNinja]

I've had to step back from what I was doing before. Sometimes completely change the kind of media I was consuming for a while.

Admittedly, right now I've recently been writing horror/torture porn short stories, so I'm rather far from that feeling as of now.

But really, fiction is supposed to cause strong emotional reactions. If the emotional reactions are too strong, feel free to step away for a while. Our minds are like our bodies, they react to stress in their own ways. There's no shame in finding something too dark. We all have our limits.

Click to shrink...

Thanks for that, Wyld, I appreciate it.

I just can't convince myself to leave well enough alone. I'm always looking for new stuff to read when I finish what's available, so I click on his stuff thinking I can take it this time.

I'm usually surprised. I don't break down or anything, but I do feel revulsion at the story and pity for the characters.

I don't understand how people can get off to rape, torture, abuse and all that shit. They totally destroy the characters and then talk about how well-done it was, or how they could do worse things. It shocks me, especially to see people who've written happier things produce this kind of material.

Click to shrink...

I won't lie, I myself have gotten off to some really sick fiction several times before, despite being subjects that would horrify me under normal circumstances. There was actually a point where I was reading a sci-fi novel where one such horror scene came up. I found myself aroused and disturbed by it at the same time. I swear, the dissonance of that event bugged me for at least two months.

 

[Robotninja]

Yeah, you do not want to read canon Worm. It is pretty much Things get Worse, the Novel.

 

[UrsaTempest]

I usually treat it as, well,basically, like job. The kind of job that grind you and all that jazz. So, I read it, feeling drained, rest/relax/reading fluffy lesbian/what-have-you, then continue reading.

 

[WyldCard4]

Thanks for that, Wyld, I appreciate it.

I won't lie, I myself have gotten off to some really sick fiction several times before, despite being subjects that would horrify me under normal circumstances. There was actually a point where I was reading a sci-fi novel where one such horror scene came up. I found myself aroused and disturbed by it at the same time. I swear, the dissonance of that event bugged me for at least two months.

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Interesting.

I think partially, there's just an attraction to extreme feeling. People say the line between love and hate is close, and things like that. In the emotional realm, pleasure and pain can be similar, more similar than boredom. Similarly, people can be masochistic. I can feel a desire to press my fingernails into my skin hard enough to hurt or feel the sensation of raw cold enough to make me shiver.

I think that we need to feel a broad spectrum of emotions. We need to be able to be angry, sad, and disgusted. Humans were built to feel that way.

I just can't convince myself to leave well enough alone. I'm always looking for new stuff to read when I finish what's available, so I click on this stuff thinking I can take it this time.

I'm usually surprised. I don't break down or anything, but I do feel revulsion at the story and pity for the characters.

I don't understand how people can get off to rape, torture, abuse and all that shit. They totally destroy the characters and then talk about how well-done it was, or how they could do worse things. It shocks me, especially to see people who've written happier things produce this kind of material.

Click to shrink...

Eh, as someone who has done it, let me break down at least some of my reasoning.

Panacea Quest is intended to evoke a certain kind of horror story. Flowers in the Attic, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker, Excision. It's supposed to come out as scary and ugly and wrong. There's supposed to be a strong contrast between the dark and the light. There's supposed to be terrible, dark scenes, and scenes of warmth and beauty. How well this was done is debatable.

Madison Quest, well, I could do anything, and so I did. I basically just reveled in absolute freedom without any constraints. So, it got incredibly sadistic and horrible because I was pushing myself. I make no claim to quality.

The current pair of omakes were catharsis. I wanted people to feel pathos for the victims. I told it from the perspective of the victims, showed it as deeply, insanely unfair. This was working through my own anger by trying to work on my own sympathy. I feel better for doing this. I hoped to show that kind of anger as self defeating, ugly, and small.

Do I get off on rape, torture, abuse, and all that shit? Sometimes. I think there's a bit of a power trip involved. Doing something that's wrong, that anyone would see as wrong, no one being able to stop you, has an appeal. Taboo also has an appeal, the raw act of something being wrong and impossible, seeing that happen, can excite. We are told all the time to be good. Simply finding out what the alternative is, exploring that, has power to it.

I can absolutely be hit with something too dark at the wrong time and get into a funk, need to back off, take a break, shut it down. Happy, good stories are important. I think a range is necessary.

 

[kinglugia]

Ugh, Wyld's and Darik29's NSFW snips make me want to blast things to oblivion.
But they write quite good too.

 

[Silver W. King]

Honestly, I have the opposite problem. I've become numb to emotional stimuli. I wish I could read a story that would make me cry, from happiness or sadness, I don't care which.

Sure I read something like "Hope from Overwhelming Firepower" and just think 'yeah, yeah, that's nice and awesome' in the most bored tone possible. Not because it is bad, but because I can't feel excited about it. Sure I still have my curiosity, but I'm even starting to lose that, as I don't feel even the want or desire to summon the effort to read the latest chapters of "Goblin Queen".

 

[kinglugia]

Nooo, Silver, don't become another Kyubey!!!

 

[Murderhobo of Lasombra]

I laugh at tragedy and actively root for the horrible people to win.

But point being, it shouldn't matter much, if at all. The strongest reaction I ever felt for anyone in fiction is "Welp, damn..." And moved on. But empathy isn't a freebie for fictional characters.

 

[enthalpy]

I've found that films tend to affect me a lot more than books do, though I've certainly read fiction that has made me tear up before.

Reacting emotionally to stories is certainly not something to be ashamed of. Most fiction is designed to evoke some sort of emotional response, and being affected by it only really shows that you're able to empathize with the characters portrayed therein.

 

[BobTheNinja]

Damn, I think that scene with Solar!Taylor's limit break affected me more strongly than I thought, because I ended up crying again as I tried to go to sleep last night. I feel a lot better this morning though...

I think it was a combination of things that really got to me:

- The fact Taylor would never have entertained the notion of maiming or killing before it happened
- Taylor's switch to an nigh-emotionless and casually violent persona. That was fucking scary.
- The fact that she could have easily dealt with all of Bakuda's goons in a non-lethal manner in the state she was in
- The fact that she cut down those who were trying to run away out of fear for their lives

Those are the main things I can think of. But even considering all that, this kind of strong reaction is NOT a common occurrence for me. I have to wonder if maybe I was under some secondary stress at the time, and reading that scene triggered a release. I can say that most of the stress I experience in my everyday life comes from the mild anxiety of procrastination, still a bad habit of mine.

 

[Xicree]

I'm amusingly empathetic and sentimental. I cry at some movies and books, I cheer, i get MAD at some characters (Fuck you Stanley... just... fuck you)...
And yet, I love the horror inflicted upon characters I love just as much as I love to share in their triumphs. So its quite normal for me to be all over the spectrum of emotional responses to fictional works.


Though I will say "Grave of the Fireflies" was too much for me... I don't think I'll ever watch it again. But I love it to bits none the less.

 

[Heaven Canceler]

The first time I remember getting emotional with a Story was when I read the book "The Rolling Stones" by Robert A. Heinlein. That was years ago when I was still pretty much a kid, if a surprisingly intelligent one. So I read the scene where the grandmother of that wonderfully hilarious and nice family gives her oxygen to her grandchild after they both ended up outside of their spaceship. She got him to make special breath techniques so he wouldn't use the air too fast and be saved by the rest of the family. It was heartwrenching and I really cried over that, refusing to continue reading the book for a while afterwards. Then later I found out that the grandmother didn't actually die and used the same breathing techniques to put herself into a Trance like technique to not use as much air.

In hindsight, although it was painful and sad and annoying afterwards, I cannot say that I regret it. It was a beautiful story and I could truly feel for everyone in it. There is a certain value in stories that really touch you. I still remember the mention from the one Temeraire book of a dragon's captain always reading books that are really sad because she likes to cry over them. Ironically, I am a sucker for happy endings.

 

[Silver W. King]

I don't remember the first story to get me emotional, but I do remember the last. "The World's End", at the scene where Simon Pegg is going to suicidal length to get the beer, even though the world around him is collapsing as it is being invaded by aliens, just to relive a teenagehood bar hopping dream, because he has nothing else.

 

[Murderhobo of Lasombra]

Actually the biggest feels that hit me was Elfen lied (The manga.)

Especially lol spine racks scene.

 

[Silver W. King]

Actually the biggest feels that hit me was Elfen lied (The manga.)

Especially lol spine racks scene.

Click to shrink...

For that one, it was killing the puppy. F**king kids!

 

[Murderhobo of Lasombra]

Too extreme, it becomes comedy, too unexpected it becomes lampshaded. But hey, everyone has different tastes.

 

[Guile]

I cried a lot at the end of Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Then I waited five years and read it again, and I cried again. Good shit.

 

[Biigoh]

*pats* I tend to cry at sad stuff... it is naturally... tanuki has feels.

Also BobTheNinja, go read Goblin Queen for upbeat cheerful Exalted x Worm cross. It's on SB and on Fanfic.net. The SB index has all the omake written for it by readers and the Tanuki.

 

[BobTheNinja]

*pats* I tend to cry at sad stuff... it is naturally... tanuki has feels.

Also BobTheNinja, go read Goblin Queen for upbeat cheerful Exalted x Worm cross. It's on SB and on Fanfic.net. The SB index has all the omake written for it by readers and the Tanuki.

Click to shrink...

Thanks Bii, I appreciate it.

Looking back on that limit break scene with a clearer head, I think I can kinda sorta see the rationale in why Taylor did what she did, and in any case, she wasn't entirely in control of herself at the time. It still bothers me that she isn't horribly disturbed by her actions (or disturbed enough rather), but given that she apparently had zero emotional experience during that time period, I guess all the horror and regret that would have hit like a ton of bricks was muted instead.

Anyway, I'm just glad I'm out of my funk now. I'll be sure to go check out Goblin Queen when I can.

 

[FurikoMaru]

Always.

... wait, people read fiction for other reasons?

 

[Megaolix]

As far as series go, I think I never felt more digust about than when I heard about Outbreak Company.

Seriously? I can understand another world being interested in entertainment they never heard about before. I can understand it's also yet another haerm comedy, so I shouldn't be too serious about it.

But building a school about it? Teaching how to be an otaku? Come on...

 

[Guile]

Well, it's a cute show. But the premise is pretty dumb.

 

[Ubylkoen]

Emotional reactions, hm?

I remember the first time I read Old Yeller when I was a young boy.When I came to the ending I bawled my eyes out.
Another book who got me a bit sad and pissed at times was this book starring owls as characters. I remember it being dark as hell at times, characters died from left to right, it also contained racism amongst owls. it ended with the main character being shot down by humans while defending his family, the death scene was rather graphic if I remember it right. But I can't remember it's name, anyone here that knows it?
Books from my favorite author Margit Sandemo always provokes some feelings from, whenever it be anger and sadness from characters dying or happines for things going right.
Other than that, The A song of Ice and Fire books has provoked som anger and hatred in me for certain characters at times.

 

[Heaven Canceler]

Well, it's a cute show. But the premise is pretty dumb.

Click to shrink...

If I remember it correctly, the whole thing was just a way for Japan to drown the nation in cheap products or something like that and make them dependent on Japan. Like when the british empire sent Opium to India to ruin the Nation and make it dependent on them.

Though generally, I think it is supposed to be a parody and a friendly wink to the otaku culture as a whole.

Though surprisingly it has an at least semi-workable (cover) explanation of why they use such a method for cultural interaction of all things. (I mean the whole Thing about the locals not having any concept of culture like our earth has, so anything more complicated then short stories totally goes over their heads.)