Taboos

Author Insights: Should there be any taboo subjects in Literature?

L. J. Bonham: No. If something happens in life it should happen in literature. You ignore a subject at your own peril. Once society places certain things off limits in the public discourse it has begun the long road to thought control and totalitarianism. It is much easier to hide the unspeakable atrocity if it is indeed unspeakable.

AI: So anything goes?

LJB: Anything is fair game, but how the author treats a subject makes it either an integral story component or just so much prurient shock. There is a place for titillation on a certain level but if the author does not use it to advance a character or the plot, it is worthless. If the author can do no better than continually stimulate the reader’s morbid curiosity they have transformed into a simple panderer. Shock has its place but it must shake the reader from complacency. Shock for its own sake is sophomoric.

AI: So how graphic should an author write?

LJB: Whatever it takes to get your point across.

AI: How graphic is your work?

LJB: I like to walk that razor edge. My immersion technique requires that I rub readers noses in some things, the carnage of battle is a good example. I don’t want to pay glib lip service with a sentence like, “Bodies were strewn about the field.” Instead, I want them to smell the entrails and excrement, slip in the blood, feel the bones snap, etc. Anything less removes the reader from the experience and belittles the subject. However, the author has to know when enough is enough and the point’s been made. One word beyond that insults your reader and they lose the moment you tried to create. In answer to the question, my work can be quite graphic but you’ll thank me for it.