Adult Content, part 2

I saw this coming, but I am having a hard time writing about sex.

No, it’s not especially awkward, but there is so much content there that organization is kind of an issue, and also, I will be criticizing some things that are quite popular right now, and while my intention is not to offend anyone, I totally could, so I am trying to do a really good job with the material, which seems like it may necessitate more time. Obviously, it is time for more hedging.

So, I thought what I could do today is write a little more about how I am handling this type of material in the graphic novel. I am kind of reluctant to write about it before it is finished, because then I am giving out spoilers, and then no one will feel a need to read it. I know, initially I had thought no one would ever read it, and now I feel like I will post it somewhere, and so now just as I decide that people can read it, I take away their motivation. Well, I’ve said before that I am not always logical. So I guess I am posting this today, writing a few days’ worth of sex content, and then going on vacation to Idaho. Seems like a plan.

So, for the sex itself, there actually is a sex scene. Well, that’s not true. There is a lead-in to a scene where you know two of the characters will be having sex. I felt this was necessary, because they are two fairly star-crossed lovers. After six years of separation due to a global crisis and communications breakdown they are reunited, and then are dealing with severe injuries, impending death, presumed death, and emotional trauma that leads to a communication breakdown, and then they do die and on their last night on earth they have no privacy whatsoever. So, I did not want anyone to be reading that and thinking that after all of that and even getting married that they were still never able to consummate the relationship. I’m not a cruel person. Personally, as the author I can see where they would have had other opportunities too, and taken advantage of them, but at least that one time it is clear that they did manage a physical relationship.

For swearing, the tricky thing is yes, I don’t do it, but I often have characters who totally would. I actually have included two minor swear words and one major but interrupted one. Oddly, they are all spoken by Mikey. It’s just how it worked out.

I think I covered how the violence is handled pretty well in writing about that one. It occurs to me that in writing about violence, it was very much about it in entertainment, where writing about the profanity was more about life, and the sex is going to go back and forth. This is probably because violence is more discouraged as a part of actual life, where it can result in arrest, and that is not so much true of the other areas.

That being said, I only made passing mention of gore in that post, because most of what I wrote about violence applied to gore. You can be violent without being gory, and that could be irresponsibly choosing to show violence as consequence free, or it could be a matter of choosing a different focus in the depictions. I do have a gory scene.

Like so many things, it did not come about intentionally. There is a character who has a tendency to revive. In thinking about how to make a permanent death for him, my initial thought was that you would have to destroy the cerebral cortex, and then I realized that made no sense, and obviously it would be the brainstem that you would need to destroy.

Well that’s all well and good, until you think about how, with limited tools in a field setting you would make that happen, and it gets kind of difficult. Suddenly the scene involved decapitation, and sawing and slicing and attempting to squish and finally burning which just happens to also involve destroying the remnants of some happy memories, and it was kind of brutal. It would not have to be drawn explicitly, and it shouldn’t be. The point of the scene is not about reveling in grossness. The point is frustration and desperation and just when it seemed like things were kind of getting better, being proved wrong once more. It’s not cool, so it shouldn’t look cool.

That being said, I have always had an aversion to zombies, because with the decaying flesh and the brain eating and the infectious nature, it is just ugly and gross. After writing that scene, I started to think, well, maybe I could do something with zombies. There would have to be some point to it, but there usually is—just because I don’t like zombie movies doesn’t mean I don’t acknowledge their often trenchant social commentary.

I was thinking that the next thing I worked on would be a romantic comedy, but maybe it will be zombies. Or both. Then you have the perfect date movie because there’s something for everyone.