The Fine Line

Showing posts with label the fine line. Show all posts

Thursday, April 21, 2016

ARE WE ALLOWED TO CRITICIZE CHARACTERS WITH A MENTAL ILLNESS?

Hey all, I’m going to be discussing something that has been on my mind again. I really have no idea if this is controversial, but it definitely makes sense to be featuring this as a Fine Line post.

The Fine Line post is a feature I share with Holly @ The Fox’s Hideaway, Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight, and Amber @ YA Indulgences. It touches upon topics that are either controversial or hard to talk about. For that reason, I will try to remain as neutral as possible. These posts are not aimed to cause offense or target anyone. And more importantly, the reason for these posts is to see what YOUR thoughts are on the topic at hand. Because I am interested in discussion.

Also, please don’t be afraid to comment or discuss your thoughts. There’s no right or wrong answer to anything I’ve discussed, and of course you do not have to agree with me on anything. The only thing I do ask is that you don’t mention any names or the such. And if you do have a problem with anything I’ve said, feel free to DM me. Though just remember that I am allowed to state my own thoughts.

I recently read two books, The Way I Used To Be (which isn’t mental illness but we’ll get to that) and When We Collided. Both featured extremely frustrating characters, which is what made them hard to read, and ultimately review.

And here is where this discussion comes in. (Before I get into it all, I would like to thank my wonderful support group in the gchat/Google Hangouts/whatever it’s called nowadays, since we talked a lot about this topic. And of course, I would like to thank Amber, Holly, and Shannon for reading this and discussing it with me. Shannon rec’d me Asking For It, which now I want to read ASAP since it deals with this exact topic.)

So. It’s hard to deny that there aren’t a lot of books featuring characters with mental illnesses. And this is actually a good thing! It’s great in that more readers can connect with the characters. More readers can become educated about mental illness, whether it’s about schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder, depression, etc. Books such as Paperweight, Challenger Deep, and Made You Up are incredibly powerful narratives that opened my eyes to these topics.

So, here is where I am unsure of where I stand. It’s no surprise that sometimes I get frustrated with these characters. And that’s to be expected. With When We Collided, it was so hard to read through the character’s decision. And same with The Way I Used To Be, which isn’t necessarily about mental illness, but also deals with such a hard topic such as rape. And I get it, that’s the plot. That’s how a person is in that type of situation.

But because of this huge trend in mental illness, there’s really a couple of questions I have to ask myself.

The first is something that always troubles me when I review a book featuring a character with mental illness. Can I criticize the actions of the characters? Am I allowed to do that, as someone who has not been raped, or doesn’t have said mental illness? In The Way I Used To Be, our main character, Eden, spent her entire high school career struggling with the fact that she had been raped. It was horrible to read. I felt frustrated, and as someone who had not been raped, I was quick to think “Why doesn’t she just SAY IT”. But what could I say? I have never been in her shoes. And I’m sure other readers who, unfortunately have been, understand Eden perfectly.

For me, the same occurred with Vivi in When We Collided. I didn’t agree with many of her thoughts, or her actions. But I couldn’t tell apart her personality from her bipolar disorder. Were they the actions of Vivi, or the actions of an illness?

It’s a struggle because I feel like as a reviewer, I don’t know whether I should criticize the character. Would it make me an asshole if I did? But then I feel equally wrong if I don’t express my true feelings about it.

And along those lines, could authors be using mental illness as a way to avoid criticism? I mean, I don’t think I’m the only one that struggles with criticizing characters with mental illness. If it were a different situation, I would likely criticize without second thought. Well, anyways, what do you think? I don’t know if I have an opinion on this matter yet.

So in the end, I try to just follow my feelings (I say try because I’m still struggling). For The Way I Used To Be, I ended up rating it a little higher than I should’ve, just because I wanted others to know it was informative. But I think the important thing is that I can still say it was an eye-opening read, while criticizing the character. I just feel wrong not saying my thoughts.

How do you feel about this? Do you also have a hard time reviewing books featuring mental illnesses?

Thursday, March 3, 2016

IS IT OK TO LOVE A PROBLEMATIC BOOK?

Today, I’m going to be discussing a topic that has been on my mind for quite some time now. And since it is somewhat controversial, or at least I think it is (maybe it is not?), it will be featured as a Fine Line post!

And with that, here goes nothing.

Very recently, I finished what I thought was a fantastic and hilarious young adult contemporary. I really enjoyed reading it, and it even became a new 2016 favorite. However, it was brought to my attention that there were a couple of problematic issues with it, such as the negative portrayal of a fat character. There was a scene where she ran over to another character and knocked him unconscious, and then another where she sat on said character to stop him from moving.

So here’s the thing. I still really loved this book, even with acknowledging the issues in it. So does this make me a hateful person, or an insensitive one?

Or how about if no one pointed it out to me at all? Would you view me as less of a person if I didn’t even notice such issues, and you did?

I think there a lot of things we should talk about in regards to this, and I’ll list my two views on the situation.

The first, is that unhealthy messages are not the best, and I’m sure most can agree with me on this. From completely inaccurate representations of POC and mental illness, to abusive relationships being romanticized along with mental illness, to negative views of body image, etc., the list is long. We can argue that whenever one of these issues occurs in a book, it sends out the message to teenagers and adults alike that all of these are okay. And in this society, that’s not something we want to express.

Plus, if we do not discuss how problematic these books are, more of them will be published.

But, on the flip side, what if you really liked a book that had a lot of these issues, take for example, Fifty Shades of Grey. I think everyone can agree that it wasn’t the greatest representation of a relationship, right? From what I’ve heard, at least. Yet, so many people loved the series.

The same can be said for the Twilight series. Many have said that it features an emotionally abusive relationship (I actually would not really know because I read the first book maybe 7 years ago? So I forget)*, yet again, there are tons of fans.

But there are so many readers out there, in the book blogging community from what I have seen, that got into YA because of Twilight! So technically, it was a good thing. When I read it 6 or 7 years ago, I remember that I didn’t mind the book, and in fact I think I quite enjoyed it. Is it because I was unaware of what I was reading? For example, I know both Mosquitoland and The Love That Split The World were talked about being offensive to Native Americans. Yet I loved both books. Maybe it is hard to see things as problematic when you don’t fall into that category.

In conclusion, I personally do not think I would force someone to hate a book because of its problematic issues. However, I would try to bring the issues to their attention (but only in real life to my friends, or my very close online friends). I’m not exactly sure I have the guts (or I guess the time?) to engage with someone online. Tweeting it though, or mentioning it in a review, would be something I would do.

And as to liking a book that has these issues, I would also say that is fine. It’s your feelings, your thoughts, your opinions, and no one should be mad at you for it.

Wow, I cannot believe I got all of that out. Anyways…

What are your opinions on this? Do you have any books that you love but have problematic issues?

Thursday, October 8, 2015

THE FINE LINE: TWITTER CHATS

Welcome to the first post in this feature which will be shared by Holly @ The Fox’s Hideaway, Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight, Amber @ YA Indulgences, and I. I think it comes as no surprise that we have teamed up again, though this time it will be more than just a book discussion.

The important thing about this feature is that it brings up topics that are highly controversial. For that reason, I will try to remain as neutral as possible. These posts are not aimed to cause offense or target anyone. Instead they are observations as a whole of the book blogging community. And more importantly, the reason for these posts (for me at least) is to see what YOUR thoughts are on the topic at hand. Because I am interested.

And with that said, let’s do this!

The number of Twitter Chats popping up recently

The increasing number of chats appearing on Twitter is allowing for more bloggers and authors to communicate with other bloggers. And because of this, there have been many more conversations then there used to be. Authors can use chats to spread word of their books, and bloggers can use them to share their blog, especially bloggers who are shyer than others. There is no doubt that Twitter chats have led to more conversation in the blogosphere.

There are a lot of chats, many of them having the same theme as others. There will be at least one chat going on every day, and sometimes it clogs up the Twitter feed.

I think that Twitter chats are awesome, but I seriously wonder why there are so many. I am not suggesting that hosting Twitter chats should be entitled to certain bloggers, however, I do feel as it has become another one of those requirements to be a successful book blogger. The reason I have come to this conclusion is due to my observation of all the chats, and how some are very similar to the chats that have recently become popular in the blogosphere.

Another reason on why I wanted to talk about this is also the topic of plagiarism. Ideas being plagiarized seems to be pretty taboo in the blogosphere. Does this also apply to these chats? Is this even considered plagiarism? Or are Twitter chats too abstract and common of an idea to even be considered original anymore? (In other words, should Twitter chats be considered an original idea).

Is hosting a Twitter chat the new “thing” to do as a blogger?
Do you view similar Twitter chats as repetitive?
Does it count as plagiarism? Or is it too hard to say or to prove? (Or is it just not an original thing in the first place)
What do you think of Twitter chats as a whole?

Hi hi! I’m Val, and welcome to The Innocent Smiley, a book blog that features young adult, contemporary, adult fiction, and lots of fantasy!All my reviews, discussions, randomness, and other little things will be posted here!

Along with being a huge book nerd, I am also obsessed with video games!

Also, I love making new bloggy friends, so feel free to chat with me on Twitter, Goodreads, or even email. All of my contact info is in the About Me section.

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