Decadent Habits (Feedback Requested)

Decadent Habits... hm. What to do with this one...

Okay, according to the Content Violation Reports, this work has acquired two devilheads and no angelheads. I'll be quite honest, I'm leaning towards giving this a devilhead myself; I mean, the first chapter alone has somewhat explicit sex involving a ten-year-old and his... mother(?). Now, since I'm always for a second opinion, I would like to see what you guys think. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just roll with the devilhead.

The defense raised was that the story is an exploration of the harm caused by rape and incest. Further arguments were not brought forward.

edited 13th May '12 12:30:47 PM by Arha

(clicks page) OH GOD TAKE ME BACK

A fanfic filled with sex, incest, descriptions of little boy dick, and worse things...drop the nuke.

edited 13th May '12 1:03:58 PM by KaiserMazoku

Yup. Nothing good in this one. Cut.

For my own personal opinion, I'm surprised we even started a thread on this one.

I agree with dropping the nuke on this one, and I can say that from experience. In the distant past, I wrote a fanfic with the idea of showing the harm of sexual abuse - this is definitely not an Unreliable Narrator Mind Screw with a Reader Punch waiting, and I can say that because I know that "vibe" so to speak, how to construct a scene that is creepy and vile in and of itself but that is setting up for The Reveal of The Awful Truth... this is not that.

This is being played for straight-out titillation, as something sexy. Nothing in the construction of it hints at it being played for being seriously fucked up or a setup for a What the Hell, Hero? or You Bastard! moment.

(ninja'd) Of course, the writer could be trying for it and just be too incompetent to convey it properly, but the result is the same - this crap DOES NOT have the atmosphere of something genuinely deconstructing the concept or setting up a Player Punch / You Bastard! Mind Screw. It's just... crap. And pedo crap at that.

edited 13th May '12 1:35:49 PM by AGroupie

Not sure if it IS defensible under the current rules. *shrug* I think it has some literary merit as being decently written, but that's not a criteria that counts.

Decently written doesn't always -in fact, it rarely does- equal to literary merit, though.

edited 13th May '12 1:37:08 PM by Mazz

Burn it to the ground.

Also, just looked at the writer's page if it's of any value to this. The approach the writer takes is one of being proud of it and of being, yes, creepy. Not sure if that means anything toward cut or not, but it does convey a bit more that this is Author Appeal rather than (even incompetently) dropping Drama Bombs and anvils - which should mean something toward a cut.

On the pedo issue: A ten year old one having sex? Not Played for Drama?

On the porn issue: ?

Verdict: Base Delta Zero it.

... Well, damn, fellas. Devilhead, it is, then.

....explicit ten year old sex should not be allowed. I mean, panty shots are barely allowed!

On one hand, I want to suggest that you read it befoe passing judgement.

On the other hand, having re-read the first few chapters myself today, it'd probably make you bin it even faster.

I'm quite afraid I didn't make it past the first page. This is something I can easily support ditching.

For the record, later chapters do end up deconstructing the entire concept. Friends turn on each other over the moral/ethical implications, screwed up backgrounds are revealed that explain just how screwed up most of those involved are... That sort of thing. It's essentially a Bait-and-Switch plot — I know I had to rethink many of my impressions of incestuous romance and child-adult sexual relationships in fictional stories after the Cerebus Syndrome threshold reminded me painfully of their real-life implications/consequences.

edited 13th May '12 2:28:56 PM by MarqFJA

How much later? and do you have any specific examples?

That first page sex scene has way too much information in it.

Chapter 10 has Negima's resident Lovable Sex Maniac and Memetic Molester Haruna Saotome discovering the whole thing from Asuna. She immediately puts a cellphone in front of her and gives her an ultimatum: Either she calls the police on Arika, or Haruna does. Asuna, knowing that either option would mean losing her newfound family (Arika would be imprisoned, and Negi would hate her for that), decides to throw the phone out the window and run out.

And even earlier, Konoka, who is The Pollyanna in canon, is revealed in a flashback to have been molested if not outright raped by one of the men whom her grandfather had brought on one of many (and failed) Arranged Marriage interviews. It turned her into a Manipulative Bitch who deep down does not trust anybody that isn't ensnared in her web of manipulations — even Setsuna got dragged into the mess. She has My God, What Have I Done? realization eventually.

It Gets Worse from there, gradually.

edited 13th May '12 2:39:06 PM by MarqFJA

But is the rest of it clean? Are there any other sex scenes involving children under 15? [child/adult sex scenes are one of my personal squicks]

edited 13th May '12 2:37:42 PM by animeg3282

I don't know that it matters if it turns into the modern reincarnation of Lolita by the end, it's still by an author who's explicitly using incestuous pedophilia to get off, and by the standards of the site it needs to take a long walk off a short dock into hell.

As in, after the first chapter? Yes. Not sure how many, though.

Just saying that the panel should consider all aspects of the story, and see if which outweighs the other. For all they knew, Arika may have had Laser-Guided Karma smack her with extreme vengeance from chapter 6 onwards.

edited 13th May '12 2:42:49 PM by MarqFJA

This discussion is moot - this horrible shit got three devil votes.

Ok, I admit I agree, but I have admitted my own bias here.

Well, I guess that's that, unless the voters made their decision before reading my previous post.

edited 13th May '12 2:43:58 PM by MarqFJA