HSU IT Department

I love Neil Gaiman, and really enjoy his little descriptions in the front of his books on how he came to write the story. And I so agree with him about trigger warnings: fiction is not a safe place, nor should it be. Reality itself is not as safe as we like to think it is; fiction can remove the blinders we put on that tell us we will always be safe. If someone can't handle something they read about in a book, how will they ever deal with a real-life crisis when the shit hits the fan? Yes, I've read things that upset me -- scared me or made me cry. But I don't regret it. I felt real emotion when I read these stories, and that is a good thing, even when the emotions are uncomfortable. I know that it is popular with fan fiction to tell ahead of time any squicks or trigger warnings. I shake my head at this and think, maybe these people shouldn't be reading fiction at all, then. If you know everything that's going to happen ahead of time, and that it will be within your comfort zone... well, what's the point of reading the story? It's just more of the same that you always read. I say, put on your big girl panties and read something slightly dangerous!