The market in the last several years (ever since the 2010s, really), has become oversaturated with surface-level tales of shock-value atrocities and aesthetically packaged suffering. Nobody is willing to dig into a deeper discussion on the repercussions of trauma and abuse; but they’re more than eager to coat deep and troubling topics in a rose-tinted veneer of romance and adventure.
Characters are but vessels for the writers’ and readers’ personal fantasies, meant to achieve cardboard stereotypes instead of full-fleshed realizations. Because deep thought and meaningful connections aren’t important with this corner of the industry—just immediate emotional reactions, and the ability to snag new readers on a book’s scandalous hype.
In addition, writers are casting an increasing number of their characters as “morally gray,” spinning corrupt, disturbing, or sometimes even inexcusable actions as “human flaws.” They then encourage readers to believe that any character who doesn’t fall into this category is “too perfect,” and is meant to encourage shame in the average reader.
And lastly, modern tales increasingly rely on the writer’s command for readers to reach conclusions. Fewer and fewer writers are presenting a character’s actions or plot developments in such a way that the reader must then extrapolate the necessary assumptions. No reader is doing the legwork anymore to think as they go, instead swallowing the writer’s presentations at face value. If the author claims the MC is strong, then they never have to show it; if they claim the love interest is gentle and romantic, then they never have to present the evidence to support it. So long as a conclusion is stated, then it must be taken as fact, regardless of how little the text actually reinforces it.
Empathy
The first of this double-bladed issue deals with a decline in reader empathy.
Unless you’re looking for content for tweens or below, violence has become standard in media. In books, anything that falls into YA or adult sci-fi/fantasy/thriller/etc. comes without any warning of violent and/or gory content, even if it’s prolific.
There’s nothing wrong with being able to handle disturbing content (and I envy those who can witness or hear about it without flinching).
But there is a problem with standardizing the inclusion and depth of such content to the point where people are losing a sense of how horrible violence really is.
The more violence we need to feel something, then the less we feel when the violence isn’t “that bad” in comparison—which lessens the empathy we feel when reading about or watching such things.
Even if we’re not dealing with explicit gore, simply the oversaturation of traumatic concepts can water down our reaction to them.
Many romances nowadays (especially ones labeled as “dark”) paint partner abuse as a common, romantic concept. Invading personal space against the FMC’s will is “sexy.” Ordering her around or teasing her is a “turn-on.” Molesting and/or assaulting is okay as long as the FMC experiences arousal in the process.
Traumatic events are often used to bolster a character’s reputation—the FMC “became stronger” by surviving rape, or the MMC is a “hardened badass” for suffering through torture. Backstories are rarely meant to elicit our sympathy, but to give a dark, sexy edge to a character or a relationship. (Or, in some cases, to pave the way for the FMC/MMC to be “healed” through sex with their partner.)
This isn’t to say that people who survive traumatic events aren’t strong—but we should never frame such events as “necessary” to have happened, because they “toughened someone up” or “proved what they could handle.”
Morally Gray MC
Piggybacking off of this, the rise of “moral grayness” has also led to a muddling of empathy among the readers.
Nuanced characters are incredible, and we don’t have to sacrifice deep explorations on human nature for more black-and-white thinking.
But many writers and readers are missing the point of a morally gray character. It’s not about taking someone who’s not “perfect,” and showing readers they can still ultimately be judged as a decent person. Morally gray means they’re too good to be truly evil, but also too corrupted to be truly good. We can certainly enjoy such characters; but we’re not supposed to stamp them with either “heaven” or “hell” and be on our way. There is no final judgment—that’s the point.
But audiences have gotten to the point where they’re willing to excuse away a character’s negative actions in order to argue that it’s okay to like them. They’re trying to pass that judgment by rationalizing the actions we’re not supposed to be rationalizing. In turn, it’s blunting people’s ability to recognize harm where it happens, and instead victim-blaming and/or downplaying a character’s dangerous tendencies.
Critical Thinking
The second side to this blade deals with the increasing lack of critical thinking amongst readers.
This isn’t to say readers are getting stupid—just that content across all mediums is evolving to be surface-level, sensationalist, and emotionally provoking more than anything else. Stories with fast-paced, simplistic plots and shallow characterizations are valued above those that take more time and effort to get into. And in order to accomplish this, writers are beginning to feed their readers the conclusions outright, regardless of whether or not the text actually supports them.
Characters
The female MC is strong and intelligent—yet she consistently makes rash and/or selfish decisions; requires the male love interest to save her when she could’ve avoided or escaped a situation by her own means; and she fails to realize when obvious conclusions are staring her in the face for plot purposes.
The female MC is ‘not like other girls’—when in reality she is conventionally attractive, and her likes and dislikes are perfectly in line with what other girls her age experience.
The male love interest is romantic—but he makes unwanted advances on the MC; coerces her into sexual acts; and calls her whatever he wants regardless of her preferences (as if she’s merely a pet to him and not a fellow human being).
Plot
Society is structured in x way—but it could never actually sustain itself if that was the case.
For example, in the Booktok novel Lightlark, reviewers describe that each of the different islands in the world is inflicted by a curse; but some of the curses would’ve rendered life among their respective societies completely unsustainable—such as the adults not being able to live past twenty-five, or the island where everyone has to eat hearts once a month to survive.
Events occur that need to happen to set essential plot points in place—but they rely on extreme coincidence, or the characters who need to propel such decisions behave stupidly or out-of-character.
* * *
Not all modern books are suffering from this phenomenon, and not every reader has evolved to the point where they can no longer pay attention to a story that isn’t the latest TikTok trend.
But thanks to the choke hold social media has on the public, as well as publishers banking on “sure-fire” hits that have only proven their worth by copying the latest sensation, the readerly landscape has transformed into a wasteland of little empathy and scant critical thought.
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