Should you avoid offensive hyperbole?
I am writing a first person narrative with a character that is very similar to myself. As such I feel like the narrator should speak and think in language that I, personally, would use. Unfortunately, I feel like it may detract from the message I am trying to convey to the reader if I write such things verbatim. For example, a conversation similar to that which I had with a friend once:
Me: I have realized that I am a terrible person.
Friend: what? I don't think so.
Me: Well, I mean, not in the way that I would rape a kitten or anything, but I could see throwing shit at the old guy in front of me that won't move aside or walk faster.
I have used the "rape a kitten" or something similar to it in my regular speech as well as my thoughts and my writing to describe something unusually bad. My question is: Should such things be avoided in my writing? (I have gotten better in my speech, so that is not an issue.)
Edit: I am perfectly fine with "Yes, freedom of speech" or "no, it's morally corrupt" answers, but there needs to be a reason, e.g. writing style or ruining suspension of disbelief.
Edit 2: I am not attempting to legitimize or trivialize or defend anything (maybe my example comes off that way, and if so I apologize but if I change it I feel like I would chameleon the question). I will definitely bear in mind the context.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/27070. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
This questions is unanswerable except in regard to a specific market.
We live in an age of taking offence, and also in an age of giving offence. Certain things will close doors to certain segments of the market, certain things may open doors to other segments of the market. Deliberately giving offence can sometimes gain you more market attention than any other means. Different things offend different people. If you avoid a word to avoid giving offence to one group, your omission may offend another group.
There is no universal win in this game. You pick your market and you play to it. The same thing that gets the door slammed in your face by one group can open doors for you with another.
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