Decline in moral standards in web novels

[NotaNuffian]

Imagine watching Redo of healer or something like that, then thinking "damn he just like me."

Btw if you do feel this way, I recommend American psycho, The Cask of Amontillado, and Hostel. Very good and family friendly.

That being said, there are some people out there who had fate worse than death, so if they can link with Cure, that is that.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

There is nothing inherently wrong with having an mc or story with a typically poor sense morals. Just when it is portrayed like it's all fine and well, I find the story rather boring. It's not good character development to have your mc commit several war crimes and be rewarded for it.

 

[longer]

It's not good character development to have your mc commit several war crimes and be rewarded for it.

Should tell Allah that his character development is trash then. IRL lore sucks.

 

[SakeVision]

b8

 

[Lloyd]

Imagine watching Redo of healer or something like that, then thinking "damn he just like me."

Btw if you do feel this way, I recommend American psycho, The Cask of Amontillado, and Hostel. Very good and family friendly.

I am the Redo of Healer MC, but instead of rape I force the girls into traditional Christian marriages.

 

[lnv]

I began my reading web novels in my early teens.(14 years old) Now I am 23.
From Chinese cultivation novels to Japanese lightnovels and even korean novels(translated). I have read more books than I could ever count.
Most of it was awesome, opening my mind to possibilities and thoughts that I could never come up on my own.
While at the same time, this is getting tiring. In the early days of translated web novels. They had quality in writing, character development and world development.
But now, it feels like morals are a thing of past.
The worst of all is the fact that low moral standard based novels are promoted extensively while real novels with substance are ignored. This might be my personal opinion. But I would like to hear hear more about this from webnovel authors and readers. Please comment.

As the saying goes, if one pulls too hard, the other pushes back harder.

Since novels started to push unrealistic morals, people simply got sick of it. And less than moral novels become more enticing to wash out the palette. There is nothing wrong with emphasizing proper morals, but that should be kept to the level that is humanly realistic.

As for there being better quality novels in the early days... maybe? maybe not. I mean you gotta factor in the fact that when translators picked up novels, they picked the best ones first. As time goes, you are gonna have a lot of meh. Not to mention blindly reused tropes makes content more stale.

 

[JohnDoe9838]

Excellent video to share.

A small tidbit I would like to contribute: for people who are unable to separate ficiton from reality in a healthy manner, it seems the actions of characters as a moral judgement on people who might enjoy those stories. I see this with younger audiences or more sheltered folks.
But most people who enjoy those stories probably wouldn't re-enact them in reality and if they did, one would have to call into question how well they grasp reality and the consequences of their actions and take appropriate measures to protect that person (and others) from their delusion.

Sorry this is a bit off topic, but this reminds me a lot of that argument about video games causing violent behavior and whatnot.
In the end, it's all fiction, we write for fun, to express ourselves, to vent, or because THE HORNY.
Still, I can understand a little bit of where that attitude comes from. Fiction "educates", whether or not that is the author's intention. If there is a responsibility of the author to take this into account... I have no idea, it's not like I'm a scholar of these subjects, I'm just ignorant.
For example, let's talk about cinema.
Cinema has been, is and always will be a political tool, and above all, a kind of discourse.
The image is a way of political and, many times, religious transmission, if we take into account how this type of art often served as a tool for institutions such as the Catholic Church when it came to preaching its values and moral guidelines.
Our societies have a great sensitivity to the iconological power of the image. We all recognize the power that the image of a cross, a swastika, etc. carries.
But well, I'm comparing cinema and extrapolating it to writing, something I'm not sure I would do just like that. Plus we're talking about stories that aren't mainstream and wouldn't be subject to certain standardized industry controls.

tl;dr: I see the stories as a way to shove my moral and political beliefs down people's throats. If you realize that I am doing exactly that, then I'm a bad writer. The idea is that people don't realize I'm preaching to them.

Then again there are some cruel figures in fiction who might be raised on a pedestal by some readers. It's not for me. Personally, I can't condemn people for enjoying things I don't (unless it's actively harming others in reality) so I accept that I am not the target audience and move on to find something I might actually enjoy.

That's a very healthy attitude, actually. But I love to complain and laugh at edgy protagonists. It's all in good spirit, of course. The nice thing is that people enjoy all kinds of things.

 

[Omnifarious]

Distinction need to be made of wishfulfillment stories and non wishfulfillment stories.

Taking the superman as example.
A wishfulfillment will just have the reader enjoy being "good" being unstoppable in their "good"

A nonwishfulfillment can have the same plot but will have the reader question if the way mc handle things was the best or not (i.e no killing, black and white world etc)

Having reprehensible behaviour in novels is not just good or bad, its the handling of it, or what the author is suggesting or inspire reader to consider, that is important i think.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

If you want to see more of your morals in web novels. Write a novel that depicts it, make it big and perhaps people will be inspired to copy you.

That being said, most of those stories have really surface-level messages anyways. Maybe try sticking to older books?

Also we're 5 pages in and this shit is still in gaming discussion.

 

[NotaNuffian]

If you want to see more of your morals in web novels. Write a novel that depicts it, make it big and perhaps people will be inspired to copy you.

That being said, most of those stories have really surface-level messages anyways. Maybe try sticking to older books?

Also we're 5 pages in and this shit is still in gaming discussion.

Then you will have the Sword of Coming problem, too much preaching, not enough stabbing.

The novel tries to pepper things like talking about good and evil and how one should always strive for their best and all. But thanks to that, there is a huge wall of text to climb and it kills off any mood I have for the work.

Then again, it is the problem of the audience like me; me don't want no life Ted talk, me want gratuitous violence.

 

[longer]

Then you will have the Sword of Coming problem, too much preaching, not enough stabbing.

The novel tries to pepper things like talking about good and evil and how one should always strive for their best and all. But thanks to that, there is a huge wall of text to climb and it kills off any mood I have for the work.

Then again, it is the problem of the audience like me; me don't want no life Ted talk, me want gratuitous violence.

I think another issue is that a good amount of authors and artists don't have a good understanding of morals. I'm not saying that they are wrong, but many lack the life experiences to fully articulate a meaningful and touching message. Instead, many come off as pseudo-intellectuals that took a course or two of philosophy and now think they're the next Nietzsche.

I personally try to keep any moral message in my stories broad because I know that my sense of morality is rather warped. It's easy for me to think of something like "indifference isn't always the best approach and you should try play an active role in the world despite it seeming futile." But get more specific and I start spouting shit like "if it works it works" when talking about the systematic eradication of a culture.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

Then you will have the Sword of Coming problem, too much preaching, not enough stabbing.

See the problem here is they didn't try have the preaching at the same time as the stabbing.

 

[Deeprotsorcerer]

I am the Redo of Healer MC, but instead of rape I force the girls into traditional Christian marriages.

So... rape depending on the era. (I say this as a Christian, I know there's a shit ton of nuance to this and that this is less true in the modern era and that marital rape wasn't solely a Christian issue, just one that hid behind religion very often).

 

[Lloyd]

So... rape depending on the era. (I say this as a Christian, I know there's a shit tone of nuance to this and that this is less true in the modern era and that marriage rape wasn't solely a Christian issue, just one that hid behind religion very often).

WTF. How can you compare rape to traditional Christian marriages? I highly doubt you are even Christian! That is some fucked up satanic hate you are spewing.

 

[Kilolo]

uhhhh, why is this a gaming discussion?

 

[Lloyd]

uhhhh, why is this a gaming discussion?

Gamers are the moral core of our society.

 

[Omnifarious]

uhhhh, why is this a gaming discussion?

Why INDEED!!!

 

[NotaNuffian]

See the problem here is they didn't try have the preaching at the same time as the stabbing.

I believe in the first few scenes when the MC is still a wee retard weakling, the author did tried to do that.

But I was distracted either by the MC constantly getting decked and his face used as the cloth for wiping the floor or MC being a hindsight 20/20 fuckwit that rubs his scrotum over his fallen enemies.

 

[Omnifarious]

Why INDEED!!!

Reported! @AliceShiki

 

[NotaNuffian]

Also we're 5 pages in and this shit is still in gaming discussion.

Because at least in games it is interactive, there is more depth as it shows the monster within us all as we break into others' houses for pot smashing.

Reading feels like I am a passenger for the ride. Using the phosphorus feels like someone forcing my finger into the trigger and shoot, thus making me feel like I have shot them myself.