A few months ago I divorced a man who was 21 years older than me (long story, I was 25 when we met and he was 46) and I used to think it wasn’t a problem because “I’m an adult” and etc. but now, on the flip side, I’m incredibly uncomfortable with age issues in books. Age gaps? Big ick for me, can’t handle much more than a 5-7 year gap. But what also gets me is things like Game of Thrones where the characters are literal CHILDREN getting married off and having kids. I get that it’s a made up story, and there is some basis in History for this, but does it bother anyone else? Maybe I’m just sensitive because of my ex-husband, but I can’t be the only one bothered.
by Creepy-Passenger-506
9 Comments
The disturbing parts of GoT are *supposed* to disturb you. It’s not a nice world or a safe one.
How dare literature not be comfortable for everyone all the time. Fantasy should be realistic and safe dammit!
There are many, many distressing and disturbing things in literature. If things make you uncomfortable, you have the choice to stop reading the book.
Sometimes those age gaps, like in Game of Thrones, are meant to make you uncomfortable. They’re not always meant to be romanticized or enjoyable.
Historically, children were married off early and still are in a lot of places. You don’t have to be comfortable with it but it is a reality.
I hate reading about motorcyles or motorcyclists because of my personal life and involvement with motorcycle riders; everyone has things that affect them about fiction they consume.
Well, while some fiction can really speak our current times and social mores I think it’s extremely important to not try and relate fictional settings that have been deliberately made to have a very different cultural and moral standards to our own present day society. That’s not to say something like Game of Thrones is great literature, but that it doesn’t speak to today’s society and that’s fine.
It’s definitely fine to not read things you don’t like reading about because of your own circumstances, but it’s not something that should inform how these things are written. I don’t have personal negative experiences with age gap relationships so I’m able to be more objective when they are portrayed in fiction but if you do it’s fair enough to duck out. I don’t think GoT romanticizes it btw; it’s just treated as an unremarkable fact of life in this universe.
yeah it bothers some and doesn’t bother some and there are other things that wouldn’t bother you but bother other people and that’s ok, the solution is easy, just don’t consume something you don’t like
Every book is not about you.