Also, I feel that if an author kills a character, it should be because the character did something stupid,or because the character is trying to save someone else. If a character was murdered, there needs to be a damn compelling reason for the murder.
There are reasons to kill characters that are Just and Reasonable. Indeed, in this book that I've set aside, several people have died to illustrate Just What We're Up Against -- and that's Perfectly Valid; the reader must know what the stakes are, or the narrative lacks power.
Murder mysteries struggle with the question of the worth of human life almost exclusively -- again, Perfectly Valid. We should ask ourselves now and then what is more precious than a man's life.
What I object to is the tendency of some authors to deliberately set up a likable and sympathetic secondary character to die only for the shock value. (In the world of visual media, Joss Whedon is particularly guilty of this, and there are a couple of writers I could name, but won't for the sake of Peace Within the Clan.)
Mind you, I'm not saying that these (probable) deaths that I'm objecting to are that sort of deliberate toying with the reader's emotions -- from my sampling of her work, this writer hasn't seemed to me to be malicious. And it is very much worth bearing in mind that, in this case, I bestowed my affections foolishly. Had I indeed bonded with the Leads, I might not have found these other deaths so distressing.
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There are reasons to kill characters that are Just and Reasonable. Indeed, in this book that I've set aside, several people have died to illustrate Just What We're Up Against -- and that's Perfectly Valid; the reader must know what the stakes are, or the narrative lacks power.
Murder mysteries struggle with the question of the worth of human life almost exclusively -- again, Perfectly Valid. We should ask ourselves now and then what is more precious than a man's life.
What I object to is the tendency of some authors to deliberately set up a likable and sympathetic secondary character to die only for the shock value. (In the world of visual media, Joss Whedon is particularly guilty of this, and there are a couple of writers I could name, but won't for the sake of Peace Within the Clan.)
Mind you, I'm not saying that these (probable) deaths that I'm objecting to are that sort of deliberate toying with the reader's emotions -- from my sampling of her work, this writer hasn't seemed to me to be malicious. And it is very much worth bearing in mind that, in this case, I bestowed my affections foolishly. Had I indeed bonded with the Leads, I might not have found these other deaths so distressing.