I need some reading, preferably short stories, preferably available through Web (I am broke at the moment), from LitReactor, even better. I know the basics of violent narration, but I think I don't have good enough command on really graphic violence. On-body experiences and fears of permanent damage etc. is all I am coming up with.
The thing is that I am working on a short story, which has an essential rape scene. I know that I am at a high risk of writing too "erotic" rape scene, which would ruin the story. Getting rid of porn is easy, but writing sexual violence is actually very hard if your intention is to do the opposite of erotica. I want 0% arrousal and 100% uncomfortable nausea. But I need to widen my perspectives to deliver that.
If you have tricks of trade to share, even better.
Thanks in advance!
If you want 0% arrousal then write a rape scene. If a rape scene in a book gets somebody off, they're a fucking weirdo. I'd guess that you have some sort of message, or character development as the result of the rape. Show whatever you feel comfortable showing and focus on the outcome.
These might help
Last Exit to Brooklyn, Requiem for a Dream- by Hubert Selby Jr.
Jack Ketchum
Wrath James White does really violent shit. I'm not really a fan, but it might help.
A lot depends on the story's POV too.
In Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door, there is a chapter that says something along the lines of What happened next I won't tell. In the context it made it worse than anything he would have actually written.
Here's a good discussion on the use of rape scenes.
A good question to ask is what are you achieving with the rape scene? Tragedy, inner conflict, or some artless shock schlock? You can't have conflict with 0% or 100% of anything. Rape is a good way to have a reader think "oh, no, this is absolutely bad and I have to feel bad about it and angry and vengeful for the people done wrong." It is not a very sophisticated story tool in spite of its effectiveness. Rather than focus on good on-the-body sensations, which is basically a good excuse to use two-dollar words like "plunge" and "vivisect" and "meat-knife," it is probably a good plan to go in understanding or at least defining in your head the character's rationalization of the scene that will affect the scene's significance. To say, the only thing you gain with "all the deets" is some low grade cheap thrills. Not to sound like I'm above or even against graphic rape scenes, just that those aren't my most promising stories shopped around personally and very transparent when reading fiction.
As far as books go, there are plenty of popular rape scenes in fiction. The Dragon Tattoo books and the Alex Cross books do so in a mainstream manner (and do them well,) previously mentioned is Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door which is basically an extended torture/rape scene for its majority, A.M. Holmes The End of Alice, Dennis Cooper's The Marbled Swarm I believe.
I figured I might as well chime in, seeing that I'm kind of known 'round these parts for writing rape scenes.
First thing, whose point of view are you telling the story from? The rapist or the victim? Because that's the first factor for conveying things correctly.
Regardless of whose POV you're telling the story through, you'll want to do research based on the type of rapist your character is. There are threee kinds: Power rapists, Anger rapists, and Sadistic rapists. This link will give you some point forms on all three, but you'll definitely want to research more thorougly on the sorts of behaviour your rapist character might have. It'll really help flesh him out.
If you're telling the story through the POV of the victim, then you'll want to search some rape survivor testimonials. Also keep in mind the kind of rape that's occuring. While rape itself is pretty horrible, a date rape will be a different emotional experience for the victim than a random rape would be.
I think when it really comes to writing the actual scene, however, is to keep the scene more on the body. You dont' want to get too descriptive, because I think that's where the "erotic" nature of things can come out, is when you get too creative with your words. Keep it simple.
I wrote a story a while back called "Grin on the Rocks" about an unstable man with an irrational hatred of women. Throughout the story he goes about his life, but his experiences with women are always troublesome and as the story goes on, his anger builds up to the point that he ends up raping a woman in a park. He was an anger rapist, so I made an attempt to convey his hostility toward women and his buidling social anxiety until he hit the breaking point. Unfortunately, I have pulled the story from the workshop, but you might be able to download one of the LBL's that a commenter posted and you can get the gist of what I tried to do from an early draft of the story.
There's a pretty horrible rape scene in A Clockwork Orange that I recall, though.
Also, there's Death and Other Disappointments by Christina Bergling. It's told from the POV of a victim of a sadistic rapist. It's pretty brutal, which might be what you're going for, so give that a read.
Hope I've helped.
American Psycho. Read it. Study it. Learn it. A blogger wrote of it: 'This book will change you.'
