"There are times that I don't want to situate a taboo thing in a moral network." Sierra Simone, in a great discussion in Bonkers Romance podcast

Last week I was listening to this episode of the Bonkers Romance podcast by Jenny Nordback and Melody Carlisle: https://www.bonkersromance.com/episodes/2-spider-shibari, which has Sierra Simone as a guest. Before they get to the book recap, they have a great little discussion about writing romance that is boundary pushing and I thought Sierra Simone voiced some thoughts that were really interesting. I did an amateur transcribe job here of a section I particularly found interesting:

And then, and I'm only telling this to you guys because I trust you...there are times that I don't want to situate like a taboo thing in a moral network. Like, sometimes I kind of want it to stay immoral because I think that some stories when you open them up and you start reading you know and the author knows--everyone knows that you've stepped over a threshold and in that threshold just passed it you're inside of a contained alternate universe, right? Where you can have moral flexibility, where you can try on different scenarios that you would never do in real life you know like I would never recommend that anyone actually date a sociopath who only keeps you around to play chess games....

But, in a book...in that book you're in this sort of moral holodeck, Right? Where you can just act out these scenarios and sometimes I don't even want to make it moral or just like emotionally justifiable, I just want to explore. I just want to get on the roller coaster and see where it takes me.

There's a lot I love about the passage including this phrasing of situating taboo things in moral networks--which is a cool term for a thing we see a lot of authors in the taboo space doing (Simone included) where there's this premise that is clearly problematic/boundary-pushing/whatever. (E.g. a priest having dominating sex with a vulnerable congregant). And maybe the author is never fully endorsing the morality of what the characters do, but the author does certain things to make it more morally palatable (doing a lot to present her as having power and enthusiastically consenting, etc. You could fill an essay with the techniques used to do this). It's not exactly making the thing moral, but just building that framework where we can be comfortable in the context of the story.

And then I really like the main thrust of the quoted passages saying...all that work is cool and good. But sometimes, what if we just didn't?

Any thoughts? About authors situating dark or taboo elements in a moral network... or not doing so?