Trigger Warnings & Other Pre-reading Info:
GENERAL:
Puerto Paz is a litmus test for extremism. As I will explain in my new blog , I see 4 main Cardinal directions of political ideology, and Puerto Paz takes all 4 ideologies in the direction of their dystopian extremes in parts 1 through 4, before revealing a semi-utopian, politically moderate Puerto Paz in part 5 where people who lean in any of the 4 ideology directions can live relatively harmoniously. Readers who are extreme order-conservatives will hate part 1 because it criticizes their ideology, but will love part 3 because it criticizes the ideology of people with an opposing ideology. Extreme order-liberals will hate part 3 but love parts 1 and 4. Extreme freedom conservatives will hate part 4. Extreme freedom liberals will probably hate the end of part 2. Moderates will find parts 1 through 4 more or less equally dystopian, and part 5 semi-utopian.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: I'll be honest, I grew up in a time when the only trigger warnings given were movie age-appropriate ratings (G, R, X, etc.) and parental warning stickers for explicit content on the back of music albums. Other than that, you were expected to just deal with content you found repulsive yourself, without any forewarning. I don't fully understand what content does or does not necessitate a trigger warning, but will do my best here, with a general warning followed by specific warnings (that may contain minor spoilers):
A. In general, the main character's best friend (Dylan) is an antihero bordering on, or turning into, a villain. He sometimes uses racial slurs to retaliate against POC who have upset him. He has some redeeming qualities, enough to justify the main character (a POC) being best friends with him at the start of the story, but he uses misogynistic and homophobic language too. He is a 17 year old, with an abusive father and deceased mother, raised in an extreme order-conservative culture, so unless you're a MAGA "alpha" bro, you're probably going to dislike him at least a little. That is intentional...His culture has regressed relative to real life 2020's culture , and his personality is based largely on my own high school experiences in the late 1980s and early 1990s in small town Midwest. Especially when I was a freshman, some (not all) of the kids around me talked like that from time to time. I felt like there was a shift away from that behavior with each successive class/year, probably due to the rise of rap and hip-hop and increased representation of POC, homosexuals, and women in media, but the language, usually couched in attempts at humor, were prevalent. I felt that the order-conservative dystopian region in the story would regress to that type of language and behavior, so it would seem normal to Dylan.
B. Racism: the main character is black, and he does experience racism and racial slurs, especially in the conservative dystopias. This is used in the story to show how different extremist dystopias would treat a POC, and how a moderate semi-utopia would.
C. Misogyny: especially in the conservative dystopian regions, in small doses, is similarly used to show how dystopian the extremist cultures are. It is less severe than the Handmaid's Tale, but it is there.
D. Anti-LGTB language and attitudes, in small doses, is similarly used to show how dystopian the extremist cultures are. Conversely, the main character's sister is lesbian, and she is shown in a mostly positive light.
E. Violence is typically very indirect and not graphically described. We know the main character's best friend is abused by his father and has bruises from that abuse. A flashback touches on the main character's bad, verbal-only, experience with that man, but doesn't go too in depth. A jerk threatens the boys at a restaurant and chases them out the door, but they escape before he can get to a rifle in his pickup truck. A flashback touches on the main character being shot at by a hidden gunman for being in the "wrong" neighborhood for a black boy, but escaping unharmed. There is a one-punch fist fight at a fraternity in part 4.
F. Sex & sexual abuse: it is hinted at, but never confirmed nor explicitly described, that an ex-girlfriend of the main characters may have been sexually assaulted prior to their relationship. The main character's sister notes that men in the order Conservative region are monsters behind closed doors, but doesn't go into explicit detail. The main character has sex, but it isn't explicitly described other than 1 brief experience where his girlfriend initiates, and he experiences erectile dysfunction due to his mental state at the time, so it is noted that he performs oral sex on her, but it isn't described in detail. My editor suggested expanding on romantic scenes, but I refused because that would distract from the main themes of the book, and go too far off into the weeds.
Puerto Paz is a litmus test for extremism. As I will explain in my new blog , I see 4 main Cardinal directions of political ideology, and Puerto Paz takes all 4 ideologies in the direction of their dystopian extremes in parts 1 through 4, before revealing a semi-utopian, politically moderate Puerto Paz in part 5 where people who lean in any of the 4 ideology directions can live relatively harmoniously. Readers who are extreme order-conservatives will hate part 1 because it criticizes their ideology, but will love part 3 because it criticizes the ideology of people with an opposing ideology. Extreme order-liberals will hate part 3 but love parts 1 and 4. Extreme freedom conservatives will hate part 4. Extreme freedom liberals will probably hate the end of part 2. Moderates will find parts 1 through 4 more or less equally dystopian, and part 5 semi-utopian.
TRIGGER WARNINGS: I'll be honest, I grew up in a time when the only trigger warnings given were movie age-appropriate ratings (G, R, X, etc.) and parental warning stickers for explicit content on the back of music albums. Other than that, you were expected to just deal with content you found repulsive yourself, without any forewarning. I don't fully understand what content does or does not necessitate a trigger warning, but will do my best here, with a general warning followed by specific warnings (that may contain minor spoilers):
A. In general, the main character's best friend (Dylan) is an antihero bordering on, or turning into, a villain. He sometimes uses racial slurs to retaliate against POC who have upset him. He has some redeeming qualities, enough to justify the main character (a POC) being best friends with him at the start of the story, but he uses misogynistic and homophobic language too. He is a 17 year old, with an abusive father and deceased mother, raised in an extreme order-conservative culture, so unless you're a MAGA "alpha" bro, you're probably going to dislike him at least a little. That is intentional...His culture has regressed relative to real life 2020's culture , and his personality is based largely on my own high school experiences in the late 1980s and early 1990s in small town Midwest. Especially when I was a freshman, some (not all) of the kids around me talked like that from time to time. I felt like there was a shift away from that behavior with each successive class/year, probably due to the rise of rap and hip-hop and increased representation of POC, homosexuals, and women in media, but the language, usually couched in attempts at humor, were prevalent. I felt that the order-conservative dystopian region in the story would regress to that type of language and behavior, so it would seem normal to Dylan.
B. Racism: the main character is black, and he does experience racism and racial slurs, especially in the conservative dystopias. This is used in the story to show how different extremist dystopias would treat a POC, and how a moderate semi-utopia would.
C. Misogyny: especially in the conservative dystopian regions, in small doses, is similarly used to show how dystopian the extremist cultures are. It is less severe than the Handmaid's Tale, but it is there.
D. Anti-LGTB language and attitudes, in small doses, is similarly used to show how dystopian the extremist cultures are. Conversely, the main character's sister is lesbian, and she is shown in a mostly positive light.
E. Violence is typically very indirect and not graphically described. We know the main character's best friend is abused by his father and has bruises from that abuse. A flashback touches on the main character's bad, verbal-only, experience with that man, but doesn't go too in depth. A jerk threatens the boys at a restaurant and chases them out the door, but they escape before he can get to a rifle in his pickup truck. A flashback touches on the main character being shot at by a hidden gunman for being in the "wrong" neighborhood for a black boy, but escaping unharmed. There is a one-punch fist fight at a fraternity in part 4.
F. Sex & sexual abuse: it is hinted at, but never confirmed nor explicitly described, that an ex-girlfriend of the main characters may have been sexually assaulted prior to their relationship. The main character's sister notes that men in the order Conservative region are monsters behind closed doors, but doesn't go into explicit detail. The main character has sex, but it isn't explicitly described other than 1 brief experience where his girlfriend initiates, and he experiences erectile dysfunction due to his mental state at the time, so it is noted that he performs oral sex on her, but it isn't described in detail. My editor suggested expanding on romantic scenes, but I refused because that would distract from the main themes of the book, and go too far off into the weeds.
© 2020 Jefferey J. Reese - All rights reserved.
