The thing about cannibalism

I’ve been reading books in the horror genre recently, fascinated by what makes something horrifying or horrible, and what keeps readers reading. 

To that end, I just finished Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, translated by Sarah Moses.

Warning: if the idea of cannibalism is upsetting, you may want to skip four paragraphs to the one that starts “So”.

I had to put the book down for a bit after the first chapter because the premise was so disturbing: a virus, fatal to humans, is discovered to be carried by animals, so humans destroy all animals and now produce human meat for consumption.

Even writing that sentence makes my stomach turn. Clearly, the cannibalism taboo is so ingrained that it is almost impossible to conceive… And yet, this book shows us that it is not too far between “that could never happen” and “it’s happening.”

(By the way, the book was originally published in 2017, so a world drastically changed by a virus was still a thing of fantasy when the writer came up with the idea.)

The author talks about the points she wanted to make with her book in this interview, if you’re interested in why she wrote this book. But what I’m taking away from this book is that she really leaned into the uncomfortable thing. She went there – she went all the way there. And that’s what makes the book good. She doesn’t just gesture at it; it’s not a plot point or a side character; it’s not something that happened to somebody once; it’s the whole story. The reader can’t forget for a moment that this book is about producing meat – human meat – for consumption by humans. It is more than plausible; it is real. 

So – and this is where you can jump back in if you wanted to avoid being disturbed or disgusted – how can you really lean in, all the way in, to your subject? Whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, have you made the uncomfortable thing just a blip on the reader’s radar, or is it the premise of the piece? Just when you think you’ve covered it, can you go further? Don’t spare your reader. Don’t wave it away. Dig in. Be in it. All the way in. 

That’s what makes horror horrible and horrifying. And that’s what makes good writing really good.

What have you read (or written!) that’s beyond uncomfortable?