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Jun. 12th, 2020 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stardust_rifleOkay, so I finished Maps.
(I actually finished it a month ago, but I haven't gotten around to making this post.)
I haven't read any of the little one-shots, but I have read the entire 69-chapter work, and...
I liked it as a work of creative writing. It was very well-written and managed to evoke Emotions.
More, potentially-spoiler-y thoughts below the cut. CW for very, very brief discussion of suicide, psychiatric abuse, and partner abuse in the context of fiction.
> My emotions in regard to the representation of mental illness are very mixed. It doesn't really perpetuate any of the really harmful stuff I'd usually tear into a work for, but none of the portrayals felt...real? They all had a sort of "outsider looking in" vibe, much more concerned with how a disorder looks than how it works. I share multiple diagnoses with the characters, and nothing really felt real. It was all very Hollywood.
(And there's also that fun thing where comorbidity doesn't exist, but I digress)
> In contrast, the portrayal of Ruki's abusive relationship was...it was mirror-like. It was an utterly masterful depiction of emotional abuse, where E wasn't the cause of Ruki's attempted suicide, but he was definitely a factor, and it was devoid of Hollywood stuff.
> Kyo honestly has utterly no business being as well-adjusted as he is. Let's be honest, violently abusive parents immediately followed up by a lifetime spent in psychiatric institutions does not a healthy human make.
> Kai's existence bugs me in a very visceral way. He doesn't have any backstory, any depth, he exists purely to be a light in the darkness whose death is a reminder that shit has gotten worse. Which I normally wouldn't mind- all of the other characters besides Ruki/Kyo/Uruha don't get any real explanation or backstory, but there's something that just bugs me about the way he's written, the way he doesn't seem to exist as a whole person, but as a companion for other characters.
> Also, the institution is just...straight up bad at their jobs. I'd think that "check patient's tongues to see if they've taken their sleeping pills" is a thing that institutions would do? And also potentially recognize that Aoi is at a very high risk of suicide after Uruha and Die leave? And maybe, potentially, put him on suicide watch? So he can't arrange for the only other two patients on his floor to be out on the grounds and then hang himself with his shirt?
> I have a feeling that this fic could be a very good work about psychiatric abuse and how the whole system's kinda fucked? There's a lot of very good subtext about how "crazy people" aren't taken seriously when they say that they're being abused, especially with Uruha's arc. There's a lot of stuff bubbling below the surface in this fic that is never really scratched because that's not the point the author wanted to make, and that's fine, but I can't help but feel like there was some missed potential there.
> HOLY SHIT IS URUHA'S ARC WELL DONE. You learn his family situation and why Uruha is the way he is very intimately, without anyone ever looking at the camera and telling you what his Deal is.
> It's a shame that none of the other characters (especially Shinya) get this kind of arc. I really wanted to learn what was up with everyone else. Maybe that's in the one-shots?
> I really liked what they did with Kyo's sister. Recognizing that while she may or may not be a delusion, she was important to Kyo, and her "death" affected him seriously and that it doesn't matter whether she was real in an objective sense, because she was part of Kyo's experience of reality- That's good!!! I like this!!! More this please if you're writing psychotic characters!!!
(I actually finished it a month ago, but I haven't gotten around to making this post.)
I haven't read any of the little one-shots, but I have read the entire 69-chapter work, and...
I liked it as a work of creative writing. It was very well-written and managed to evoke Emotions.
More, potentially-spoiler-y thoughts below the cut. CW for very, very brief discussion of suicide, psychiatric abuse, and partner abuse in the context of fiction.
> My emotions in regard to the representation of mental illness are very mixed. It doesn't really perpetuate any of the really harmful stuff I'd usually tear into a work for, but none of the portrayals felt...real? They all had a sort of "outsider looking in" vibe, much more concerned with how a disorder looks than how it works. I share multiple diagnoses with the characters, and nothing really felt real. It was all very Hollywood.
(And there's also that fun thing where comorbidity doesn't exist, but I digress)
> In contrast, the portrayal of Ruki's abusive relationship was...it was mirror-like. It was an utterly masterful depiction of emotional abuse, where E wasn't the cause of Ruki's attempted suicide, but he was definitely a factor, and it was devoid of Hollywood stuff.
> Kyo honestly has utterly no business being as well-adjusted as he is. Let's be honest, violently abusive parents immediately followed up by a lifetime spent in psychiatric institutions does not a healthy human make.
> Kai's existence bugs me in a very visceral way. He doesn't have any backstory, any depth, he exists purely to be a light in the darkness whose death is a reminder that shit has gotten worse. Which I normally wouldn't mind- all of the other characters besides Ruki/Kyo/Uruha don't get any real explanation or backstory, but there's something that just bugs me about the way he's written, the way he doesn't seem to exist as a whole person, but as a companion for other characters.
> Also, the institution is just...straight up bad at their jobs. I'd think that "check patient's tongues to see if they've taken their sleeping pills" is a thing that institutions would do? And also potentially recognize that Aoi is at a very high risk of suicide after Uruha and Die leave? And maybe, potentially, put him on suicide watch? So he can't arrange for the only other two patients on his floor to be out on the grounds and then hang himself with his shirt?
> I have a feeling that this fic could be a very good work about psychiatric abuse and how the whole system's kinda fucked? There's a lot of very good subtext about how "crazy people" aren't taken seriously when they say that they're being abused, especially with Uruha's arc. There's a lot of stuff bubbling below the surface in this fic that is never really scratched because that's not the point the author wanted to make, and that's fine, but I can't help but feel like there was some missed potential there.
> HOLY SHIT IS URUHA'S ARC WELL DONE. You learn his family situation and why Uruha is the way he is very intimately, without anyone ever looking at the camera and telling you what his Deal is.
> It's a shame that none of the other characters (especially Shinya) get this kind of arc. I really wanted to learn what was up with everyone else. Maybe that's in the one-shots?
> I really liked what they did with Kyo's sister. Recognizing that while she may or may not be a delusion, she was important to Kyo, and her "death" affected him seriously and that it doesn't matter whether she was real in an objective sense, because she was part of Kyo's experience of reality- That's good!!! I like this!!! More this please if you're writing psychotic characters!!!
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Date: 2020-06-13 05:51 am (UTC)That aside, Kai's flat 'arc' and Aoi's arc both bugged me a hell of a lot for probably the same reasons you listed, I just couldn't put them into words before. IDK, the deaths bugged me, but I'm supposed to be in bed right now, not commenting on fic analysis XD