Re: Thoughts on Shoehorning unrelated content into works of entertainment.
@Chris, the problem with your "leave reality to reality" arguement, is that every author comes from a subjective perspective anyway.
To take one example, JK Rowling has always said her ideal of happiness is a happy family, hence why her ultimate villain, Voldemort is a complete loner, and when good is shown through characters like Narsisa malfoy it comes through their love of their children.
this is pretty inevitable, and there are plenty of books which show the author's opinions or influences, EG I doubt Lord of the rings would be as strong a novel as it was if Tolkien wasnt' wise enough to show the awful consequences of PTSD through war.
Also, there are lots of good stories that exist where an author is playing around with ideas, either to look at an experience different from their own, or to simply say "what if", often with the intention of examining something they think is important.
George Orwell was a socialist, but he recognized what a monster socialist principles could be if taken to an extreme, hence 1984 and animal farm.
Jeen Roddenberry came up with startrek with the idea of both taking old navy cliches, the crusty ship's doctor, the dashing captain into a eutopean far future where the military explored the galaxy and society was equal.
Every author will have an idea, often an idea they want to explore.
So for me, I have no problem authors exploring prejudice, what might be like to be gay or whatever.
I only mind myself when the author, perhaps through a character as author proxy, directly preaches to the reader in an absolutely open way, the way for example Terry Goodkind does with most of Richard's speeches in the sword of truth.
"show don't tell" is one of the most important lessons in writing, and where exploring any idea or theme is concerned, especially social or political ones, this advice counts more than ever.
So, to take Jayde's example, I loved the fact that Robin Hobb's rainwild chronicles had a really awesome gay character, who had to hide his sexuality due to the less than accepting culture he was in, and who as a consequence had fallen under the thumb of a sociopathic, abusive monster.
Then however, when he gets out somewhere else, has a complex journey, and finally meets a decent man with whom he can be openly married and even gives the sociopathic arsehole the boot into the bargain, it's an absolute punch the air moment of awesome.
Contrast this though with one short story I read where the author gave a huge long resitation on "the magic of queer love" vs "the narrow stunted world of hetero experience", a story with little by way of plot other than pretty much saying how much better it was to be gay than straight, and you've entirely lost me, though because of the preaching, rather than the characters or author's sexuality , I was similarly annoyed (if not more so), when reading Ian Flemming's homophobic rants in Gold finger.
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