Possible to lift a human by the spine?

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be frank

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Okay, once again, it's your story. Do whatever you want -- no one will stop you. I realise my decades of professional experience can't compete with a single four-year-old article (whose optimism about ocular transplants is on par with "We'll have a vaccine for Covid-19 within a month!" and "We'll all be in driver-less cars by 2022!"). Honestly, I should tell my friends who are working on the bionic eye project that full eye transplants are imminent so they should stop wasting their time.

Anyway.

I have a book to write, so I'm out of here. Best of luck with it.
 
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Deepthought

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Your responses are much appreciated, hope I didn't come across as bullheaded and ungrateful. I'll try to implement whatever I can of what is realistic. There are a lot of other interrelated factors that might make some things unfeasible and thus reliant on things that haven't been done yet, but again, will be avoided wherever possible.
 

frimble3

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I was looking for a shorthand for the thing in people's heads that make them stay in cults, abusive marriages, drink the Kool-Aid, and sign their children up for the same.
And I suspect a child would be very susceptible to that, even with severe punishments. There seems to be no shortage of real-life abusers who get away with it for years.
 

frimble3

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Not sure who the target audience is. The story takes place over the course of several years so I thought it would go in YA, but a lot of people read that these days.


It's done to a child to work with the dynamics of how a child befriends a criminal's children and conflicts that ensue with those relationships, as well as other parties involved.
It seems to be a story of how a monster kidnaps a child, and turns the child into a monster, just like him. Don't mess around with YA. Go straight to Adult Fiction.
 

mccardey

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Cutting off fingers? Or crushing them (like in the hammer scene in Casino)?
Casino (I looked it up because you said 'scene') is a movie isn't it? I think when you're writing a book, you're better off letting the reader manage their own internal depiction of physical abuse - esp where a kid is the target. Ireally don't think you want to be too graphic, unless it's a genre that people go to actually expecting and being okay with reading about graphic abuse.
 

Deepthought

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Thanks for all the replies. It's really made me reconsider and think about things. It seems like the sci-fi parts aren't really needed and more importantly, are uninteresting. Some adaptions can be made but the overall story remains the same.

I wouldn't say the boy becomes a monster, but the morality and such becomes questionable. He attempts to reconcile his parents teachings with what he faces. There's also the cat and mouse theme in play, where one knows something, but the other knows they know, etc. A few others.

Trying to cut down on the graphic depictions of punishment and replace them with psychologically oriented ones. For example, the boy doesn't like to ask for help (but does so in ways that aren't construed as such) or show weakness, so the man puts a mic fitted band around his neck. The boy covers it for the appearance of normalcy (turtleneck?) but the band will give him a shock every evening for each word he speaks in the day. He can't write notes because that would be admitting that something is wrong, but he still wants to talk to someone.
 

mccardey

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Trying to cut down on the graphic depictions of punishment and replace them with psychologically oriented ones. For example, the boy doesn't like to ask for help (but does so in ways that aren't construed as such) or show weakness, so the man puts a mic fitted band around his neck. The boy covers it for the appearance of normalcy (turtleneck?) but the band will give him a shock every evening for each word he speaks in the day.
That's - pretty graphic. I mean, your character is still literally torturing a child. If that's what you're writing, you'll need to be very aware of why you're writing that, what makes it necessary, because you're asking you readers to go down a path they might not be prepared to sign up for. And again, I think, it's going to be a very hard sell.

It's the graphic nature that creates the problem for you, is my opinion.
 
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be frank

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Trying to cut down on the graphic depictions of punishment and replace them with psychologically oriented ones. <snip> the man puts a mic fitted band around his neck <snip> the band will give him a shock every evening for each word he speaks

Mate, you understand that's still physical torture, right?
 

Deepthought

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My main rationale with this method was that it provides a choice for the MC, physical vs psychological, rather than outright physical. It shows that if the MC would rather be able to talk and take the shock, the psychological is more painful to him. I do get your point though, and other methods would be preferable. I'd like to set things up in a manner where the MC has a choice of a rock and a hard place as so to reveal his mindset.
 

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I think we're done here.
 
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