Terry, you raise some good points.
Maybe part of the problem is that culturally, women have been marginalized for so long that it's hard to appreciate an honest effort by an author to find beauty in the death of a woman. In that sense, Toc is right: we have been tinted by our culture.
I'd like to ask everyone on both sides of the death-fic argument to please remain calm and not be offended by each-other, even though we disagree. We should also be wary of how we are interpreting the statements made here: science shows that text-only communication is not perfect; we miss out on tone and facial expression, and our own mood dictates how we read a thing.
Was this thread started as an attack, a plea, or a neutral discussion? I haven't a clue, but it has opened the door for valid discussion.
