Fantasy Stories Galore!: The Art of Taboo

My dad has a 1960’s version of Romeo and Juliet that he wants to show his high school English class when they read the ever famous Shakespearean play. It’s a British film though, and the funny thing about British films, even in the 1960’s, is how not shy they are about nudity. While American actors of that era and before could hardly even be shown sleeping in the same bed, British producers did not even try to strategically hide anything. You might see a nude guy mostly from behind, but everything is showing, and the girl is not shy about flashing her breasts for the camera.

The acting is superb. You would almost never think it was a film done in the ‘60’s. The actors dive into their roles completely, making the old Shakespeare text come to life so completely that you can’t help but enjoy it, even if you’re not into reading Shakespeare-style language (which, by the way, is not Old English, but actually Late Middle English). Anyway, because of one questionable scene with flashing breasts and buttocks, my dad hasn’t been able to get the film approved. So I got to open it in my film editing program and make it kosher for American high school students. That was fun, getting flashed a few times while trying to figure out exactly where to cut it, all the while trying to keep all the of the dialogue and background music consistent enough so that it’s not obvious a scene, or a few bits of a scene, have been cut.

Romeo and Juliet, a Paramount picture and Bhe Film,

Franco Zeffirelli’s production of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”

Anyway, my progress with editing this film for my dad made me think about something I’d learned about in art school, a method that drives me nuts if it isn’t used properly in movies, television shows, and even comedy routines. It is called The Art of Taboo. If you look at the definition of the word taboo, that word explains a lot what this method in filmmaking and storytelling might entail.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a taboo is "a social or religious custom prohibiting or forbidding discussion of a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing." As an adjective or verb, taboo is something "prohibited or restricted by social custom," or something that is "place[d] under prohibition." The word came into the English language in the late 18th century, "from Tongan tabu 'set apart, forbidden'; introduced into English by Captain Cook." (http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/taboo?q=taboo)

Basically, the Art of Taboo is the ability to hint at certain topics, which may or may not be touchy with a lot of people, without actually explicitly mentioning them or showing them. This may seem like an old-fashioned cop-out, but if this method is used artfully and tastefully, some of those awkward situation and/or topics suddenly become ten times funnier. Once someone actually comes out and says it, the joke is dead, the mood brutally killed. If actors on stage or even comedians just started blurting certain things out all over the place, not only is it not really funny, but the show cannot be taken seriously, especially if the audience begins to feel perverted just by continuing to watch. In this way, using the Art of Taboo in strategic places, i.e. leaning more towards the morality of issues, doesn’t have to be boring or spoil the fun at all. Stories can have those funny moments, but then they can get serious again as well, as both the characters and the audience can move along on their journey.

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Think of it like having an invisible window between your audience and the taboo. You can look, but don't touch. The question is knowing where that line - or window pane - is, knowing what to leave in and what to cut out or simply allude to. If too much is cut out, then you, as the storyteller, will come across to the audience as being too timid. If that happens, you will have dragged your audience out of the story forcefully in the direction opposite what the lack of the Art of Taboo would do. Dragging your audience out of the story for any reason is bad because you may lose them altogether.

One example of the use of the Art of Taboo can be seen in many movies and television shows PG 13 or lower that involve romance. For instance, take Smallville. It is a highly passionate show with passionate characters. Yet, even when you have scenes when various characters are lip-locked, or even when they are in bed together, notice that only enough of the scene is actually shown to give the viewers the idea of what is going on, or what is about to happen. That little hint is all the viewers need. After that, people’s imaginations can run as wild as they want to, as they have been given plenty of material to work with.

Ollie and Lois, a screenshot from Smallville, Season 6

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Having a middling to low rating for movies and television shows, instead of aiming for a really high rating just because you don’t want to be restricted in what you show, actually attracts more viewers that include many different types of people. Just because people are adults that don’t have movie restrictions that apply to them anymore doesn’t mean that everyone wants to watch rated R movies. But if the ratings are kept more in check, more people find that they can enjoy the story, and they still get the gist of the more touchy and violent scenes without being shown everything. By using the art of taboo, some of these scenes can become a mystical or mysterious experience for the viewers and/or readers.

As a writer myself, I find myself struggling sometimes to find the proper balance. Part of that balance is knowing who your audience is. Even though I want a broad range of people to read my series, DA Shadow Phantom, I am aiming it primarily at teenagers. Sometimes the hardest challenge is working with other people on a single project, getting them all to work towards the same goal. Everyone has different preferences and ideas. Even working with one other person can be a challenge, as I am collaborating on this series with a close friend of mine. We both are going on our own journeys with this project, just as our characters are.

When you have two people working on the same story with wildly different ideas of how scenes should go, knowing where that fine line is as far as The Art of Taboo goes can be quite tricky. Especially if you have some characters that are highly passionate by nature. As the main editor as well as a writer of DA Shadow Phantom, I’m constantly trying to figure out how much to leave to give the readers accurate information about the characters, let take out enough so that a wider range of readers can enjoy the story. Despite the different ideas my friend and I have, our journeys still have to coincide enough to make the experience of reading the story a magical cohesive flow instead of a bunch of jumbled ideas. That way, the readers don't get ripped viciously out of the euphoric flow of the story; they won't have to miss out on the special moments, even if some of them are merely hinted at, like some exotic dream seen from a distance.

Happy travels!