On the flip side, as a writer you never know what will be harmful for others, and just because someone feels hurt or is triggered by your work doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. I don’t like the idea of certain subjects being “off limits” either as a writer or a reader, and I think we should allow ourselves to write about messy, difficult, and painful situations, including sympathetic characters engaging in acts of self-harm or acting in unethical or even abusive ways. Armed with this foreknowledge, the onus is on the reader to decide if this material might be harmful to them.

One of the main themes of Truth of the Divine is trauma, and it contains depictions of post-traumatic stress, depression, addiction, alcoholism, domestic violence, and a wide smattering of manifestations of mental illness such as panic attacks. The book includes depictions of suicidal ideation, suicidal planning, attempted suicide, completed suicide, and violent self-harm. The book also contains depictions of racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, racially motivated violence, anti-Semitism, and a few incidences of racial slurs. While the book doesn’t contain anything that I would consider sexual violence, it does contain some uncomfortable sexual situations (and no, I don’t mean with aliens, sorry—not yet, anyway).

I include this warning not because I want to dissuade anyone from reading but to inform the reader of content they may not otherwise anticipate, especially given the relatively light tone of the first installment of this series. If indeed you do feel like any of the above might be harmful to you, I suggest you postpone reading this book until such a time that that is no longer the case.

THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF Human Rights

WHEREAS disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

WHEREAS the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

WHEREAS a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

NOW, THEREFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

United Nations General Assembly in Paris