a horror story's protagonist is a horror fiction writer (very meta). the protagonist writer realizes his writings are inspiring / causing "real" acts of violence in the world the fictional writer inhabits. but the writer cannot stop writing, because it is his source of income: he needs to eat. (horror trope: you are helpless to prevent bad.)
inspired by Stephen King, who was wealthy enough to cease publishing his novel Rage about a school shooting after reports that it inspired real school shootings. but what if he weren't?
the sequel:
the fictional horror writer thinks he has found a loophole to prevent his works from inducing violence: let his fictional perpetrators of violence be female. (he now co-authors with a woman in order to depict women accurately.)
this reflects how, in our real world, school shootings are disproportionately committed by males, and (therefore) although Stephen King has ceased publishing Rage, he has continued to make money off of Carrie, also a story of mass murder at a school by a troubled (female) student.
but back in the world of our fictional horror writer, things of course don't go as planned, because horror:
a "successful" women's rights movement happens in the fictional world of the horror writer, equalizing social conditions between men and women. women become just as likely to commit school shootings as men -- just as likely to become inspired to violence by fiction. perhaps the horror writer and his equally credited female co-author contributed to the success of the women's rights movement in their fictional world. (horror trope: you are your own undoing.)
(according to Wikipedia, Stephen King's wife helped him write Carrie from the perspective of a woman. she received dedication but not co-authorship.)
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