The author seems to just focus on writing provocatively...but he got the entire concept of trigger warnings wrong, which means that he's mad about...something that he can't even define correctly.

I've been through a lot these past few months. It's hard for me to wake up in the morning, it's hard for me to get through the day, because I experienced a traumatic event this year. Of course, there are many things that make me see horrifying visions, lose sleep, dissociate, start crying, or just want to get up and leave 'normal' conversations. The thing with the anti-trigger people is that they don't understand the kind of living hell people who have been through traumatic events or have PTSD are facing. The event in itself is one thing...but the true horror is living, knowing that tomorrow you're going to think about the same things, and your life is still unalterably fucked and nothing will ever be ok like it was. Your entire world is shaken for good.

It is not worth it to come to class and try to get some work done, get your mind off things, only to discover everyone's going to discuss the aesthetics or thought process of something that has happened to you. I was studying Hamlet the year I had faced another traumatic event. It was fucked up. I would sit in class and brood. And let me tell you, Hamlet, or any play, can never compare to real life anyway -- as much as literature's core function (even more than it is to be 'triggering', perhaps) is to unveil and discuss the human condition. I wondered the same thing Hamlet did: if I faced the murderer, would I take revenge? Hamlet's not left me any richer, or given me a text to relate to. I just remember it bringing up unpleasant memories a lot, and being overall quite disappointing.

My point is not to degrade Hamlet because it brought up something unsavory. My point is, shoving something down somebody's throat when a) they cannot deal with simple things in life because they have been through significant trauma, and b) they are in no position to appreciate it, is clearly a pointless exercise. The advocates for no trigger warnings are mostly belligerent, forceful, and arguing for an abstract merit that literature has (ironically, not having become any more empathetic themselves) to help those 'triggered' become better human beans.

Would I leave a class for something that 'triggers' me or makes me cry? I do it anyway. I have to. I can't focus if I'm emotionally overcome, no matter how great the lesson. I don't want to appreciate violence anyway.

Long rant, but a lot of these issues are abstract to people who don't understand the feeling. I would love to be a whole and uncaring human again, but I can't. I've tried. That's why I don't mind 'missing out' because of a trigger warning.