I sort of despair for literature teachers everywhere

just need to point out that BL is different from the type of literature you're talking about. they don't teach BL in school so i beg to differ. indeed, fictional works are influenced by the author's life, but the context of what the translators' note pointed out is that real life morals do not apply to the BL world.

All creators have brains and personalities and (as far as I know) are human beings living on planet earth in human societies. Therefore it's pretty over-the-top ridiculous (and disturbing if you carefully consider your position, please do) to imply that BL mangakas are creating their stories in some kind of petri dish with no connection to themselves or the real world at all.

To break it down in its simplest form: this story has a college/university setting with the unrequited love trope. We *only* understand this because IRL we have...colleges and universities and we are emotionally developed enough to *understand* the concept of crushes and unrequited love. The characters display different moral understandings of what it means to be faithful to their feelings and honest with themselves--and the only way the writer could put that in and we understand it is because IRL *we* have similar thoughts. Obviously, characters and story are made up, hence fiction; and they things resolve according to certain conventions, hence BL.

Now, you can state that in certain fiction the writers create a different moral framework--but the only way we recognise that difference is by *comparing* it to ours in the real world. It is perfectly *valid* to question that choice, to reason about it. If JK Rowling had created a Harry Potter series in which Voldemort was supposed to be the hero with whom we identify, and Harry Potter the villain, it would be perfectly valid to question that choice, even if Rowling said, "Boo boo, your real life morals don't apply, nyaa." And that's a story about WIZARDS. BL features gay/bi/trans persons--all of whom exist!

Stories are stories are stories are stories. They may have different tropes and require different approaches but human creations are human creations. Whether it's fairy tales or BL comics they *all* reflect--to varying degrees--something about the creators, the readers and the social contexts from which they spring. To deny this is to deny their humanity and ours. Your position is, no doubt, precisely WHY so many LGBTQ person have a problem with yaoi--it's this reaaally over the top erasure of not only the group depicted (who exist IRL heeellloooo how do you even know what gay/bi/trans is otherwise) but the writers. It's icky, please stop lol.

Your lit teachers are giving you life skills, y'all. Plllleeease don't think the techniques learnt are only for "real literature" like Shakespeare and Kawabata Yasunari. (Obv you adjust where appropriate but the general approach holds.)

Having state all that, does this mean we are not allowed, or are somehow bad persons for liking fiction that doesn't have the right kind of morals, as we define it? No. Certainly, romance and erotica have a loooooooong history of exploring the dark and taboo.