Leave my (*) book alone!

Not much impact anymore... it does become annoying in conversation or reading when it's used every three words.

I bet there would be an even bigger market for the Dirty Reader, which would scan for euphemisms and turn them into the equivalent profanities.

clintl said:

I bet there would be an even bigger market for the Dirty Reader, which would scan for euphemisms and turn them into the equivalent profanities.

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I was just thinking that. I've read some books which wimped out and had "Tarnation!" or even "_____", with the text informing me in subdued, maiden-aunt tones that the word was "an obscenity". I'd be fine with an app that filled in those blanks, or changed "blithering" to something that didn't sound like Captain Haddock was saying it.

clintl said:

I bet there would be an even bigger market for the Dirty Reader, which would scan for euphemisms and turn them into the equivalent profanities.

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Want.

Well, it would rob my MC of his voice. He swears a lot--current count this draft is 245 F-bombs. It's appropriate for his character, and I think a lot would be lost in a sanitized version.

Idly wondering how it handles things like "pussy willow" and "cock-a-doodle-doo"...

And now I'm wondering how filthy a scene I can come up with that doesn't use an "unclean" word... Heh. There goes my evening!

Can we make one that just finds-replaces words in ebooks? We could have a party with that.

Censorship of any kind sticks in my craw. (And, being a human, that's really inconvenient... I'm not even supposed to have one of those things.)

"Cleaning" books like that... it's like those outfits that edit content out of movies to make them "family" films. They weren't made to be clean family films. They were made to be what they were made to be. Anyone who doesn't want that... why do they have to watch that movie anyway? If I don't like gore, I don't watch gore - I don't sit around hoping someone edits the gore out just so I can watch that horror movie everyone's talking about, when there are a metric ton of titles out there without gore for me to watch. It's catering to this false idea that one size of entertainment ought to fit everyone. It doesn't work like that. You can edit and ban and censor all you want, but you can't force the whole world into your likeness.

There are plenty of books written for those of gentler sensibilities. People are free to read them - just as I'm free to read stuff those people would object to. (For now, at least...)

JMHBEO (just my humble badly-expressed opinion)...

As for how sensitive it is, I keep thinking of my experiences with forums run by, shall we say, certain sheltered individuals who set the profanity filters on high. You couldn't discuss certain names or authors without ridiculous workarounds - you'd have to change it to Emily "Richard"inson if you didn't want your post flagged.

(And that alternate app sounds like a blast, and a sure-fire best-seller! Let us know when you want backers - I want in on the ground floor of this one...)

I, too, want to work on that app. While I can understand it, I've never liked that kind of scrub & replace censorship, in movies or books.

If the book offends you, STOP READING IT.

I'm reminded of the fairly recent Huck Finn edits. Yeah, if you want to kill the soul of a book or a story, remove everything that offends you first. And have a nice day.

Vince524 said:

According to the man behind the app, Jared Maughan, “The idea for Clean Reader started at our dinner table after our daughter’s first exposure to books with swear words.

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I just don't see the point of this. I don't believe in sheltering kids from the real world. Which, unless she stays hidden inside the house, will experience and likely run up against those swear words.

I believe in equipping kids to deal with the real world.

Filigree said:

If the book offends you, STOP READING IT.

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Yes. Or if it just bores you.

coming soon: clean art connoisseur

guaranteed to slap a black bar over tits, ass and any pink parts.

Marian Perera said:

I was just thinking that. I've read some books which wimped out and had "Tarnation!" or even "_____", with the text informing me in subdued, maiden-aunt tones that the word was "an obscenity". I'd be fine with an app that filled in those blanks, or changed "blithering" to something that didn't sound like Captain Haddock was saying it.

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Captain Haddock never said "blithering." His favourite minced oath was "blistering barnacles!"

My dad uses "blithering" loosely. Especially the combination of "blithering ninny."

I definitely disagree with it. Esp. as these kinds of auto censors are always rife with false positives. The only way to ACTUALLY clean up a book would be to have a human editor do it.

Xelebes said:

Captain Haddock never said "blithering."

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I know. I was just using it as an example of something he might say.

Much as I like his creative swears, the Tintinworld is not one I want to be reminded of when I'm reading about Westeros.

This app is dumb on many levels.

But...it's also voluntary, so I can't really get too steamed about it.

Zoombie said:

This app is dumb on many levels.

But...it's also voluntary, so I can't really get too steamed about it.

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It's voluntary to a degree... it can also be used to further shelter/isolate people whose communities already try to cut them off from the "evil" outer world.

Even in books, they can't escape...

I'm reading All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren and an early subplot is a small Southern town choosing not to hire a better construction company to build the local school thanks to a scare campaign to convince the townsfolk that the company would bring in mostly black construction workers from the city who would earn more money than the locals.

Being a 1930's redneck town in the US South, you can imagine in what terms they describe the construction workers and the narrator when he tries to defend them. Having them call the narrator a "Black person-lover" is simply glossing over a reality many know and the author tries to convey.

Vince524 said:

What we need is an app that reads books to you in the voice of a famous person.

Robert Di Niro reading the Harry Potter Novels!

Christopher Walker reading a Nora Roberts Romance!!

Fran Drescher reading A Stephen King Novel!

Yoda reading erotica!!!

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Sylvester Stallone reading Infinite Jest.

Shunning controversy stifles potential teaching moments and dialogue. I'd rather talk to my son about difficult subjects in a scholarly way than avoid them altogether.

Well, isn't she a dumbassed fucking bitch. Too bad Blockbuster went under, they'd have happily partnered with her.

Zoombie said:

This app is dumb on many levels.

But...it's also voluntary, so I can't really get too steamed about it.

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It's not voluntary for the authors whose books are basically being edited by an app without their knowledge or approval - same as it wasn't for the filmmakers whose films Blockbuster edited.

This is so beyond not ok. Buy a book, take a marker to it, if you're that nuts. Don't electronically erase words as if they weren't there to begin with, or, worse, replace them with others.

C.bronco said:

Shunning controversy stifles potential teaching moments and dialogue. I'd rather talk to my son about difficult subjects in a scholarly way than avoid them altogether.

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Exactly. Sooner or later he will have to face these topics, so it's better to discuss it with you and learn how to process them.

Vince524 said:

Yoda reading erotica!!!

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How about Betty White?

How about a joke app that replaces all profanity with silly words like in bad TV versions of movies. Remember "I'm sick of monkey fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane"? I even once heard "melon farmer," which is awesome.

Censoring what everyone knows is there seems so childish. Hell, kids were swearing by the time I got to Jr. High, if not sooner, anyway. They'll probably know what's supposed to be there.

I wonder what would happen if you ran some erotica through that thing. Hopefully something magical and hilarious. Wouldn't you like to play erotica Mad Libs?