Tom Gauld on future-proofing your novel.

[Quoth]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/pi...-novel-cartoon

He regularly publishes in New Scientist, New Yorker and the Literary themes in the Observer / Guardian. Often republishes the strips on his Twitter account.

[gmw]

I enjoyed that! Thanks for the link.

It actually put me in mind - in a much smaller scale - of simply reading over my own work in progress. Indeed, even looking over some of my older writing as a future-self, and thinking, I wonder how many people would be offended by that ... and do I care? (The answer to which, again, seems to depend on my mood as much as anything else.)

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by gmw

I enjoyed that! Thanks for the link.

It actually put me in mind - in a much smaller scale - of simply reading over my own work in progress. Indeed, even looking over some of my older writing as a future-self, and thinking, I wonder how many people would be offended by that ... and do I care? (The answer to which, again, seems to depend on my mood as much as anything else.)

If writers really start writing "down" everything, so that they don't somehow, somewhere, some way offend SOME person, we really are all doomed. It's bad enough that it's infested comedy, TV, movies...books, too? Et tu, Books?

Hitch

[hildea]

Originally Posted by Hitch

If writers really start writing "down" everything, so that they don't somehow, somewhere, some way offend SOME person, we really are all doomed. It's bad enough that it's infested comedy, TV, movies...books, too? Et tu, Books?

Hitch

It's not new, though. In 1880 (or thereabouts) Henrik Ibsen rewrote the ending to A Doll's House for the German market, because he was told it would be too harsh if Nora left her husband and children.
Before that, while he was writing the play, he had planned to end the play with Nora staying with her family, but his wife Suzannah demanded that she should leave. After two weeks of quarreling, Suzannah said "Either Nora leaves, or I do!" and the rest is history

In the first half of 1800s, folklorists Asbjørnsen and Moe collected Norwegian folk tales. They then censored some of them heavily, because they didn't want to offend their readers with the sexual content of the original stories.

Molière's play Tartuffe (1664) was outlawed because it offended church officials.

I'm sure there are many, many more examples.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by hildea

It's not new, though. In 1880 (or thereabouts) Henrik Ibsen rewrote the ending to A Doll's House for the German market, because he was told it would be too harsh if Nora left her husband and children.
Before that, while he was writing the play, he had planned to end the play with Nora staying with her family, but his wife Suzannah demanded that she should leave. After two weeks of quarreling, Suzannah said "Either Nora leaves, or I do!" and the rest is history

In the first half of 1800s, folklorists Asbjørnsen and Moe collected Norwegian folk tales. They then censored some of them heavily, because they didn't want to offend their readers with the sexual content of the original stories.

Molière's play Tartuffe (1664) was outlawed because it offended church officials.

I'm sure there are many, many more examples.

Oh, yes, and I'm sure that there are many more examples--we've all known it to happen with trade-published books, too--but hopefully, not en masse and not as some anticipatory kowtowing to people who may not even exist YET. To my mind, it's even worse than the scrubbing happening with extant books.

As I said, it's endemic, everywhere we look. I was hoping that authors, at least, would try to stand on some integrity, but given that comedians haven't, what the hell, why would I expect them to?

Hitch

[hildea]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I was hoping that authors, at least, would try to stand on some integrity, but given that comedians haven't, what the hell, why would I expect them to?

Some do show integrity even at cost to their career, so we should make sure to support those who do. Like Tokuda-Hall, who was told, among other things, to remove the word "racism" from her book

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by hildea

Some do show integrity even at cost to their career, so we should make sure to support those who do. Like Tokuda-Hall, who was told, among other things, to remove the word "racism" from her book

I agree with you, and I agreed with Tokuda-Hall's decision when I read about it. Good for her.

Hitch