Sensitivity Readers

[billvon 3,111]

>If it makes you feel better. Once again the left can't see the proverbial forest. Do
>you really think Stephen King, Nora Roberts, the late Tom Clancy submitted their
>manuscripts to a "sensitivity reader"? I'm sure Kurt Vonnegut was concerned about
>the sensitivities of his audience.

Yes, they did. That's how writing works.

Case in point - Joe Haldeman, who is now one of the legendary sci-fi writers out there. He can name his own price for his books, and anything he sends into a magazine like Analog gets accepted no questions asked.

But it wasn't always like that. When he was first starting out, and he wasn't being published very often, he'd get manuscripts back with a ton of red ink on them. He'd divide the edits into three categories - edits that helped the story, edits that didn't matter, and edits that hurt the story. He'd make all the first changes and most of the second. In the case of the third he'd make some superficial change that did something like the editor wanted.

One example of the third category was a story he wrote for Omni. He got dinged for the use of "faggot." He tried "homo" - that was also rejected. He ended up using "flamboyant gay man" which didn't work nearly as well, because the character who used it was a totally non-PC asshole, and it was out of character.

The story was cut by 30% to fit space requirements before publication and the entire section wasn't used anyway.

So yes, even Joe Haldeman had to worry about the "sensitivity readers" - because if he didn't he wouldn't have been published in that magazine. That's how writing works. He was, of course, free to take his writing somewhere else.

[jakee 1,594]

airdvr

When have you ever heard me voice my support for any religion?

We're not talking about voicing support. We're talking about you stating that these christian, republican conservatives are pussified snowflakes who have trouble living in the real world.

Quote

Interesting that you should single out christians while giving radical islam a pass.

I've honestly never heard radical Islamists condemning Kurt Vonnegut. Heck, I just searched for 'muslim condemns Vonnegut' on google and there is nothing there.

So when it comes to Kurt Vonnegut, I've 'singled out' christians because, in the real world, christians are the people who tried to ban his writing and who burned his books. I'm sorry that you have trouble dealing with that reality, maybe I should edit my posts to be more sensitive to what you want to hear

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[wolfriverjoe 1,523]

airdvr

If it makes you feel better. Once again the left can't see the proverbial forest. Do you really think Stephen King, Nora Roberts, the late Tom Clancy submitted their manuscripts to a "sensitivity reader"? I'm sure Kurt Vonnegut was concerned about the sensitivities of his audience.

What you don't get is we are now fed pablum that has been scrubbed of any references that some might deem offensive. Wow! Good luck with that.

All of the above did. They're called "editors". It's the editor's job to take the author's work and make it salable. That might include correcting grammatical errors, it might include changing or removing various parts for various reasons.

In the case of King, his short story "Mrs Todd's Shortcut" was rejected because it contained the phrase "a woman will pee down her leg if she doesn't squat." (It's in "Skeleton Crew" and the details are in the "Notes")

In King's novel "The Stand", the original version was shortened considerably. Not because of editorial issues, but cost issues. The publisher thought the full length book would be too expensive and wouldn't sell.

Of course, King ended up popular enough that the full version was released and sold very well.

If an author feels that his work is being altered too much, he or she has the option of not publishing that work with that publisher. Contractual obligations aside, there are lots of ways to get work out there without the interference of a "sensitivity reader" if the author chooses.

But, as was noted, it seems to be the "right wing conservatives" who are the ones banning the books. They are the ones who seem too sensitive to understand that if they don't like a particular work, they don't have to read it.

Liberals may call a book "offensive" and organize a boycott of the author. But most of them understand the importance of free speech and don't call for the banning of things they don't like.

The phrase "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it" comes to mind.

"There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy

"~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo