Books without swear words - there's an app for that

[Rbneader]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Nope. Someone else brought up the "as a Christian I'm concerned for my child's soul" aspect several pages back. Jon and Hitch were only responding.

Ah. I missed that.

I agree it's a concern, but a minor one. There are some books written expressly to be evil (Marquis de Sade comes to mind), but those are pretty rare (Marquis de Sade is the only author who comes to mind). The majority of controversial books can often be managed with appropriate conversations. Kids need to be taught tools for dealing with disagreement and controversial subjects when they're ready. Morals don't mean anything if they're just habit.

It's hard, but so's everything about raising kids.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Rbneader

Ah. I missed that.

I agree it's a concern, but a minor one. There are some books written expressly to be evil (Marquis de Sade comes to mind), but those are pretty rare (Marquis de Sade is the only author who comes to mind). The majority of controversial books can often be managed with appropriate conversations. Kids need to be taught tools for dealing with disagreement and controversial subjects when they're ready. Morals don't mean anything if they're just habit.

It's hard, but so's everything about raising kids.

Yes. I was, in fact, responding--several times--to comments from other posters about "cursing being offensive because [they are] Christian," and the post to which Diap referred. I most certainly never brought religion into this; if you've read the thread, you'll see that I very specifically said that I think religion is, by and large, unrelated to the "profanity" discussion, in any real way, because most of the words being discussed are NOT PROFANE, in any defined way. The other word for "scat," the other words for "sex," and the like, have nothing, whatsoever, to do with what's "profane," because profanity, by definition, is "not holy because unconsecrated, impure or defiled," or "grossly irreverent toward what is held to be sacred."

I could possibly see my way clear to understand that someone might find "G-d damn you" as profane or "cursing" in the most traditional sense; but saying s--t, instead of SCAT? Saying f--k, instead of sex? What has that to do with religious beliefs? Hell, I'm still waiting for someone to tell me why they're "cursing" in the first place, or why reading f--- is somehow better or, for that matter, even DIFFERENT than seeing the word in print, unless one has a method to blindfold one's BRAINS.

AND, because this isn't the P&R forum, I specifically forbore from commenting on this: "I'm a Christian, and therefore I have to be concerned for my child's soul."

Hitch

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Rbneader

There are certainly kids who could be upset by the Narnia series. I simply didn't run into any that I remember. I put that down to the way Narnia books gloss over potentially troubling scenes. Like the Hobbit - the Hobbit is a story of failure, torture, death and woe, but troubling details are elided (a particularly egregious example is the 5 Armies' 'and then Bilbo got hit and slept through it all').

Narnia and The Hobbit are two of my most vivid childhood reading memories, because of the extremely strong emotions and images brought to mind. Aslan's death was horrendous and deeply affecting for me when I first read it. I was very much upset at the time and can still feel that emotion in the pit of my belly when I recall the scene, though I don't believe I've been "damaged". In The Hobbit, I remember a few things fairly clearly - the troll and spider captures were spine-chilling, Mirkwood evoked creeping dread, the book was amazing and terrifying and I loved it. Another book that I recall had similar long-lasting effect on me, and I can still recall the visceral horror, was Snugglepot and Cuddlepie (a book generally considered suitable for very young children), when Mr Lizard was kidnapped and found with a rock on his head.

I loved, and still love, all of these books, and don't regret my exposure to them in the least. But they all upset me.

[Prestidigitweeze]

Personally, I'd welcome a filter into which you could dump strings of profanity and watch them be turned into non sequitur doilies:

"Groin me!" Miffy shrieked. "Oh, skiver me and groin me! Access my crater with your hefty puncture and spiral me like the sooty lady of the evening I comprise!"

Originally Posted by rcentros

I wouldn't let my children read books intended to glorify homosexuality. So, for believing and teaching my Christian Faith, I am now labeled a "bad parent." Your bigoted opinion is noted ... and rejected.

Someone needs to watch Aamer Rahman's reverse racism monologue. It also applies to the idea that parents who object to "glorifications" of homosexuality can become the victims of reverse homophobia (i.e., heterophobia). Historically, that doesn't quite work.

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

Could you give us an example of a book that intends to glorify homosexuality?

I haven't found this in a work of fiction -- yet -- but I'd imagine that glorifying homosexuality might involve a gay individual who was floating in the sky over Utah and outlined by a nimbus of gold. He might cast pink triangles of light down at the awestruck masses, who would then be dazzled and applaud. Someone might build a cathedral with stained glass windows based on drawings by Tom of Finland.

[montalex]

Aman, Prestidigitweeze!! I never considered reading crap like "Fifty Shades of Grey", but if it was passed through your obscenification filter, I'd read it as comedy! Thanks for some sanity. Bad words indeed!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by montalex

Aman, Prestidigitweeze!! I never considered reading crap like "Fifty Shades of Grey", but if it was passed through your obscenification filter, I'd read it as comedy! Thanks for some sanity. Bad words indeed!

Until this moment I've not had the desire to use Clean Reader or read Fifty Shades of Grey, but after reading that post, I just checked to see if the app is still I the Apple store. It is.

[WT Sharpe]

It is, but all the books seem to have been removed from the bookstore. No 50 Shades.

[eschwartz]

Sideload it -- didn't someone, somewhere, say there was some sort of sneaky obscure way to use Clean Reader with sideloaded books? Also, they are probably updating it to do that.

[WT Sharpe]

I see no way to open or load books at all. Maybe they'll fix that with an update. I'd really like to see what that app does with erotica. The results could be hilarious.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I see no way to open or load books at all. Maybe they'll fix that with an update. I'd really like to see what that app does with erotica. The results could be hilarious.

Can you not load content to it via iTunes?

[WT Sharpe]

I was just thinking about that. Maybe that's what Nate did. I'll give it a shot later. Thanks, Harry. I'll try something super explicit.

[Doonge]

There's a bunch of similar apps.

https://github.com/mourner/bullshit.js (replace marketing buzzwords with "bullshit" derivations).
http://menkampf.com/ (replace feminist lingo by nazi lingo).

So why not a swear word app. I would like an option that use smurf words instead of tender swears.

[doubleshuffle]

What the world really needs is a shizzolator app.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I was just thinking about that. Maybe that's what Nate did. I'll give it a shot later. Thanks, Harry. I'll try something super explicit.

I tried it and iTunes doesn't list it as one of the apps that allows file-sharing. I have no idea how Nate did it. Perhaps when they demolished their book store they removed the ability to side load content. I had a triple-X rated bit of erotica ready that I was curious to see how it would be rendered, but oh well.

Being more serious for a minute, I don't see what all the hoopla was about. It didn't actually change any content except for the end-user. The root file remained unaffected. And surely any children whose parents insisted on their using the app to filter their reading must have been only enticed to anticipate the day when they could read the real thing without filters to see what they were missing.

I can understand the ire of some authors. I speak here of that minority who have no imagination and cannot write five words without at least one of them being something learned from a high school bathroom wall. But why others should be so livid over a handful of puritans whose tender ears and eyes cannot abide that language of which Twain once spoke as having on occasion the ability to provide "a relief denied even to prayer" escapes me. As long as it's their own reading that they're censoring I say go for it. At least they're not attempting to censor the books for others.

[Barty]

When I watch TV or movies, I always look away whenever someone is about to be stuck by a needle -- drug injection, body piercing, etc. I watch plenty of horror movies and I am pretty desensitized to cinematic violence and gore, but I just cannot stand looking at scenes involving needles, even though I know it is fake and the body part being pierced is just a prop (I hope). Now I could try to avoid watching any movie that may contain such a scene, but then I would be depriving myself of many movies I'd otherwise enjoy.

I imagine many people feel the same way regarding the use of certain words, whether it is profanity, racial or ethnic slurs, or blasphemous language. I see a place for an app or some type of plug in that blanks out words on the fly per the reader's specification. For example, replacing the n word with n******. The person using the app is not saying the word does not belong in books, or that the book should not be read by him or any other person, or that he should not have to read it, or that the author or the book is racist, or that the book should be censored or sanitized, or that he or anyone else should pretend the word is not in the book. But simply that for his own use, he prefer not to see the word printed in full throughout the book.

You may say what's the big deal, it's just a word, grow up, you know what the word is, what's the difference between setting the word spelled out versus *****. Our brain and body have their own logic. We may intellectually know one thing is the same as the other, but we don't react the same way.

Problem with culture war is everybody is out for blood fighting every last inch of ground, when most of the time discretion is what is called for.