Rewriting history

[Mr Kobayashi]

Im not sure what that has to do with not tolerating fools and dickheads.

Man up you big Jessie.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Man up you big Jessie.

Them up,dont ya mean?

Still lost me though....

 

[dronefromsector7G]

How do we progress if we're constantly rewriting works from the past?

The books are of their time and the attitudes that purveyed it.

Lots of intelligent debate will be lost by rewriting to reflect today's society on them.

Books are a record of the past, be it fiction or nonfiction and should remain in their correct language of their day. Regardless of peoples political persuasion now.

I think Ric should rewrite off topic. Think of all the comments about smashing birds, get your norks out, that’s gay etc.

 

[TinFoilHat]

I think Ric should rewrite off topic. Think of all the comments about smashing birds, get your norks out, that’s gay etc.

I'd be banned in a previous life.

 

[FightLikeAGirl]

It’s all a publicity stunt to generate outrage and sell books, and you’ve fallen for it.

 

[Blue Maverick]

Then there’s this nonsense

Chief bans gossip and use of word 'fireman' at Greater Manchester Fire Service

"This needs to stop and the term permanently erased from our vocabulary. We employ firefighters not firemen"

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

apparently he wants the F word banned and gossip!

 

[dronefromsector7G]

I'd be banned in a previous life.

We all go off the rails :-)

 

[TinFoilHat]

Then there’s this nonsense

Chief bans gossip and use of word 'fireman' at Greater Manchester Fire Service

"This needs to stop and the term permanently erased from our vocabulary. We employ firefighters not firemen"

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk

apparently he wants the F word banned and gossip!

We had this issue at work.

We had a grade affectionately nicknamed Shed monkeys. A newbie complained saying it was bullying. A letter was sent out saying anyone using the term would be disciplined. The rest of that grade decided to have a poll and have agreed they would like to be renamed Shed Wookies.

 

[domalino]

Try reading Huckleberry Finn as I did last week. The n-word is on practically every page. Now, in all honesty, that reflects how people thought and talked at the time. (US Southern States, pre-Civil War.) But I can understand how many people might be offended.

People are not, by and large, sufficiently educated to understand that times change and that words that were once acceptable are no longer so. Just because I read Huckleberry Finn it does not mean I am going to go around calling people of colour n*****s. Similarly, medieval people were very frank indeed. The street where brothels were was often called Gropec**t Lane. This wasn't just in one city, but I can't see any Council bringing back that name, can you? No matter how 'historic' it may be. But even respectable people would have called it that at the time. Chaucer's works, which were very bawdy indeed in places, were read out at court in mixed company. No one thought anything of it. If that was put on the BBC at 8.00 pm tonight, people would go hairless.

As for the Bible, it's been rewritten many times. The Bible generally used in church today was produced in the 1960s (I think) and is very different to the King James Version I grew up with. Similarly, if you go to a wedding or a funeral, the service now is not (generally) from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer because they think we're too thick to understand the 17th Century prose. And, by and large, they are right.

By the way, I don't pretend to have all the answers. I read Chaucer and Langland in 14th Century English and it's very hard to understand. I don't say everyone else should be forbidden to have 21st-century updates because the originals are better. No, not only do I not pretend to have the answers, I know I have none.

I heard a radio debate on this and it was quite well explained by a caller that yes, as an English teacher, she could sit down and explain the context and reasoning behind outrageously racist stuff in old children's books and tell her daughter that we don't use those words anymore, and people of all races/genders/sexuality are equals.

But not everyone does. Or can. Or knows they need to. Or wants to.

Most people don't have time to proof read the books they give children and there's an element of trust that you can let a kid loose in a children's section of a bookshop, they'll find something they like and it won't contain insanely racist shit that would constitute a hate crime if you read it out loud.

They want to stick a kid in the corner with a book to keep them happy and quiet on a journey, or in the holidays.


The thing that a lot of outraged people keep overlooking is that no one is imposing this on the publishers. It's an entirely voluntary choice driven by shopping behaviour. What drives these reprints is publisher goes to estate and says the sales are dying and the feedback is parents don't want their kids to read that kind of stuff anymore and the estate decides they'd rather reprint than see the books fall out of fashion like millions of other books have before.

 

[manclad]

We had this issue at work.

We had a grade affectionately nicknamed Shed monkeys. A newbie complained saying it was bullying. A letter was sent out saying anyone using the term would be disciplined. The rest of that grade decided to have a poll and have agreed they would like to be renamed Shed Wookies.

I worked for 40+ years at various truck and van main dealers in the Greater Manchester area .
About 15 years ago I was pulled up by the service manager at a Ford Transit dealer for referring to people who work on the shop floor, repairing and servicing vehicles as mechanics.
I was told that henceforth I was to use the modern word and they were known as Technicians.
I replied that in my eyes they were all grease monkeys, and fucked off sharpish before he had chance to reply.