Clean Reader App - what says NBC?

julie37619 · March 2015

http://www.cleanreaderapp.com/

So apparently this is an app that's causing a bit of a stir in the book world. It takes all profanity out of e-books. On the one hand, I kind of disagree with those crying censorship. No one is FORCED to put it on their e-reader and if you can choose not to have it, I don't think you're being censored. It would be different if it came installed on the e-reader and you couldn't take it off. I could agree maybe even if it just came installed and the user had to choose to manually disable it.

However, I do think authorial consent is an issue here. Should a reader have the option of reading a book in a way that the author didn't intend for it to be read? Is it a way for a reader to broaden their horizons without being offended, or does it infringe on the author's copyright?

SnShne322 · March 2015

I agree with you that it's not really censorship if it's not being forced. It just feels inherently wrong to alter the state of a book to me. I'm not sure if that's flammable, but I feel like if you aren't sure you want that kind of content, maybe it's something you might want to steer clear of. Though that's a pretty fine line and kind of difficult. I think I'd probably just talk myself in circles about it. Agree, disagree.

Do you think books are soon to have labels on them like music? Explicit language, sexual content, etc. Maybe they already do and I've just ignored it?

j*&p* · March 2015

There would be like 5 words left in Chuck Wendig's books if they went through the Clean Reader App.

I don't know what to think about this, honestly. I wouldn't use it, but it looks like it just puts a grey bar over the swear word rather than deleting it entirely or replacing it with "clean alternative" (although it looks like you can get a clean alternative if you hover over the word.). Kind of like the textual alternative of bleeping a word out on TV. A So t's not really altering the book so much as covering up what people don't want to see?

RevJen · March 2015

The only time I can see it working is if a parent is trying to limit their child's exposure to profanity without limiting what they read.

Anything else, I'm not sure. It wouldn't be something I would use personally.

taylormillgirl · March 2015

No bueno.

According to what I read about the app settings, all forms of genitalia slang are changed to "bottom," which means each time I use the word prick to mean 'lightly stab,' the app would change it to something that makes no sense.

"I need to prick your finger." would become "I need to bottom your finger."

God only knows how many other nonsensical translations the app would cause, and that's not even delving into the issue of copyright law or honoring the author's creative intent.

dmlk413 · March 2015

I'm not a fan of this at all. I don't think it's censorship but it just makes me really uncomfortable.

CeeCeeSugaPie · March 2015

If I come across something that makes me uncomfortable, I just put the book down. Easy enough, right?

InLovewSB · March 2015

The example takes out damn and suggests darn to replace it - how blah! It'd be better if it replaced bad words with absurd suggestions, like me when I stub my toe in front of my kids... "FUH...ferfeffel!"

They make clean versions of songs, so I don't feel this is very different. I think it's no big deal to have an app that could be used to clean up a book. I could see why, for example, a teacher would want to have such an app. He/she could really broaden the reading list for that 'in between' age group if a profanity filter was in place. The flaw with this particular app is that it isn't actually useful for this purpose because you'd still get some 10 year old just turning it off & some parent chewing out the teacher for a book that says f*ck. If you're going to censor, I say make the disable feature password protected.

taylormillgirl · March 2015

CeeCeeSugaPie said:
If I come across something that makes me uncomfortable, I just put the book down. Easy enough, right?

Or skim. I read a horror book a few weeks ago that contained an animal torture scene I was uncomfortable with. I didn't need an app to block the violence. I simply turned the pages until the scene ended, and then picked up where I left off.

Young_Love · March 2015

:-q

Hoycie · March 2015

Which horror book is that @taylormillgirl ?

taylormillgirl · March 2015

Hoycie said:
Which horror book is that @taylormillgirl ?

It was THE TROOP. Very entertaining, but I couldn't take the kitten scene.

GilliC · March 2015

I don't really like it. If they're changing the language, t's not really like radio edits for song where the word is just bleeped out. And artists/recording labels have a choice about whether they want to produce a clean version of an explicit album. I like that model a bit more, because if the artist truly believes that "&$&@# tha $##@-ing @$#&" is an artistic expression that is key to the work, s/he should have the right to choose.

I'm slighly more okay with it if it explicitly indicates the places where the word has been changed, since then it's clearer that the rewording was not the author's original choice.

If it's replaced with no indication, I think that's bad. Not to mention an uninformed reader might start thinking the author is completely daft for talking about "bottoming your finger" or "roasting chicken chests." (Remember back when AOL filtered the word breast, so the cooking forums had to come up with alternate terminology?)

julie37619 · March 2015

taylormillgirl said:

Hoycie said:
Which horror book is that @taylormillgirl ?
It was THE TROOP. Very entertaining, but I couldn't take the kitten scene.

I meant to tell you when I finished it and can't remember if I did - you probably won't love The Deep. There are some really graphic animal abuse scenes that I had a hard time stomaching and I felt like it made up more of the book than it did in the Troop.

Hoycie · March 2015

julie37619 said:

taylormillgirl said:

Hoycie said:
Which horror book is that @taylormillgirl ?
It was THE TROOP. Very entertaining, but I couldn't take the kitten scene.
I meant to tell you when I finished it and can't remember if I did - you probably won't love The Deep. There are some really graphic animal abuse scenes that I had a hard time stomaching and I felt like it made up more of the book than it did in the Troop.

I won't be reading these then. I can't handle any kind of animal abuse.

oliversbear · March 2015

I am genuinely surprised at how few readers know the word bowdlerize.

I wouldn't use the app, but it's not a new idea.

booneybear · March 2015

taylormillgirl said:

Hoycie said:
Which horror book is that @taylormillgirl ?
It was THE TROOP. Very entertaining, but I couldn't take the kitten scene.

I just wanted to go home and gather up all four kitties and hug them and never let them go when I read that.

Clean Reader App - what says NBC?

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