Well, A. I was saying that the Classic bit had a point, and I'm not sure bowdlerize means what you think it means. Last dictionary I checked said that with that word it meant that the censorship made the product lesser
Right, well, it seems like you're arguing simply for the sake of arguing, so I'll leave you to it, with a helpful definition:
bowd·ler·ize
/ˈboʊdləˌraɪz, ˈbaʊd-/ Show Spelled[bohd-luh-rahyz, boud-] Show IPA
–verb (used with object), -ized, -iz·ing.
to expurgate (a written work) by removing or modifying passages considered vulgar or objectionable.
Anyway, refer to my previous posts to see that you're answering objections that I never raised. Have fun!
Well, I think you did bring it up, and I think there's a distinction between censorship and bowdlerizing that matters. Bowdlerize comes from an edition of Shakespeare published back in the early 1800s that was meant to be good for women and children and really just ended up being fairly bad (I'd say something about Victorians, but I think it actually predated Victoria's reign by a decade or two). I mean, it was still Shakespeare, but Ophelia drowned
entirely by accident, it was "Out Crimson Spot", and any mention or flavoring of language by way of
sex or sexuality was expunged. The dictionary (New Oxford American) I use distinguishes it from plain censorship by the fact that it does become weaker or less effective, and it would be hard for any adult to conclude that the plays were improved at all by the censorship. So technically, in order for us to be bowdlerizing EP, we'd have to be taking, say, Spar, and then editing it down to a version of Spar for Kids (and the womenfolk, because lord knows we must protect their delicate sensibilities from the perversity of men's mind. What, no, I've never met
Mr. Kij Johnson, why do you ask?
1).
Anyway, the important point is that we're not doing that, and we wouldn't do that. Making it so there's a feed so that parents trying to distract the kids in the backseat don't have to worry about skipping over an R-rated episode while going 60 down the highway isn't bowdlerizing, it's being helpful. And yes, it may be censorship of a sort, but being as Wordpress sets up feeds for every tag
2 we use on the blog (Voila, the Union Dues feed: feed://escapepod.org/tag/jeffrey-derego/feed/ ), I'm not really sure I want to call it that either.
The EP episode my kids loved the most was definitely not PG rated. (cant find) The one where Steve was the intelligent dog, and he dropped quite a few f bombs. The kids, being dog lovers, found this hilarious.
EP169: How I Mounted Goldie, Saved My Partner Lori, and Sniffed Out The People’s Justice.
1There's actually some interesting research from the last few years which points to the editing of the Family Shakespeare as being done by Thomas Bowlder's sister. It was then published under his name because it would have, apparently, blow people's minds that a woman understood all those references to naughty things. And probably would have made her unmarriageable, instead of just misguided.
2 Note: The tagging is still a work in progress. For example, the Tim Pratt tag only captures two of the nine stories Escape Pod has run.