Frakking Hell!

[donnaimmaculata]

Does Archive of our Own cencor explicit language? Because I've just tried to read two fics and was thrown out of the story* by the repeated and highly inappropriate use of the word "frak". I feel dirty and violated.

*uh, "story"

Comments

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I guessed it must be a canon thing, but it's still most disturbing. Why did they think they had to censor it in canon?!

G-d is just as disturbing. I don't understand why people think that not writing out the words that they actually want to say and that everyone knows they are saying is in any way better than saying them. It's so weird.

[ellensmithee.livejournal.com]

No, they meant American readers of the zines, I guess? Really bizarre.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I don't quite understand censoring of profanities anyway. Either you understand what is meant by the word anyway, in which case you understand it no matter whether they look/sound like, or you don't understand what the word means in the first place! Silly.

[ellensmithee.livejournal.com]

Plus, it's fiction, ffs. Censoring language like that is interfering with the work itself. It just irritates me to no end.

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

Huh. Usually when I see "God" rendered as "G-d," it's an Orthodox Jewish thing. I could explain, if you were really curious, but I expect you get the general idea.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Hm, I've seen it pop up occasionally without paying attention whether it was an Orthodox Jewish thing or not. I think I've seen it in the Christian context, as well, but on the whole, I'm not that bothered to research it in depth :-)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

There's a Thing about not writing or pronouncing the direct name of God. (Which makes it silly to do in English, because that's not actually the ineffable Name, but...) It's the same reason why, when one is reading the Torah or other Hebrew sources aloud, and one gets to the tetragrammaton (YHVH), what one says aloud is "Adonai," which means "Our Lord" instead.

It all seems very Voldemort to me, but I'm not exactly observant OR reverent.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Yes, I knew that the name of God is not written or pronounced. But as you say, it's silly in English, because "god" refers to all kinds of gods, including the pagan ones, and it seems odd to not write it. However, I am not religious at all and tend to find many aspects of religion baffling.