'Sensitivity readers'? Yes, please!

[Katie-Ellen]

Not proposed as a denial or any kind of rebuttal of that unimaginable horror, I trust? That would be surprising, and not acceptable. A study of the subject from a global perspective?

 

[Emurelda]

Not proposed as a denial or any kind of rebuttal of that unimaginable horror, I trust? That would be surprising, and not acceptable. A study of the subject from a global perspective?

A horror that has left an indelible mark. Maybe this book will be a way of healing for some - it is 'only' words after all and certainly doesn't compare to the actual reality of what took place. But it is also possibly psychological reversal to see what? I am not sure. Didn't really dwell on that actually. But perhaps to see if the sensitivities go 'both' ways.

 

[Matnov]

Plus he's a total bodice-ripper, old Flashman. Not averse to it while the fair maiden is unconscious or asleep, either, yikes. Restorative, don't ye know. Put some colour in her cheeks.

LOL.

The issue is that Flashman is an awful character. Dreadful to the extreme, beyond redemption and joyfully aware of that. Which is the whole point of his value as a fictional character. George Macdonald Fraser uses old Flashy to 'flesh' (no pun intended) out the history of that period in a way that borders on the genius but in this modern age, I seriously doubt that it would make it to publication. Bloody hell, it would more than likely involve a visit from the Police to investigate possible hate crimes and a whole slew of commentators writing vomit inducing 'opinion' pieces for the Guardian.

And the world would be a much poorer place for that.

The written word has a power that no other form of communication comes close to touching in terms of influence, for both good and bad. Any attempt to censor that or apply the zeitgeist of whatever the fashion is in the modern era to must always be seen as a bad thing and as a tool must be used rarely.

What truly scares me is that we are living in a time in which freedom of speech is now no longer considered to be something sacred with the ironic part being that many of those now attempting to clamp down on many aspects of it would have as little as a decade ago, proudly proclaimed themselves as the defender of the principle.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Flesh...reminds me one Saturday long ago, my father was getting ready to take my little brother and sister out to the cinema.

'What are you going to see?' I said

'Flash Gordon', he said, 'they'll love that.'

'Pa!' I said, appalled, 'you can't take them to see that. It's not Flash Gordon. It's Flesh Gordon!'

Whoops.