Clean Reader? WTF Does That Mean?

You guys heard of this Clean Reader thing? I hadn’t, but the mere idea of it pisses me off. I’ll quote Chuck Wendig on it, however. I think he expresses everything I would’ve said:

There exists a new app called Clean Reader.

The function of Clean Reader is to scrub the profanity from e-books.

Their tagline: “Read books. Not profanity.”

You can dial in how much of the profanity you want gone from the books.

Author Joanne Harris has roundly (and to my mind, correctly) condemned the app, and I would recommend you read about her and condemnation. I would further suggest you go on and read the email she received from the Clean Reader people and, more importantly, her response to that email. (Oh, also: check her tweets, too: @JoanneChocolat.)

I am an author where much of my work utilizes profanity. Because fuck yeah, profanity. Profanity is a circus of language. It’s a drunken trapeze act. It’s clowns on fire. And let’s be clear up front: profanity is not separate from language. It is not lazy language. It is language. Just another part of it. Vulgarity has merit. It is expressive. It is emotive. It is metaphor.

So, as someone with a whole pig wagon full of fucks at stake, let be be clear:

Fuck you, Clean Reader.

*cups hand to mouth*

Fuuuuuuck. Yoooooooou.

I get that I have not yet published books. That’s a mere technicality that I will inevitably take care of. But the thought that something else is going to censor my work because someone else takes offense to my prolific use of the word fuck … fuck that. And fuck them. And fuck it.

I’d be happy to debate people about profanity. I’m in the “pro” camp. I usually am only offended by those worthless fucks who say things to the effect of “those who resort to profanity are weak minded or lacking in vocabulary.” I am neither of those things, and people who treat profanity as such are, well, let’s call it what it is, they’re insecure and looking for a way to make themselves feel superior to others. That’s what most judging is. You take potshots at others because you’re not as secure as you’d like to be about something, and belittling other people makes you feel better, however temporarily, about yourself.

Yes, I’m calling you an asshole. I’m one, too. What I’m not is a hypocrite.

But words. Words compose profanity. A word has no malice. It only is. How words are used is the thing. I can hurt someone with a “normal” word just as easily as with one profane. Further, I can choose my reaction to words. I can choose to see it as another word, or see the intent with which it was plied. This is not to say there are not words that are horrible all on their own, but those are words where context has been baked in (anything racist), and again, that was because of the user’s intent. The word was used, over and over, to hurt someone.

To be offended because you think a word is profane, that it’s beneath you … I don’t see it. Frankly, you should have better things to think about, better things to be offended by than how many times I would use the word fuck in a blog post.

As a writer, however, it’s even simpler. Hypothetically, let’s say I have a book or short story you can purchase, but you’re waffling because you’re aware I’m a known, public champion of Profanity. Pro-tip: Don’t buy my fucking book. I’d rather not have you as a reader than to have you censor my words.

Annnnnnnd now I need to get off my ass and get a book finished so that this soapbox has any sort of validity.

Thanks for stopping by.

C