'Politically correct' language query.

[oggbashan]

Yes, it's very awww.

However. Some of my friends would point out that the story is exclusively about the white folks and the ways those white folks dealt with a problem black baby. It isn't about the baby herself, or about black people, at all. The resolution is all about congratulating the second husband on his ever so special demonstration of tolerance and humanity.

I think I wouldn't want to see a current writer treat the same issue in quite the same way-- not in a current setting... if you see what I mean.

It is also an example of what English people thought at the time. There are several examples in Victorian and Edwardian literature that show that colour was not seen the same way as it was in the US. Even during WWII many communities encountering GIs treated black and white GIs the same - either well or badly. We couldn't see a difference. They were American and therefore exotic.

There are also examples of overtly racist fiction such as Sapper and Sax Rohmer. The villains were callous Prussians or sinister Chinese.

 

[lovecraft68]

You know in general this thread kind of annoys me. Nothing against the OP or anyone posting here, but I think it's ridiculous that this conversation is even being had.

Political correctness at it's finest. What if I offend someone? OMG what will they think! Especially on this site, what the hell is going to happen? Oh No! someone might kick me off the favs page! I might get a rude e-mail! People who will never meet me may not like me!

Negress? Nigardly? Please listen to a "Lil Wayne" cd and count how many times that thug uses the "n" word.

Who cares if you offend someone? Look at the classics! My hero HPL wrote about a cat named "Niggerman" in "Rats in the Walls." Ban the story now? Or maybe just change it like they are trying with Huck Finn.

Besides this is goddamn fiction! Characters will be racist!
Example a line from my series (Ch 35)

"Besides, you know what they say, 'Once they go black they never..."

"No," Mark interrupted. "It's "once they go black we don't want them back."

Oh no! someone call the ACLU! someone get my work banned from Literotica! What if there was a black man or woman reading that story? What if there was a white women is dating a black man reading that story? The Horror!!

Write whatever the hell you want. If someone is offended they move on. Who the hell cares?

 

[Stella_Omega]

The phrase 'politically correct' thankfully seems to be going out of fashion. The issues raised by people using it generally seem to me to boil down to, how sensitive should I be to interpretations by others from different backgrounds of what I say but didn't really mean? Or, when people are deliberately pushing at taboo boundaries, how insensitive can I be and get away with it?

Very well put.

 

[farfromcd]

No bad feelings from me Lovecraft, to an extent I share your views. However, because I don't tend to keep track of what's 'allowed' and 'not allowed' these days, and not wanting to jar the flow of my story (hopefully there is a flow, I'll let you all judge when it's posted) with a potentially contentious word that, while sounding authentic, could have been replaced with something else if it was a big 'no-no' I thought I'd check it out.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed with some excellent and informed feedback thus far, it's turned into an interesting thread.

And as for the story, I've actually finished it (and it didn't even take 7 years like the last one!) so I'm just going to proof read it (no doubt missing at least one howling spelling mistake in the process) and break it down into two chapters I think then I'll submit part 1. Just got to think of a title . . .

While I'm here, and risking thread drift, any pointers on how many words a Lit 'Page' is? The story runs to (pre proof reading) 6666 (!) words and I'd want to keep chapters down to under 3 pages ideally.

 

[estragon]

No bad feelings from me Lovecraft, to an extent I share your views. However, because I don't tend to keep track of what's 'allowed' and 'not allowed' these days, and not wanting to jar the flow of my story (hopefully there is a flow, I'll let you all judge when it's posted) with a potentially contentious word that, while sounding authentic, could have been replaced with something else if it was a big 'no-no' I thought I'd check it out.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed with some excellent and informed feedback thus far, it's turned into an interesting thread.

And as for the story, I've actually finished it (and it didn't even take 7 years like the last one!) so I'm just going to proof read it (no doubt missing at least one howling spelling mistake in the process) and break it down into two chapters I think then I'll submit part 1. Just got to think of a title . . .

While I'm here, and risking thread drift, any pointers on how many words a Lit 'Page' is? The story runs to (pre proof reading) 6666 (!) words and I'd want to keep chapters down to under 3 pages ideally.

Far, it came in as one Lit page, and it read well, bar a few mechanicals that I quibbled you.