Hi, Gwen, giving book recommendations is tricky at the best of times. If
you
object to sex and violence in books, you must ask why you find them
objectionable. Do you find the sex in a particular book gratuitous? Do the
characters act uncaring toward each other? The same goes for violence.
Personally, I know people who like James Patterson's books, but I have
problems with his work. When I read Along Came a Spider, he had two
psychopaths in one novel. To me, that's overkill. Sex and violence are in
this world. You can't make babies without sex, and I don't mind reading
about a caring relationship where two people are enjoying each other in
bed.
My problem is with the uncaring and gratuitous way violence and sex can be
handled in books. I think if a character is a louse, he or she will be
uncaring in his/her relationship with others and this case, I would say
this
is part of the story and might be deemed necessary. The thing is, Gwen,
you
are a grown-up and intelligent person. If you download a book and you
dislike it for whatever reason, you know you can delete it from wherever
you
are reading it. There are people writing today who tell a good story. That
being said, opinions will differ on what constitutes a good story. What
I'm
saying is that there are no hard and fast rules here. You like what you
like, and maybe you'll come across a book you never thought you'd ever
like.
Reading is an adventure, isn't it? You never can tell what you might find
to
peak your fancy. I read a couple of novels by Dostoyevsky and I'm glad I
read them. That being said, however, I concluded that while I don't regret
reading those novels, I couldn't understand his characters for the life of
me. What made them react to their lives in the way they did? I couldn't
understand their psychological motivation or their culture. So now you
know
something about what I think about book recommendations and the use of sex
and violence. I hope you weren't scandalized. Regards, Kim.
-----Original Message-----
From: bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bksvol-discuss-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Soronel Haetir
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 9:27 PM
To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: I have a question please and thank you.
Once more I am in agreement with Roger. If your sensibilities are that
tender it should be up to you to take whatever steps you require to find
something you can enjoy. Asking others to cater to you at that level is
simply too much.
On 9/8/09, Rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx <Rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> wrote:
Some time ago I recall Pavi saying that the dictionary that algorithm
uses was reviewed and that it was laughable when they saw some of the
words that were in it. Supposedly that was corrected, but I very much
suspect that I would still consider it laughable. Honestly, I was once
telling someone something another person said. I mentioned that the
person had said that another person was pissed off. I do not
ordinarily use that phrase myself, but since I was relating what
someone else said I did that time. I was angrily accused of being
obscene. It never even occurred to me in my wildest speculations that
anyone would consider that to be obscene and if I had found it in that
dictionary of prohibited words and phrases I would have found that
laughable.
Nevertheless, someone did consider it obscene. That is why I tend to
think that the person who is offended by so-called "adult" words has
the problem, not the one who utters them.
"The end may justify the means as long as there is something that
justifies the end.
" Leon Trotsky
The Militant: http://www.themilitant.com Pathfinder
Press:
http://www.pathfinderpress.com
Granma International: http://granma.cu/ingles/index.html
_
table with 2 columns and 6 rows
Subj:
[bksvol-discuss] Re: I have a question please and thank you.
Date:
9/8/2009 10:48:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From:
cherryjam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reply-to:
bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To:
bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent from the Internet
(Details)
table end
Evan, I've wondered about how that algorithm works too, because of the
children's books I've proofed that were erroneously marked as adult by
the algorithm. I'd bet part of it is based on Bookshare useing a
dictionary of words that can be considered adult (with some contexting
built in, I'd guess). The final designation of adult comes about by
using a weighting of the number of times words/terms/phrases appear
factored against the total number of words in a book. So if you have
a children's book with very few words, and one of the 'suspect' words
appears, although it could be in a totally innocent context, bam! The
children's book is going to get rated as adult. I had that happen a
few months ago with a board book I was proofreading!
Just guessing here, of course. smile.
Judy s.
EVAN REESE wrote:
What determines adult content is ultimately the proofreader.
Bookshare's computer can mark a book either Adult or not, using some
secret algorithm that staff refuses to divulge to us, but the
proofreader can change the Bookshare computer's choice if he/she
feels that a change is justified. It used to be either the submitter
and/or the proofreader, but Bookshare took that choice away from
submitters and seems to have no inclination to give it back.
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Soronel Haetir
soronel.haetir@xxxxxxxxx
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