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dragonbat2006Is there any consensus on using words in their original contexts that mean something different today? I've written fic for Chronicles of Narnia and Secret Garden, and I remember making a conscious choice not to use "queer" when "peculiar" would do. I don't regret doing that. I think I was worried that asking the question would be a bad move, because even if folks told me it was okay, I didn't want to be the person who defended their word choice by saying "My gay friends are totes okay with me saying this." Because obviously, that didn't make it universally okay.
If I ficced in the Huckleberry Finn fandom, I wouldn't ask about the n-word. I imagine that if I had to use it, I would either write it as "n-----" or slap a TW on it for racial slurs. Because, honestly, there's no historically neutral use for it.
When it comes to words like "queer" and "gay", though, it's not so cut and dried. Hanna-Barbara were fine with their TV audiences having a "gay old time" with The Flintstones. Heck, when C.S. Lewis wrote about Jill Pole "making love to all the grooms" in The Silver Chair, it's pretty obvious that the term didn't mean to him what it means to us today.
I guess I'm not looking for a license to say something hurtful, when there are perfectly non-hurtful terms out there. Talking about Lucy Pevensie stumbling upon a "peculiar little burrow in the woods" still fits the tone of the original CoN just fine. But if it comes to quoting passages from the original works, should I slap a warning on the fic? And if so, for what? Possibly triggering terminology?
If I ficced in the Huckleberry Finn fandom, I wouldn't ask about the n-word. I imagine that if I had to use it, I would either write it as "n-----" or slap a TW on it for racial slurs. Because, honestly, there's no historically neutral use for it.
When it comes to words like "queer" and "gay", though, it's not so cut and dried. Hanna-Barbara were fine with their TV audiences having a "gay old time" with The Flintstones. Heck, when C.S. Lewis wrote about Jill Pole "making love to all the grooms" in The Silver Chair, it's pretty obvious that the term didn't mean to him what it means to us today.
I guess I'm not looking for a license to say something hurtful, when there are perfectly non-hurtful terms out there. Talking about Lucy Pevensie stumbling upon a "peculiar little burrow in the woods" still fits the tone of the original CoN just fine. But if it comes to quoting passages from the original works, should I slap a warning on the fic? And if so, for what? Possibly triggering terminology?
