Forum / Stories marked "Explicit Material"

• 
  Susan Tepper

  Mar 19, 04:58pm

  the last feew stories i've read have been marked with a blue box saying: explicit material, etc and offering me the chance to turn away.

  i'm curious how this process of deciding what is explicit is operating here at fn'aut?

  who could be reading every story and making that choice? I doubt Jurgen has that kind of spare time.

  I was quite surprised to see an explicit box for "The Serious Writer and His Penis"-- a story that cirucluated f'naut for several yrs witout any explicit warning.

  Basically-- what does it take for a story to become "explicit" here?

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Mar 19, 05:35pm

  Perhaps it's marked "explicit" because Nietzsche is mentioned explicitly in that story? Someone should let Finnegan Flawnt know but not me, we're not on speaking terms.

• 
  Darryl Price

  Mar 19, 06:03pm

  Oh which badge to wear? Solidarity/ Oh yes. We're all explicit in that we are speaking our minds at all. Perhaps explicit means you've stepped over some imaginary line gathered up into a dark cloud and spread into a line to mean others without your sentiments are out and about in your neck of the woods? Nah, too mundane. Good writing is good writing. Can't we decide for ourselves if something doesn't quite meet our taste standards?Where's it gonna end? Has anyone thought about the freedoms at stake? I'm sure you have--and that's why were having this silly conversation. Mr. Flawnt always pushed the envelope and often created quite a stir. I thank him for it.I don't know. Like I said it seems silly to tell a writer he or she is being explicit--shouldn't they already be aware of this fact? Too many questions.The only answer is: Good God when did we put the politically correct police in the far corner office and give them a veto pen to use whenever they feel like it? Still too much? Well then jump in and by all means point out the many different perspectives still not represented in the talking here, but remember, who is actually free if no one is actually free?

• 
  Joani Reese

  Mar 19, 06:04pm

  It's probably a computer-generated program that identifies and flags specific words like penis, cock, cunt, etc., Susan. This post will probably be flagged.

• 
  Susan Tepper

  Mar 19, 06:14pm

  I ahve only seen it here in one case before this, on a story that was rabidly anti-semitic in the worst sense, a story that used violent anti-semtic sex language against Jewish women. A story like that should certainly be flagged as it had no redeeming value and was written very poorly. But are all stories with the words cock, cunt, penis, etc going to get the blue box warning now? That is a tough restriction to impose when these are words that are used freely in other print medium such as the esteemed The New Yorker (to name one). And of course in film those words are bandied about. I would like to know "how" a story gets flagged as explicit.

• 
  Meg Tuite

  Mar 19, 06:31pm

  This is a strange phenomena and Marcus, you always make me laugh!!! I agree with you, Susan and Darryl. There is enough policing going on out there! If someone doesn't want to read a story they can move on to the next. No need for some flag that states explicit by someone else's standards. Thanks for calling my attention to it, Susan. I didn't even know it was happening. Wow!

• 
  Susan Tepper

  Mar 19, 11:17pm

  Jurgen or Carson, could you tell us what the guidelines are for "explicit" and how a story falls into that area?

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Mar 20, 02:00am

  I go away for a while, come back and find... what? Has the Disney Group made a leveraged move on Fictionaut? Did we get a warning from Rick Santorum? Is this some moral caveat that comes with the advertisements?

  Golly! (Not my usual verbal response to things like this, but hey, I don't wanna scare anybody... Yo?). I was just trying to deal with all the changes, the formatting problems, screen freeze on IE, distracting, flashing ads on eye level with posted work... and now we have rated warnings to satisfy... who?

  I missed the memo. Are we targetting a new demographic over here? What's happening? How did this happen? What's next? Do I have to sign a pledge? Whaaaat?

• 
  Linda Simoni-Wastila

  Mar 20, 02:02am

  I don't see the explicit notice anywhere. Can someone please point me in the direction of all the explicit stories? Please?

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Mar 20, 02:12am

  Hey, maybe it's a hoax. I'll post something and see if it gets a notice. I tend to do the profane at times and I have one old story that might just might prompt the 'blue' medallion if there is one.

• 
  James Lloyd Davis

  Mar 20, 02:23am

  Never mind. I can't get the story to format in a readable fashion. (Sigh) Guess it's time to move on.

• 
  Susan Tepper

  Mar 20, 04:16pm

  As I mentioned above, "The Serious Writer and His Penis" has been marked explicit. If you pull that up you will see.
  If it's a computer program that is targeting certain words, as Joani suggested, I beleivewe need to know.

• 
  Marcus Speh

  Mar 20, 04:51pm

  susan is referring to mr flawnt's story which is here btw:

  http://www.fictionaut.com/stories/finnegan-flawnt/the-serious-writer-and-his-penis

  we must all move on. this obsession with penises and pussies seems to belong to an earlier phase of fictionaut. the end of genital material? what's next?

• 
  Gessy Alvarez

  Mar 20, 06:02pm

  I don't like this at all...

• 
  Susan Tepper

  Mar 20, 07:06pm

  I don't think we need to be upset, but we do need clarification on how a story gets marked explicit here. What process makes a story explicit on fictionaut?-- is the question at hand.
  Jurgen or Carson could you jump in here and tell us: are certain words picked up by computer program that pushes story into that explicit box?

• 
  Misti Rainwater-Lites

  Mar 20, 07:14pm

  Yeah! Why aren't any of MY stories marked with the explicit warning? This pisses me off! I will try harder!

  Frank Zappa would puke all over this.

• 
  Susan Tepper

  Mar 21, 01:26am

  Well, Misti, if the explicit police have missed your stories, then the system is seriously flawed! You are the Queen of Explicit! You def deserve to be pissed off. God Bless Frank Zappa.

• 
  Misti Rainwater-Lites

  Mar 21, 02:24am

  Haha. The Queen of Explicit. I like that.

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