This month's IWSG question is an interesting one: Have you ever written something that afterward made you feel conflicted about it? If so, did you let it stay as it was or change it?
In the first book of my Bubba and Squirt series, Bubba and Squirt's Big Dig to China, I have young Bubba use some bathroom humor. I figured the kids would like it. Kind of like Captain Underpants. When it was reviewed by a reader slightly older than the intended audience, I received feedback that the humor was disrespectful to the culture. I was appalled that somebody would feel that way, and it was certainly not my intention to offend anyone! Since the book has already been published, I did not change it, but had I known this beforehand, I would have eliminated this kind of humor.
What about you? Have you ever written anything you weren't sure you should write?
This month's grand adventure is a trip to the zoo to feed a giraffe!
Humour is always disrespectful to someone. It would be a very dull world if we couldn't laugh at ourselves.
ReplyDeleteI agree!
DeleteWhat jabblog said. You certainly can't please everyone with humor so don't stress it.
ReplyDeleteYes. I still don't want to offend someone's culture, though!
DeleteI agree with Alex that you shouldn't stress out about the comments. I think most kids would like that kind of humor, and it's in lots of books.
ReplyDeleteMost kids enjoy it, so I'm not going to worry about it too much.
DeleteStirring up reaction is a good thing in my book.
ReplyDeleteI guess it makes things interesting.
DeleteI'm not surprised someone complained about bathroom humor. There will always be that one. The question is: was that a common complaint or did you get *one* complaint? If there was one, I'd ignore it as that person. Many more than one...
ReplyDeleteIt was just one. So I don't think my writing was over-the-top.
DeleteHumor is so subjective, I doubt we could ever get everyone on the same page. I know one of the gals who used to be in my critique group has a vastly different sense of humor than me. She'll wrinkle her nose at my stuff, and then refer to shows I detest as ways to do humor. Everyone's going to have a problem with something.
ReplyDeleteTrue. Everyone has a different sense of humor.
DeleteNo real regrets, although my second MG (never published, but got me an agent) had some current NO-NOs. Specifically, a side character of a different race, and I was deaf to the notion that that's not the way to go in publishing today. Both I and my first agent (then inexperienced, too) learned. It is a good story, but not publishable nowadays.
ReplyDeleteIt's so hard to be politically correct all the time!
DeleteHumour is so personal. It's impossible to write something everyone finds funny. If anyone ever figures out how to do that, they'll be the one to change the world!
ReplyDeleteHaha! True statement.
DeleteHumor is a hard one. I have told a few jokes from the pulpit that I wish I could have taken back--one I remember is about two men who died (this was in the 90s) and heaven was full, so St. Peter told them they could go back to earth as anything they wanted until their rooms were ready. One said he wanted to be an eagle in the Rocky Mountains. Poof, he was gone. The other said he wanted to be a stud in Las Vegas. Poof, he was gone.... a few weeks later, Peter sent Gabriel to find the two men. He said one will be the highest flying eagle in the Rockies, but the other will be harder to find since there is a lot of building going on in Vegas... There were people who thought that wasn't appropriate. -Jeff https://fromarockyhillside.com
ReplyDeleteHaha! Good one! There will always be those who don't find some things funny.
DeleteIt never occurred to me that Bubba's humor was disrespectful to any culture. I have my doubts about that, and as Liz says above, if it was one person, then it's a complaint easily overlooked. It's not as if hundreds of people rose up to complain about your book.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
It was only one person. I still felt bad about it, though. Definitely don't want anyone thinking I'm offending their culture!
Deletehumor is high level in communication.... not all people understand.....
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful day
That's true.
DeleteHumor can be tough because it is so subjective. But I think it is good that you listened to what they review said, but realize if you had known something was disrespectful you wouldn't have included it. Something similar happened to me- and once it came to my attention I couldn't change the book- but I did try to clear it up in my next book. :) Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were able to clear it up in your next book. I'm trying to be very careful now, so hopefully it won't happen again.
DeleteLiving in the north east of England toilet humour is pretty much the order of the day. I think the 'problem' is that humour in itself is subjective and will no doubt offend someone somewhere and with toilet humour this is probably heightened.
ReplyDeleteYou never know how people are going to take it.
Delete