The Enid Blyton Society

What's Enable word censoring?
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     I don't know; but I would *guess* that it's an option that, when enabled, will block out "rude" words if they appear on the forum.
     Doesn't seem necessary to me. We very rarely get such words here anyway; but if they do appear I'm grown-up enough to be able to see them as they are without freaking out. And some may feel that children shouldn't see them; but surely most children, if they see "****" (or however they are obscured) will, given the context, guess what the word is meant to be.
     And is it any less offensive if obscured in this way, but almost everyone can tell what was meant anyway?

Regards, Michael.

MJE wrote: And some may feel that children shouldn't see them; but surely most children, if they see "****" (or however they are obscured) will, given the context, guess what the word is meant to be.

Exactly, Michael, that is why I don't like to see asterisks replacing the missing letters. If you don't wish to offend, choose a different word.

As for children, they swear more than adults here. Get on our local bus in the morning and listen to the language used by schoolkids - it's the adults that need protecting.

Back OT, I have related elsewhere about another forum I occasionally visit where word censoring is used. Banned words include Arsenal and Scunthorpe. You can write what you like though, you just need to put a hyphen in between the offending letters, such as Ar-senal. Madness.

I thought I had found everything about the forums when Matthew first updated the software, but clearly this "word censor" thing slipped my eye! I have no idea what it does.

Well just to test it I have written the word "[censored]". You can see for yourselves how it appears. I agree with MJE and Ming; asterisks do nothing more than draw attention to the missing word. On a forum where people are mostly polite and where children are present it is best to simply choose another word. It is not necessary to swear on the Enid Blyton Forums.

Dash! Drat! Double blow! I say! Rather!

That's enough from me

*Faints from the foul language in LS's post*

Lucky Star wrote: On a forum where people are mostly polite and where children are present it is best to simply choose another word. It is not necessary to swear on the Enid Blyton Forums.

Swatisaid! I note though that for this exercise, you have not followed your opinion! Maybe you should delete it before the little ones work out how to discover what you wrote!

Interesting! I've enabled the censor just to see what it looks like and LS's word now reads "[censored]". Much better on my poor eyes.

     Here's an interesting question: what is the worst language that appears in a Blyton book?
     And a related question: when words like "blow" (as in "Blow you!") or "dratted" (as in "that dratted boy") appear in a book, are we to believe that angry people really spoke like that at the time the books were written? - or is this a "polite" way of representing swearing? I've even heard the opinion that terms like "Golly", "Gee", and "Gosh" (and various other Blytonisms) are really a softened form of taking the Lord's name in vain (i.e., "God", "Jesus"), although the usages must have been very far removed from such origins (if that is the origin) for Enid Blyton to have used them at all, because I don't think she would have put in her books anything she thought was close to taking the Lord's name in vain.
     Enid Blyton never seems to refer to swearing in her books (except possibly for "minced oaths" such as I just mentioned). But I do seem to recall one book (I forget which) that referred to someone shouting out something (the words being quoted) "with an oath". That would be a reference to swear words being added to the actual words quoted, wouldn't it?
     C. S. Lewis has characters occasionally say "By Jove!" This may be a reference to the ancient god Jupiter (Jovian being the adjective for referring to Jupiter); but I have also heard that, in this usage, "Jove" is short for "Jehovah", which of course is an Anglicized rendering of the Tetragrammaton, or the ancient Hebrew name for God.
     I think I have seen linkages to (a) swearing, (b) bodily functions, or (c) God or Jesus drawn with regard to almost any colloquial exclamation, so I don't know if some of these are spurious, and the theorizers perhaps a bit too eager to see profane or blasphemous connotations in any number of common expressions which in fact may in many case be entirely innocent. (e.g., "Cripes" or "Crikey" has been regarded as a distorted form of "Christ"; "darn" has been linked to "damn"; "heck" to "hell" - and so on, and so on.) Sometimes looking up the word in question in Wikipedia leads to a discussion on the origin of the word, and such possibilities are often discussed; athough it seems that, in the end, the origin of many slang terms of this sort remains uncertain.

Regards, Michael.

MJE wrote:      And a related question: when words like "blow" ..... are we to believe that angry people really spoke like that at the time the books were written?

I must be really old, as I still say "Blow" now on occasion! "Oh blow, it's raining again," for example. I also use bother and drat!

I say 'blow' in moments of annoyance. Another similar word that my mother used was 'botheration'. 'Damn' was probably the strongest word I ever heard in my household when I was growing up, and was considered something that we children shouldn't copy. When I was a teenager I used the word 'hell' and got told off for that too.

Between my upbringing and Enid Blyton books it's been a bit of a shock venturing into the 'real' world at times.

When really cross, I have been known to say, "Botheration be blowed!" I was not allowed to say "Damn" as a child, neither were words which were alternative words for other swear words - for example, "ruddy" which was another way of saying "bloody". Blasphemy was outlawed too. Having said that, it taught me that to use copious amounts of swearing was not necessary. You have also got to keep something in reserve for when you shut your finger in the door!

Ah yes, 'ruddy', another word that was frowned upon. I like 'Botheration be blowed', I shall have to remember that one, next time I'm feeling vexed.

I agree that frequent swearing is unnecesary (as well as being unpleasant). There was an odd occasion or two when words slightly stronger were used in our household, but if we ever heard a parent utter one of those we knew it must be really serious and it was best if we kept out of the way. I think my father cutting the top of his head open on the tailgate of the car justified something a little stronger than 'bother'.

I don't think ''Drat'', ''Blow'', Bother '' are to be censored. Don't we sometimes say '' Bother this wind.'' In many Enid Blyton books there are words like- ''Blow'' used often enough. Don't think anything wrong with that.