For some years it has become more common to edit a finished novel, anime, program etc so that it becomes acceptable for a "wider audience ". Until now my position was : as long as the author is okay with it and it doesn't lose key concepts. I am good with it. However i read about mupia censorship scandal https://namu.wiki/w/문피아 남성향 검열 논란#toc And i don't know anymore. So what you guys think about editing finished works? There were so many examples of editing that i don't know what are acceptable anymore. Added regular editing to the poll. Just to be clear regular editing is taking the author opinion edit it so that it can enjoyed in other media ex: from a regular book to a illustrated children's book.
Bowdlerizing, abridging, etc fall under the umbrella of editing and I wouldn't consider them wrong as they were how I first came into contact with novels as a child and developed my reading habit. But at the same time, there must be transparency about the extent of editing done as well as access to the unedited version for those who would prefer it. And of course, the authors get to have a say in it.
For me, I want to read the original story that the author wrote rather than a story that has been altered due to potentially offensive content
I'm totally ok with it if there's multiple versions, e.g. one censored version along with the original, but it should not be a replacement for the original work. Of course I don't think that just because a work has mature content or whatever will make it better than not, but if the author put that content in then they did so for a reason, if it was not meant to be there by them then it should not have to be removed in the first place. I would 100% be OK with an author having some content changed or removed because they think that their work would be improved, that's just part of the regular process, any decent novel will have gone through some editing and rewriting. But it's a big no no if the author thinks they've made the novel as they wanted but then change it just for censorship or reaching a broader audience etc. Because in that case the author doesn't actually think that the change will improve the work
Any editing that compromises the original author's work. I.e. if you don't want to translate ero scenes don't pick up a novel with gratuitous porn. If a novel takes places in an era of patriarchy don't add in 'he or she' everywhere but keep it however the author wrote it. Even racism should be kept as it is, as it's a part of certain times and expands your understanding of what it means to be racist and the subsequent impact on people. If you can't handle something, just translate something else.
Ideally I agree with you. However even the Bible translation is said to have problems. So our less relevant novels and mangas are much more likely to have problematic editing.
I read an edited version of Mandela's autobiography. Basically it was a condensed version. It was very interesting, but also long and some parts were tedious so I wouldn't have read the unedited version. And I like it when authors write a revised/new version of their stories, it's interesting. But editing that actively changes the content of the book, like adjusting the meaning or removing parts that aren't politically correct doesn't sit right with me. It's censorship. I get the purpose. It's nice to read a cool fantasy novel where you don't get ambushed by sudden misogyny. But I'd prefer if they just put trigger warnings at the start of the chapter and put a signal at the start and end of the triggering part so you can skip it. Removing it altogether is opening a door to more changes. I hate gratuitious sexual assault in stories, but the current atmosphere where authors get bullied into revealing their own sexual assault stories so the public opinion agrees to them writing books about sexual assault is just bullsh*t. The amount of policing around it is insane. Not to mention all the people who would take the opportunity to remove all lgbtqai+ content in stories and call it childproofing them. We should educate people about these subjects, and let authors write in peace. For the ones who'll write dumb sh*t we'll get others who will write moving, fascinating stories.
I hate this idea unless it's done as a joke. Basically what you have is a random person making changes willy-nilly to a story and presenting it as an improvement to the real thing. This random person is doing all of this without any regard for what the original creator was doing, and it's basically butchery. Also, this is something that translators used to do; removing any offensive material in the book they're translating, and some of this still happens. The flip side of things is that it's perfectly okay for books and other stories to be bad. We should allow this to happen, and anyone wanting to "improve" things should work on their material instead.