Chris Phoenix
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
A PG-rated version of Sharing Knife would be readable by any kid who could handle (for example) Wings of Fire. I'm reading large excerpts to my kid already (and Knife Children unedited). She especially likes the malice-kill scenes. Would you consider producing such a thing? I'd buy it, and I suspect I'm far from the only parent who would.
Lois McMaster Bujold
I can't imagine bowdlerizing my own work. I'm also not sure what it is you'd want left out -- sexual situations, I assume, but since the tale starts with an unplanned pregnancy and miscarriage, and since Fawn's (and Dag's) recovery and healing with each other very much includes sexual and emotional elements that take place in the few intimate scenes, that would sort of rip the center out of key themes.
You don't say how old your kid is. The books were never written for a grade-school audience -- high school and up, if anyone'd ever asked me. Mastering, or at least getting an initial grip on, adult sexuality is part of the work of adolescence, as is (initial) identity formation, so those parts of Fawn's journey are very pertinent to that age group. (I remember, doesn't anyone else...?)
Anyway, good for you as a parent reading to your kid, and taking your own responsibility for filtering.
Ta, L.
I can't imagine bowdlerizing my own work. I'm also not sure what it is you'd want left out -- sexual situations, I assume, but since the tale starts with an unplanned pregnancy and miscarriage, and since Fawn's (and Dag's) recovery and healing with each other very much includes sexual and emotional elements that take place in the few intimate scenes, that would sort of rip the center out of key themes.
You don't say how old your kid is. The books were never written for a grade-school audience -- high school and up, if anyone'd ever asked me. Mastering, or at least getting an initial grip on, adult sexuality is part of the work of adolescence, as is (initial) identity formation, so those parts of Fawn's journey are very pertinent to that age group. (I remember, doesn't anyone else...?)
Anyway, good for you as a parent reading to your kid, and taking your own responsibility for filtering.
Ta, L.
More Answered Questions
Derek
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Who is your favorite character to write? What is it that makes them stand out for you as an author?
Jonathan Palfrey
asked
Lois McMaster Bujold:
Penric can get water from the air, and also turn it to ice. I wonder what else? Purify seawater (any advantage over air?)? Concentrate alcoholic drinks (like winter wine but faster)? Separate water into hydrogen and oxygen (for what purpose?)? Weld objects together (maybe not just metals)? Heat food like a microwave oven, or freeze it? Nuclear fission, probably not. Nuclear fusion, surely not.
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