[DRAGON #305] F-bomb dropped, Doc M fascinated.

[Dr Midnight]

Hi.
So, for anyone who doesn't know, DRAGON #305 has a novella-length preview of George Martin's A FEAST FOR CROWS, which I took straight from the mailbox to the couch before reading completely.

One thing I wondered was how much editing would go on. DRAGON isn't what you might call PG, but they take steps to avoid referring to... certain things. The sealed section of #300 was pretty tame, so I thought that was about it for DRAGON's naughty wordage or offerings for mature audiences.

I start reading the story. The term "private parts" is mentioned, and I'm sure this is an editing thing, because, c'mon, what a silly term to use. I read on. A word comes up that is not about roosters, and my eyebrows shoot up. I'm impressed. Later still, references are made to the unlacing of certain things and the squeezin's of certain things therein. I'm astonished. Then, the "eff dash dash DASH" word (thank you Ralphie) comes slapping across my face.

The story wasn't sealed. There wasn't mention of "This story contains language" or anything of the sort. There wasn't even a blurb on George, or his series of excellent books.

Is this unprecedented for DRAGON? I mean, pardon me for squealing and giggling like a third grader, yelling "HE SAID A DIRTY WORD!" to the class, but... how blue has DRAGON gotten until now?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

You know ... I'm with you on this one, Doc. And I must say that I'm a little surprised at my own stance.

 

[Mark]

...how blue has DRAGON gotten until now?

That Dragon's so blue it's got Lightning coming out of it's ass...

 

[ColonelHardisson]

They probably cut some slack on the language because they have rarely gotten a writer of the stature of Martin. They've had Gardner Fox and Ben Bova, but as good as they are, they don't have the same fan base as Martin. Am I forgetting anyone?

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Am I forgetting anyone?

Salvatore. Weiss/Hickman back in the late 80s.

(I'm not comparing the authors in terms of ability, but rather in terms of fan base)

 

[Olive]

R A. Salvatore... he ever written for dragon?

i do know that it 304 the 'es-dash dash DASH' word is used. which i guess isn't as 'blue' (you funny americans) as the current word, but you know. but you can't censor martin. he's a big deal! and i think he would use 'private parts'.

 

[Mark]

Salvatore. Weiss/Hickman back in the late 80s.

(I'm not comparing the authors in terms of ability, but rather in terms of fan base)

And, perhaps more importantly, cross-over fan base?

 

[Darrin Drader]

Well, I guess the Disneyland days of TSR are dead and buried. This is even more drastic than what I would expect from WotC... I like it. Good for them! I hate censorship, and I hate it when an artist feels that he needs to restrain himself in order to be markettable.

Yet another title I wouldn't give to my kid brother-in-law, though.

 

[Dr Midnight]

Salvatore. Weiss/Hickman back in the late 80s.

These authors dropped the F, or were just writers of status featured in DRAGON?

To clarify, I'm not clucking my tongue or anything. It doesn't bother me. If I were a parent, I'd be a bit upset, as before this I'd never thought of DRAGON as something I'd have to read-through before handing off to a twelve year old.

I'm just so happy they gave me a new chunk of Uncle George's famous brownies, because the new batch isn't due out of the oven for months yet.

 

[Olive]

i guess as i'm not a parent i don't care. but given that my parents and i sware in front of each other, maybe i wouldn't care anyway!

so what's the story like?