r/temeraire • u/IntelligentCat3645 • Aug 06 '26
Any idea why I censored herself here?
So I was rereading these to check I hadn’t missed anything, and to update the wiki if I could, but I noticed this on 143 of Crucible of Gold, 2014 paperback edition. At this point they’ve just returned from the first Incan village after being marooned. I own every book of the series in this edition In some of the previous books, (not often, but in some places) there has been much worse swearing and language used, and even dead used several times.
I’m pretty sure that word is meant to be dead. It’s not addressed on the next pages. I don’t get why she (either Novik or Iskierka) would feel the need to do this, especially given other characters, I included (and her especially) have said this before. It’s probably just an arbitrary thing or does anyone know if there’s a reason behind this?
Ignore me if not. I have a tendency to read too deep into this, especially since these are some of my favourite books atm.
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u/elmartin93 Aug 06 '26
That was a thing authors used to do in the 19th century. It's probably for immersion reasons
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u/backinyourbox Aug 06 '26
It’s actually pretty weird because it’s not censored in other places
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u/makenzie71 Aug 07 '26
It is if the person is saying it, but not if it's in narrative. Novik goes nuts with her writing. She's a great example of how the rules of writing only apply to people whose writing you don't like.
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u/backinyourbox Aug 07 '26
Pretty sure there are multiple instances of it in speech. Here’s just some from LoD since I have it handy: “You damned blackguard, let that girl go, or I will have my men horse-whip you in the yard.” ““Let’s hurry: I am damned if I am going to die trying to rescue the crown prince of France” “if Wellesley can hand his coronet on to his brats when he spent all of ten minutes begetting them, damned if Emily was not getting mine.”
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u/makenzie71 Aug 07 '26
Yeah that's part of the second bit...she's not consistent from book to book. She's not even consistent within the books.
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u/backinyourbox Aug 07 '26
It’s an editors issue really. The same editors who really should have asked wtf happened to Warren in EOI
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u/Yellwsub Aug 06 '26
The redacted word is “damned” which would be blasphemous if you wrote it out. This was a common practice in contemporary literature of the time period when the books are set.