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I happen to agree, but I feel the need to explain why “rape” is used this way. The original meaning of the word was “to take by force”. Using it to exclusively
by kayodelycaon 5y ago
I happen to agree, but I feel the need to explain why “rape” is used this way.
The original meaning of the word was “to take by force”. Using it to exclusively describe sexual assault is a more modern thing.
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/rape https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/rape
This kind of double meaning in English is very common. The word murder can also be used as “to perform badly”.
A way to look at it is English often has two forms of words like this. There is murder (general) and there is Murder (specific).
As someone who is bipolar, the “misuse” of labels around mental health is aggravating. The misuse of “rape” is the same.
The general usage of words dilutes the impact of the specific use. I’d love to bring back capital letters to English nouns. That way we could use Murder and murder to clarify what which meaning is used.
- tokai 5y agoBut the 'take by force' meaning does not make sense, as nothing is being taken from anyone. While its a literary crime, Black Sparrow Press is not doing something they don't have the right to do.
- kayodelycaon 5y agoYou’re taking a direct translation of the root words literally and only applying it to mean legal rights and excluding moral or ethical rights. In this case, they are taking the original work, corrupting it, and passing it off as the original. Legal, but definitely not moral or ethical. I think “rape” is a little strong, but not inaccurate.
- tokai 5y ago>root words literally and only applying it to mean legal rights No I'm not.
- WillPostForFood 5y agoIf this bothers you, definitely don’t read Bukowski. He uses offensive metaphors that could cause serious damage to you!
- smoyer 5y agoI also came here to complain about this use of the word "rape". If you titled this article "The Tragic Rape of Charles Bukowski's Poetry", then it would be used solely as the original meaning. The current title is specifically designed to invoke the idea of a sexual assault - what if the title used the word "Corpse" instead of "Ghost"?
- kayodelycaon 5y agoIt definitely could. Depends on the meaning of “ghost”. In context of the article, I took ghost to mean “legacy”, rather than the person. English is frustratingly imprecise.
- adhesive_wombat 5y agoThe imprecision is a very human and cultural aspect of language where much poetry sneaks in, though. If we all spoke Lojban, I'm sure the poetry would be very precise, but I wonder if it could convey the same things.
- adolph 5y agoI think the word would be "Corpus" not "Corpse." Also, is sexual contact with a corpse rape? As of 2015 it was not in Massachusetts and many other US states: When you die, you lose your status as a person, Troyer explains, although you are still human, your body or your remains are quasi property. “You’re not really a subject, but you’re not fully an object,” he says. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/04/necrophilia-laws-massachusetts-loophole-aaron-vega https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/sep/04/necroph...
- itisit 5y agoI think the vulgarity is very much in line with the subject matter.