Sensitivity readers: local editors dismiss their role and choose to take care of the approaches

Sensitivity readers: local editors dismiss their role and choose to take care of the approaches

Télam consulted editors of the national subsidiaries of the main labels and also independent imprints to finally conclude that, up to now, a “sensitivity sector” does not function within these structures. However, there are mechanisms and dynamics that address the thorny issues of the texts when they are printed and made available to the general public. While some believe that the absence of this role is due to the reduced organizational charts that set the book chain in motion in our country, others believe that a culture of publishing and reading is installed that can hardly withstand the filter of sensitivity. There is also a pragmatic look that understands this tendency as a daughter of its time and, at the same time, as “foreign”: like the rest of the imported questions, the disembarkation of the readers of sensitivity, perhaps, will take place in a while .

In the United Kingdom, the role of these readers has taken on such relevance that they are credited, among other things, with having influenced the decision of the Ladybird Books label to rewrite texts after finding several fairy tales “problematic”. In March, in the midst of the controversy over this “new cancellation”, The Guardian newspaper published an investigation in which it sought to know the people behind this new editorial dynamic. “They foist more power on us than we really have,” defended Helen Gould, a sensitivity reader cited by the publication. In addition, she explained that ultimately they suggest but that it is the authors and editors who can choose to accept their suggestions and implement changes or, finally, ignore them.

Like literary sleuths, they track content – that word from the world of advertising that little by little made its way into the literary and journalistic spheres – that may be offensive, inaccurate or stereotypical. But her role came under heavy questioning after changes to Roal Dahl’s children’s stories were made after consultation with Inclusive Minds, an organization that works with children’s book publishers “to support them in authentic representation.”

Fernando Fagnani, critic, editor and general manager of Edhasa in Argentina for more than a decade, dismisses the existence of “novelty” in pointing out issues of sensitivity when evaluating the publication of a book. “That was always done,” he warns. However, he believes that it is “outrageous to apply these criteria to texts published in 1920”: “For example, retouching the work of Agatha Christie with a contemporary bias is nonsense because it takes us away from knowing how people thought at that time and from knowing the sensibility of the society she was writing about. We can’t change social issues of the past by rewriting the works of authors of the time, it’s almost scandalous.”

In any case, and beyond his personal perception, Fagnani accepts with a certain resignation that it is probable that “the question of sensitive readers will reach the national publishing market in the future”, as everything does: “Fashions, when they they impose, they take time but they arrive”. I would like, however, that it does not happen: “Reading fiction should be a door to discover a world. And if in that process of discovery someone feels their sensitivity hurt, then they should simply leave it and choose another book. But the cut cannot be made a priori”.

Fagnani, however, notes to what extent the role of the “sensitivity reader” seems to him to be of little use in the daily practice of publishing. He explains that the reading reports -reports that the publisher commissions from seasoned and trained readers to learn first-hand the central issues of a text and have elements to decide on its publication- include, for decades, a section in which evaluate if they have references to symbolic or real violence of different types. “In fiction books we look at how these things are presented, how they are treated and in what context but it is non-prescriptive information,” he explains.

Another is the treatment given to non-fiction books: “If there is a xenophobic or racist reference, it is an alert in a non-fiction book, it is an immediate alert. We do not publish Nazis. It is rare, but today we must clarify even the most obvious issues.

Florencia Cambariere, Editorial Director Global VR Editoras, is in charge of one of the publishing houses that has grown the most in recent years in the country, thanks to the wave of youth literature. Responsible for outlining what the label publishes in Argentina, Spain, Mexico and Brazil, she believes that in order to address the issue it is necessary to investigate what material a catalog articulates. “We can think about it the other way around from how it is proposed to us now. If one wanted to understand a time, one could investigate what the publishers published, in fiction and non-fiction, during those years. Because surely, the publishers were after the sensibility of a society I think that erasing issues from literature that can be epochal marks leaves us without reference”, he analyzes.

He tells, for example, that after the consecration of Jorge Bergoglio as Pope, he took care of selling the rights to a book that he had written during his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires. And he asked, in each one of the translations, that the authorship of “Jorge Bergoglio” appear; That would be a clear sign that that book gave an account of his thinking during his years as a religious in Argentina.

It makes some distinctions for the edition of a catalog of contemporary reading. “In the reading reports that we request about the manuscripts, among the many things that we consult, is whether any of the content is offensive. This does not imply, a priori, censorship of the text, but it does enable a dynamic conversation with the author about why and for what literary purpose that decision is made”, he explains.

“I understand when writers, and it is something that is happening a lot abroad, complain that these operations tend to wash the works or when they shoot you in the heart of meaning. But it is impossible to generalize on this, a lot depends on each catalog and the imprint of each author”, he distinguishes.

He also accepts that there may be a distinction between what is usually called “high literature”, intended for readers with experience and some training, and “more commercial” literature, in which a way of approaching more passatist texts is involved. .

“We are interested in being careful, and especially when we target readers in training. When we address sensitive topics -related to health, the body, ties or -it seems important to us to be careful and put empathy into play when we publish books for young people or children”, maintains Cambariere and accepts that editors are, with their cuts and preferences, also opinion makers.

Melisa Corbetto has been the editor of the VR Editoras youth catalog for five years and believes that the catalog should have an imprint of “responsibility and diversity”. “They are books for young people, they have to be interested in them, not their parents. But the approach has to be responsible,” she says.

He also says that although they do not have a team of sensitive readers who prescribe yes and no, to deal with issues such as teenage pregnancy, abortion, Nazism or abuse, they resort to the advice of psychologists or professionals trained in specific issues.

“We understand that our readers, due to their age and training, are sensitive and vulnerable to certain issues. Our books are entertaining, but they also play a role in psycho-emotional training.” And he explains that it is not a question, in this case, of capriciously covering a sensibility, but of putting it in context to care for it.

Source: Ambito

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