According to a new Android and iOS e-reader app, the definition of "strong language" is somewhat broad. Clean Reader, developed by husband and wife team Jared and Kirsten Maughan after their teenage daughter expressed dismay over some cuss words in a book she read, is designed to keep users who hate naughty words from having to see them. Its tag line: "Read books, not profanity."

新研发出的一款同时适用于Android和iOS系统的电子阅读应用程序对“冒犯语言”的定义比较宽泛。该应用叫Clean Reader是由贾里德和克里斯汀•莫恩夫妇俩研发的。他们的女儿看书时被书中的脏话困扰，于是他们就设计了此应用，目的在于让用户避免看到那些污秽的词语。他们的口号：“读书，不读污。”

How it works is that you load your ebook into the app via iTunes; you can then select one of three filter levels, from mild censorship to the full monty; and the app does a find-and-replace using a database of offensive words selected by the Maughans, replacing them with "clean" versions.

你可以通过iTunes将你的电子书加载到该应用程序，然后可以从从适度审查到全部审查的三个过滤级别中选择一个，该程序运用查找和替换功能，借助莫恩事先设定的一个”冒犯”词汇数据库，从文中找出污秽词汇之后用文明的词汇来代替。

For example, body parts in the genital region of women are all turned into "bottom"; the f-bomb becomes "freak"; "breast" becomes "chest", which at least is relatively¹ analogous²; "Jesus" becomes "gee³" (which is actually a euphemistic corruption⁴ of "Jesus"); "Oh my God" becomes "Oh my goodness"; "whore" becomes "hussy"; "bitch" becomes "witch" (which could get somewhat confusing if the book actually discusses dogs).

例如，女性生殖器官相关的身体部位全被替换为“下部”，f打头的那个四字词被替换为“怪物”（freak），“乳房”替换为“胸部”，至少这样的替换还算是一个类别的；“Jesus”替换成了“gee”(这个词其实也是委婉指耶稣的简称形式)，“哦,我的上帝（Oh my God）”替换成“哦我的天啊(Oh my goodness)”;“妓女”替换为“轻佻的女子（hussy）”;“婊子”替换为“女巫”(如果这本书是关于狗的，这样的替换会让人不解)。

This has the potential for some interesting mishaps⁵; GLBT News, for instance, reports a character named "Dick" being converted to "groin." More importantly, however, authors are incensed⁶ that the app changes their work without their consent.

这种替换方式必定会引发一些让人啼笑皆非的笑话，比如，根据GLBT新闻报道，有一本书中名叫“迪克”的角色全部被替换为“腹股沟（groin）”。更严重的是，一些作家因为此应用在未经他们同意的情况下，替换他们的作品内容而感到恼火。

As "Chocolat" author Joanne Harris pointed⁷ out on her blog, the issue is not necessarily one of vocabulary, but censorship.

浓情巧克力》的作者乔安娜·哈里斯在她的博客上指出，这并不只是词汇的问题，而是审查制度的问题。

"Most writers think very hard about the kind of language they use. Some of us are well-nigh obsessive⁸ about our choice of words -- and those of us who are published in theUSoften have to fight to retain our British spellings and vocabulary," she wrote. "We do this because we care about books. We care about language. And if we use profanity (which sometimes, we do) it is always for a reason."

她在博客中写道，“大部分作家很注重语言风格的使用，一些作家对词汇的选择几乎到了着迷的程度，那些在美国发表的作品，我们还得努力争取保留书中的英式英语拼写和词汇。我们这样做是因为我们在乎我们的作品，在乎我们使用的语言，如果我们使用粗鲁的词汇（有时我们会使用），也是出于我们的特定理由。

Moreover, the censorship imposed by Clean Reader is subjective⁹, based on a good-and-bad value judgement decided¹⁰ by the Maughans -- although the Clean Reader website also does ask readers to suggest words they'd like to see filtered if the app does not already do so.

此外,“清洁读者”应用软件所做的审查是主观的,它仅仅基于莫恩设定的一个好坏价值评判标准——虽然清洁读者网站希望读者提交他们希望过滤但是该应用还没有过滤的词汇。

"It's clear from the list of words you consider 'profane¹¹' that this app is designed to impose a Christian¹² agenda on books," Harris wrote in an open letter to Clean Reader. "This is insulting to non-Christians. The pejorative¹³ use of the word 'witch' as a substitute for 'bitch' is offensive to pagans, and illustrates¹⁴ your religious bias¹⁵."

哈里斯在给“清洁读者”的一封公开信中写道，“从你们认定为‘不敬’的词汇列表中明显能看出此应用程序是把基督教的要求强加到了书籍上。这对非基督徒是一种冒犯。把witch（女巫）这个词用来替换贬损意味的bitch一词，这是对异教徒的冒犯,同时也表明了你的宗教偏见。”

She also points out that, if the idea is supposed to benefit young readers, it fails dismally¹⁶; calling every part of a woman's reproductive anatomy¹⁷ a "bottom", for example, could be very confusing to a child, and is therefore counter-productive.

她还指出，如果这个想法是为了让年轻读者受益，那么它败得很惨。 将女性的所有的生殖器官部分都称为“底部”, 会使孩子非常困惑，所以这样的做法会适得其反。

The Clean Reader team is adamant¹⁸, however that the app is not only not doing anything wrong -- it is, they claim, perfectly¹⁹ legal, since they app does not change the epub source file, but merely how it is displayed on the screen -- but that authors who are unhappy with the alteration²⁰ of their work should defer²¹ to anyone who spends money on that book, comparing the app to the optional profanity beeping on NPR podcasts.

然而，清洁读者团队则固执地认为，这个应用程序不仅没有做错任何事情——而且是完全合法的,因为他们的应用不会改变电子书的源文件,而仅仅是对其显示在屏幕上的样式做了改变，就跟NPR播客上用哔哔声代替一些不雅词汇一样。他们还指出，那些对改变自己作品不满意的作家应尊重花钱购买自己作品的读者。

"Some people like the impact certain words have on the narrative²², dialogue, or setting of a book. Other people are indifferent to it. And some are offended by it... Yes the author/artist felt specific swear words worked best for their work of art, but for some of their audience these same words are what detract from the book," the Clean Reader team wrote on its blog.

清洁读者团队在博客上写道：”有些人喜欢某些词语对故事,对话,或故事背景产生的影响，但其他人并不在意，还有一些人因此受到冒犯……确实一些作家/艺术家认为特定的脏话可以对作品产生最好的效果，但对于他们的一些读者来说，这些词语会使作品失色。”

"So will some authors be offended that some of their consumers use Clean Reader to pick out most of the profanity in their books? Perhaps. Should the reader feel bad about it? Nope. They've paid good money for the book, they can consume it how they want."

“所以一些作家会因为读者购买使用“清洁读者”应用把他们作品中大部分粗鲁的词汇挑出来而生气吗?也许吧，读者应该对此有愧疚感吗?不。他们已经花钱购买了这本书籍,他们就可以按自己喜欢的方式使用它。"

The good news for authors is that the money users pay for these ebooks is no longer going to Clean Reader. Inktera, the platform through which Clean Reader was selling ebooks (and making a percentage of sales), has withdrawn²³ from the app.

对作家们来说，好消息是清洁读者应用不会拿到读者购买电子书的一分钱，“清洁读者”用以出售电子书的Inktera平台对其下架。

Sci-fi author Chuck Wendig also had this to say to readers who would prefer to read a censored²⁴ version of his work:

科幻作家查克·温迪科对那些喜欢读过滤版作品的读者有话说。

"You may say, 'But I want to read your books, just without all that nasty business.' To which I say, 'then I don't want you reading my books. Nothing personal, but I wrote the thing the way I wrote the thing. If that troubles you, then I don't want you reading it.'"

“有人可能会说,‘我想读你的作品，但是不想要那些粗俗语言’，对此我的回答是“那我不想让你读我的书。不是针对任何人,我只是按我的方式写我的书。如果你觉得这样会冒犯你,那么我希望你不要读它。”