{"id":4171,"date":"2017-08-22T08:03:49","date_gmt":"2017-08-22T13:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/?p=4171"},"modified":"2017-08-22T08:03:49","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T13:03:49","slug":"on-taylor-swifts-groping-and-censoring-updike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/2017\/08\/22\/on-taylor-swifts-groping-and-censoring-updike\/","title":{"rendered":"On Taylor Swift’s groping and censoring Updike"},"content":{"rendered":"

The August 15, 2017 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em>\u00a0featured a Lingua Franca<\/em> piece by Ben Yagoda<\/strong> titled “Of Cans and Cabooses” that begins and ends with the recent court case over singer Taylor Swift’s groping assault but also circles around to John Updike’s famous and frequently anthologized short story, “A&P.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>“The sensitivity and sometimes embarrassment over naming this body part goes way back. In 1960, John Updike submitted to the then-prudish The New Yorker <\/em>a short story called \u201cA&P,\u201d which contained the line: \u201cShe was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can.\u201d His editor, William Maxwell, suggested changing\u00a0can <\/em>to butt<\/em>, to which Updike replied:<\/p>\n

You must be kidding about \u201cbutt.\u201d It\u2019s really just as crude as \u201ccan.\u201d I think the real answer is \u201ctail\u201d \u2014 but every time I sit down to go over the proof of A&P, I choke up with the silly sacrifice of \u201ccan.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“A compromise was reached in which the young lady was described as having a ‘sweet broad backside.’ Updike restored can<\/em> when he published ‘A&P’ in a short-story collection.<\/p>\n

“Updike\u2019s comment about butt <\/em>is interesting. I feel that over the past half-century-plus, the word has gotten less crude. I use it in mixed company, and in the classroom on the rare occasions that the topic comes up. But it\u2019s still too informal for The New York <\/em>Times<\/em>,” Yagoda writes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The August 15, 2017 edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education\u00a0featured a Lingua Franca piece by Ben Yagoda titled “Of Cans and Cabooses” that begins and ends with the recent court case over singer Taylor Swift’s groping assault but also … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":818,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-person-singular","category-updike-in-context"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/818"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4173,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4171\/revisions\/4173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.iwu.edu\/johnupdikesociety\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}