The Bible -- regendered!

[neotoma]

The King James Bible (AKA the Queen Jamie Bible) run through the regender filter is a ridiculously fun read. And lets you notice things, like Eve doesn't even get a *name* until the the third chapter of Genesis...

I'm kind of tempted to feed slashfics through it to see what happens -- do the characters still work if m/m becomes f/f? Or does it all become terribly confusing?

Comments

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

I suspect it gets confusing.

Do it and share the results!

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Well, the Bible certainly reads differently when it's the Holy Scripture of the Lady Goddess and Her daughter Jessica Christ.

penknife just did it with some of her stories (http://penknife.livejournal.com/193086.html). I'm tempted to run some of my favorite SW and HP stories through, but I'm also scared of what the results will be.

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

HEE! Must look next week.

DUUDE. Awesome. I should play with this.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

It's two women with male genitalia, which is interesting. I ran "Clipped Wings" through the filter and thought there were times when it improved the story.

It was also interesting reading some of my _Sailor Moon_ fiction with the regender filter, as it actually heterosexualized some of the lesbianism.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the explicit sex scenes are going to get weird, no matter what you look at it. Because of the way the regender engine works, you get MPreg and transgenderism all over the place -- which is still useful for examing one's assumptions about gender.

It was also interesting reading some of my _Sailor Moon_ fiction with the regender filter, as it actually heterosexualized some of the lesbianism.

*Really?*

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wrote first-person female for most of them, and the protagonist's name wasn't changed but her/his love interest's was. So my hero was addressing the love interest as male, but didn't have any gendered pronouns of her/his own to switch from feminine to masculine, so to me it read like a heterosexual romance. If that makes sense.

One of the stories felt more like a traditional fairy tale through the regender filter. The idea of four female warriors is still somewhat transgressive, but when they become male, the narrative is much more conventional.

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

I ran my Human Kind (http://www.livejournal.com/users/leni_jess/104732.html) through it (my new name is Leni Jessica, yay!). That's SS/HG. It was disconcerting that they'd changed sex (though not sexual characteristics), but their names hadn't been amended. This happened for a lot of the Potterverse characters: we did have Peggy Pettigrew, and Harry successfully made the transition to Harriet; Merlin is Melissa; Lucius is Lucille - *swoons*; Draco, Narcissa and Rodolphus, though, also keep their names. Bellatrix kept her name once, then was Benjamin next time (*shakes head reprovingly*). It was fun that there is now a significant day called 'Hallows' Evan'.

It can't handle some aspects of grammar: 'her' is both objective and possiessive forms, and was translated to 'his' (not every time, but mostly) where 'him' would have been appropriate. No adequate grammar check, I suppose. This makes reading a bit jerky; my beta instincts kick in. I don't know that I can bear to read it all, however much good it might do my assumptions about sex and gender!

It's sad that you can't sic this onto a story on Skyehawke or The Archive; it picks up some prelimary or post notes, but not, so far, the story text. It works on LJ URLs okay.

Thanks for the mention; I'll have a go at Genesis when I feel stronger.

It's not perfect...

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

but it's pretty good. It doesn't do to well with atypical names -- I bet it took 'Bella', but not 'Bellatrix'.

The Bible is pretty funny, since it starts with Ada and Evan and goes from there. It has a bit of trouble with the Gospels, since it only knowns a few names to substitute, so you have two Gospels of Mary -- and it doesn't handle the nativity story at all well, so you have unintended MPreg there. But it's fairly interesting to see the Bible retold with a cast that's 90% female. The Book of Ruth regendered is particularly interesting.

Re: It's not perfect...

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

No, it was Bellatrix in full both times. What I plan to run through it next is one of my Lucius/Harry stories, since I now know both names get a translation. (I just have to find one where neither Draco nor Severus has a large part.)

I got through the first three books of Genesis, and was interested in my instinctive feel that 'God' alone is okay, but it should be 'the Goddess'. Literary and social conditioning, I guess.

The Book of Ruth should be good, but what I really look forward to reading is Esther! That should turn quite a few conventions on their heads.

Re: It's not perfect...

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

Re Book of Ruth: the story of Nathan and his son-in-law Russell is just adorable.

Re: It's not perfect...

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

I must read it.

Esther (to think I used to like that when I was a kid!) was a savage tale of a lot of barbarians - every single bloody one of them. Regendering it really didn't help that, though I suppose it made the abuse of authority even more evident. I got a few giggles over Estaban the king and his maidens, though. And Queen Ahasuerus's indignant query when Haman fell on Esteban's bed, "Wilma she force the king also before me in the house?" Almost the only bobble apart from the maidens.