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@lrc So, I don’t think it’s practical for a couple people by themselves to realistically change how a culture tends to use a word–and I’m not terribly attached to the word itself to want to do it either. I’d rather talk about “virtuous” fiction or “moral” fiction as a Christian storyteller than “clean” fiction since I think both those words better describe what I believe we should be aiming for as Christian storytellers. Those also come with the benefit of not being confusing to readers if they expect one thing from your book (if you say it’s clean) and then realize it’s not clean according to their definition.

I also think this is better for Christian readers who don’t want “clean fiction” if “clean” means unrealistic or whitewashed. For those readers–as there are several in this thread!–hearing that a book is “clean” may turn them off because in the past “cleanness” has had all of those connotations. So from a marketing perspective, since I personally may write stuff at times that probably would not be considered clean by several standards (whether it be dealing with tricky/dark topics or being willing to include a couple curse words in a character’s dialogue to depict them accurately), I’d prefer to talk about writing virtuous or meaningful fiction since I think that more clearly communicates my intent without having to jump through additional hoops to do so.

I love Count of Monte Cristo BTW! Haven’t read it since high school, but it’s a fantastic book. 😀