Mythopoet
Auror
I guess my thinking is that you can't address every sociological issue that might be triggered by your work. A lot of this stuff is very regional or niche. There's a certain segment of the population that is super concerned about it and they think it's the most important thing, but much of the world sees things completely differently.
I think it's only a small segment of English speaking people who are really concerned with whether the use of "man" in the sense of "human" is going to hurt people's feelings and make them feel left out even though by definition the usage of the word is not leaving anyone out. And I'll be honest, I'm not really concerned about them. I believe that the whole point of storytelling is sharing your unique perspective and style and that modifying those things to suit your audience is generally a bad idea. If you genuinely prefer the usage of Man as in human then go for it. As long as you don't expect everyone to enjoy it.
The question remains how many people would be genuinely confused by the usage? From my perspective I'm not all that concerned with whether or not my prose choices are hurting people's feelings. If I hurt their feelings they can just never read my work again and that's fair enough. I don't expect my work to appeal to everyone. But I am concerned about creating confusion. I want my prose to be clear and easy to understand and easy to be immersed in. (Sheila's example of the usage in LOTR was interesting, but sounds like more of a translation error in judgement. Using the same word for males and for mankind doesn't make as much sense in other languages.)
Personally, I think "human" tends to sound more modern or more suitable for sci fi and sounds out of place in fantasy. But simply using "man" or "men" can certainly be confusing at times depending on the context. I'd probably opt for sticking with the term "mankind" to eliminate confusion.
But a question that I find much more interesting than this one is how to you refer to males and females of a completely separate fantasy species (assuming it has males and females)? Using man and woman can be confusing, but using male and female sounds so much more clinical and over serious. You could make up terms, but you always have to tread carefully with made up terms which can often be even more confusing or end up just silly.
I think it's only a small segment of English speaking people who are really concerned with whether the use of "man" in the sense of "human" is going to hurt people's feelings and make them feel left out even though by definition the usage of the word is not leaving anyone out. And I'll be honest, I'm not really concerned about them. I believe that the whole point of storytelling is sharing your unique perspective and style and that modifying those things to suit your audience is generally a bad idea. If you genuinely prefer the usage of Man as in human then go for it. As long as you don't expect everyone to enjoy it.
The question remains how many people would be genuinely confused by the usage? From my perspective I'm not all that concerned with whether or not my prose choices are hurting people's feelings. If I hurt their feelings they can just never read my work again and that's fair enough. I don't expect my work to appeal to everyone. But I am concerned about creating confusion. I want my prose to be clear and easy to understand and easy to be immersed in. (Sheila's example of the usage in LOTR was interesting, but sounds like more of a translation error in judgement. Using the same word for males and for mankind doesn't make as much sense in other languages.)
Personally, I think "human" tends to sound more modern or more suitable for sci fi and sounds out of place in fantasy. But simply using "man" or "men" can certainly be confusing at times depending on the context. I'd probably opt for sticking with the term "mankind" to eliminate confusion.
But a question that I find much more interesting than this one is how to you refer to males and females of a completely separate fantasy species (assuming it has males and females)? Using man and woman can be confusing, but using male and female sounds so much more clinical and over serious. You could make up terms, but you always have to tread carefully with made up terms which can often be even more confusing or end up just silly.