AI? Hard pass. Be human. Read human.
The Orange Blossom Ordinary style guide is a pretty standard document. It weighs in on things like the Oxford comma, citation style, typical review length, etc. It also includes some philosophical elements. For example, reviewers are reminded: “These are reviews, not op-eds. We expect some ideas and opinions to be present and we hope to use these books to explore big ideas and our cultural context, etc.—but the books themselves should remain the foundation.” We cover academic books, but the website is “not academically aligned.” The biggest thing contributors are warned against is any “culture wars” content. We want absolutely nothing to do with the culture wars.
It has so far gone without saying that we also don’t want anything to do with AI. It is no longer going without saying. The style guide has been updated: no AI writing of any kind. Orange Blossom Ordinary is not interested in publishing reviews or interviews that are written or outlined or in any way generated by AI.
When you read Orange Blossom Ordinary, you will be reading writing done by humans. The errors will all be human errors. (You will find some. Please email when you do.) Any excellence will be human excellence. If we find out we have published something that was written by AI, we will take it down. We are just not interested in perspectives that people don’t come up with or words that humans have not wrestled to string together as well as they can. Human beings write the books we review and human beings will review them.
Humans should remain smarter than their refrigerators. It is insane that we are living in a time in which people are trying to make refrigerators smarter, but are satisfied to dumb down themselves and those around them. All the evidence suggests that AI is bad for your brain. If you use it as a salve for social and romantic frustration, it also makes it harder for you to connect with others and less resilient in the face of real life. If you let AI create more distance between you and words and language, you are allowing it to threaten some of the most important distinctions between humans and animals.
AI is sold to us on the premise that it can offer us life on easy mode. No such mode exists. Life is for living, not escaping. Be human. Read human.
In Citizen Kane, there’s a dramatic scene where Charles Kane has taken over The New York Inquirer and he decides to print a “Declaration of Principles” editorial on the front page. He wants everyone to know what the paper will be about and he isn’t afraid to start the sentences with “I.” When pressed on the first person, Kane replies: “People are gonna know who's responsible. And they're gonna get the truth in the Inquirer quickly and simply and entertainingly and no special interests are gonna be allowed to interfere with the truth. I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings. Signed, Charles Foster Kane.” Well, I do not have a newspaper or a printing press or a sled named Rosebud. I live in Florida and I don’t have a sled at all. But you can take this editorial as a declaration of principles about AI: we won’t use it in the writing process, at any stage.
Elizabeth Stice
Editor-in-Chief
