Rephrased: Possible to run the server without backslash (C-style) escaping?

More specifically, I'd like to disable the non-standard backslash
escaping behavior of the server, so that backslashes aren't discarded, like:

insert into table values ('This won''t work when inserting a \
character'); -> 'This won't work when inserting a  character'

Instead I'd like for only single quotes (apostrophes) to server as the
escape character (for themselves), as in the iso/ansi recommendations
-so that the server behaves the same as Oracle, ms, and most other
databases in this regard.

I am living testament to all the users who switched from the 'big'
databases to pg and had the unpleasant surprise of having lost all the
backslashes chars -as well as having to tweak apps to get them to work.

If nothing else, a VERY prominently placed warning on the docs front
page should warn new users of the nonstandard behavior, imo. This can be
a life saver.

ken