| What with Jaye talking about taboos, Mark being gleeful about sex research, and Anton talking about his meat, I had to follow suit. Think of a word that starts with "F" and ends in "U", "C", "K", but don't think dirty when you do. I assure you the answer is G-rated. Obviously the word I'm talking about is: FIRE TRUCK. Okay, so fire truck is really two words, but I'm quite certain you'll politely ignore that. There is another word though, one that is less emergency services and more expletive ejaculation. (Come on, guys, it's a perfectly acceptable Victorian word!) For many, it's the word we think of first when given the task above. We think of The Fire Truck Word and maybe we think it stands for "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" or "Fornication Under Consent of King", but it doesn't. If you'd like a interesting look at the etymology of the word, you might check here , but that really isn't what this blog is about. It's about language. Orson Scott Card once said he had considered having the children in Ender's Game use vulgar words and slang to make them more realistic, but then decided against it. As a guy whose main character uses The Fire Truck word on average twice per chapter in his first book, I have to ask - how do you feel about strong language in your fiction? |
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Fuck you, you fucking fuck!
So... I take it that's one vote for liberal use of colorful metaphors? :)
I have a harder time reading books where they replace all the "vulgar language" with words my 7 year old uses than I do reading books with vampire/werewolf double penetration sex. I can only suspend reality so much, and "oh crap" just is not the same thing as "oh fuck".
I'm all for vulgar language. Expressions flight right off the pages when the right words are used. :D
Off topic..I remember my middle daughter called trucks"fuck" when she was learning to talk.We thought it was funny,I think we laughed whenever we tried to teach her to say truck correctly.
Hugs, Danette
I spent 7 years in the Army. There is not language foul enough to offend me anymore. But my characters in general don't cuss that much. It depends on the character, though.
Tom Gallier
Sounds like we all agree that the important bit is making sure that characters say whatever they would naturally say... so that it sounds right.
I remember watching the theatrical version of The Chronicles of Riddick and there was a moment where Riddick *obviously* would have said, "Fuck you!" It isn't that there weren't other phrases that he could have used, but that particular phrase was so character appropriate that when he didn't say it, I was confused.
In the unrated cut, that's exactly what Riddick says and it fixes the scene. And don't get me started about how superior the unrated cut of that movie is... We'd be here all week. ;)
It's like the difference between the theatrical cut of Daredevil and the director's cut of Daredevil.
I think it can be appropriate for characters to use foul language, when that's what they clearly would have said were they real people... but I also think it can be overdone.
In addition, it can be fun (or funny) when the characters don't curse... as with one of my favorite episodes of X-files. I think the real title is something like "Jose Chung's from Outer Space" but we've always called it "Bleep".
An interesting question. I prefer being able to write what a character would say, but I also try to avoid just tossing in random expletives.
In the story I'm pitching right now, I actually use foul language as a stumbling block for the main character, in that he's been used to being very um, blunt and vulgar. But, when he's around his mother and little sister, he has to actually watch his mouth. Meanwhile, the bad guys drop expletives left and right.
That said, there is a certain amount of glee in being able to let a character tell someone to fuck off, instead of trying to dance around the term.
I don't mind the fire truck word. Hell, most of the time I say it a lot. There's only a few words that reading annoy the fire truck out of me.
Now I'll continue to say fire truck because it's just too fire truckin' funny!
I grew up in and around bars (my mom worked her fair share of taverns) so my ears were descensitized before I was 6. Stuff doesn't bother me unless there isn't another word in there to break it up. Example - at least Anton added a few "yous" in there.
I'm of the mind that people take way too much offense to the words. If I jam my finger and yell, "Poop! Crap! Caca! Do-do!" no one bats an eye. There all four-letter words yelled in anger and pain but considered cute or a little naughty. But, if
I yell "Shit!" then I'm Satan's spawn and should suck down a bottle of Clorox for my sins. Go figure.
I'm all for vulgarity, obviously. Amanda curses like a sailor and I've taken some flack for her not sounding like a polite dainty woman. Well come spend a week with me and my friends, you'll think the ship just docked.
For me it's just realism. That said, the incubus book despite being entrenched in some nasty ass fucking is surprisingly low on curse words. Odd, eh?
Pike - I guarantee that if I were around and heard you yelling "poop," "crap" and/or "kaka doodoo".
I'd raise an eyebrow.
"Shit! Fuck! or Shitfuck!" Not so much.
Frip. Frack. Frell. Fug. You know, sometimes I wonder why these variations are accepted by society at large while the real word isn't... what makes a word vulgar or not vulgar? Are words allowed to evolve their way out of the gutter?
My grandma had an absolute fit when one of my kids said "snot"... she considered it a really vulgar word, while to me it's just a common noun for that nasally substance. Did snot used to be a vulgar word? Will that fire truck word still be vulgar in, say, the year 2158?
Mark - If you happen to catch me piping off shit like that please, feed my ass to the wolves.
BTW - Does anyone rememeber Kevin Kline's vulgarian tirade from a Fish Called Wanda? A moment of pure gold.
Will do!
I try to keep my swearing to a nonexistent level when around children. And beyond that, I seldom use vulgarity. However, I agree with Mark, if it keeps realism in the scene or there is no question that the character would use it, then it doesn't bug me a bit.
And I completely agree about Riddick.
I use vulgar language all the time, so it feels like home to me! ;D
I personally curse like a longshoreman, so language doesn't bother me, but I'm a firm believer that profanity is like a spice. Added to dinner, it provides extra punch, but you wouldn't want to sit down with a can of chili powder and a spoon, either. (Well, *I* wouldn't, at least, I have a friend who drinks hot sauce out of the bottle, so...to each their own, I suppose)
Oh, yeah, I curse lots. Sometimes too much, probably. I'm not easily offended, either, when I hear it or read it. Most of my characters curse, and if I'm reading a book, I expect those characters too, as well. It just feels real and natural to me.
For the record, Mark, Amanda's cursing is what endeared me to her. She sounded like me and my friends, and that made her real for me. She's not ladylike, but you know what? Most women aren't.
Kelly - You're a woman after my own fuckin' heart. God bless ya.
It depends on the fiction.
For my Hell books, yeah, there's profanity and cursing. (Two different beasties, those.) But hey, I'm writing in first person demonic POV. Demons **should** be profane, in my opinion.
But as for my superhero stuff, there's some cursing, but no profanity for my heroine. She'll invoke God's name, and will growl about the seven Hells, but that's as strong as it gets for her. (The villain, though, has got quite the mouth on her.)
My YA traditional fantasy has no profanity, and moderate cursing (again, invoking deities).
My YA urban fantasy has some cursing, but nothing too strong. Those wind up getting written as, "She cursed under her breath."
As for me? I curse like a truck driver.
I am a total 'potty mouth' (according to my boyfriend) and love being able to curse. Working in a kindergarten has meant finding lots of harmless words to say instead of the swear words I love to use.
In books I love a bit of cursing...f'ing and b'ing can all be in there if used in the right context. It is also handy to show to my boyfriend...I try and use it as evidence that swearing is ok.
I would say it depends on the story. For DL, it fit perfectly in with swearing and it really helped set the tone for the main character. For other stories I've written, the characters don't really swear, so it doesn't show up.
Personally, I swear infrequently but I write it a lot more. :)