Since man first stubbed his bare toe on a rock, profanity has been with us. Profanity has evolved and grown over time like all language, but it’s certainly nothing new. Hosts/Authors Steve Diamond and Larry Correia discuss this topic in depth. When is profanity acceptable and when is it not acceptable? How much is too much? Most importantly, why is ‘cussing like a sailor’ not that impressive? All this and more on this week’s episode of the WriterDojo
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“Keep your mouth clean, li’l brother. You keep it clean an’ then they know you mean business when you say sumpin’ strong.”
–Socrates Fortlow, in Walter Mosley’s *Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned*
I don’t have any hard and fast rule for what I’ll tolerate in what I read, but in general (for me), it needs to be relatively scarce and make sense in the context.
I recently noped out of a KU story that (with a quick search) had variations of the f word over 300 times in one book. I searched because within a few pages I was seeing the MC use it in almost every sentence. It was ridiculous. Maybe I’m just too sheltered, but I’m over 40 now and have never encountered someone who spoke like that, and if I had, I would have avoided them like the plague.
On the flip side, if your character rounds a corner and comes face to face with a flesh-eating zombie, he’s probably not going to say “Golly gee willikers, this is awful!”.
On the different cultures swearing more: As far as I know, Japanese is pretty lacking in swear words that aren’t slurs (or loanwords ファック), instead words are just rude. You can be insulting, but the words themselves aren’t really swears by themselves.
Swear words are like chili peppers. Too many numb the senses and become boring. But used judiciously, the get the attention of both reader and listener.
Besides, an erudite curse gives you time to get out of hitting/shooting range by the time the ignorant cretin realizes that being called the offspring of a dock-side professional and a politician is not a compliment. 😉
This add so much dept to Larry’s writing and to “Apocalypse Cow”
“Keep your mouth clean.”
Great. I’m back down to 12,000 words. This trilogy could take a while.
George Carlin: 7 Words You Can’t Say on TV
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyBH5oNQOS0
I would love to hear the uncensored version of this episode.
I will say, my impression is that cuss like a sailor is much more applicable to sailors in civilian commercial trades than Navy. I work with some Navy sailors and they can swear, but it’s like your average military where f*** is just routine speech. But talked to a guy who described his days working in civilian ships and he said those guys almost can’t form sentences without swearing. Even their terms onboard for gear and equipment is virtually ALL sexual profanities.
Sailor over here… sigh… Going back and reviewing WIP…