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Some of you know that I have been working on a very frank and blunt autobiograpy. In the initial chapters there is a character who was extremely angry, violent and abusive. He swore constantly. I plan to publish this on the open market, using my old name. I think it will piss some of the family off, hopefully.
So in describing this individual do I use all the swear words that he did, or should I just try to explain how profane he was?
Comments
!!@#!$!!!
With a character based on someone who swears a lot, while some prefer to avoid swear words altogether, I can't do that and don't see any need to---unless your writing for kids. Realism comes before pandering to those who are overly sensitive to "bad" language (And relying solely on euphemisms like "frickin'" seems worse than just leaving the salty dialogue out.) I've found that if I can capture the cadence and style of the person's speech, a little less than half of the swear words they would've actually used sounds like plenty, illustrating his course nature and general attitude without getting distracting. It's like using a regional dialect or trying to put in all the you knows and ums that people use in real speech, a few judiciously placed examples (especially early on) will give the ILLUSION of natural speech better than true realism; which is why scripted dialogue sounds better than reality-show type babbling. Too much cussing starts to sound unintentionally comical, like in David Mamet's play and movie Glenn-fuckin'-gary Fuckin' Glenn Ross...
~my opinion on constructing dialogue for what it's worth, Laika
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
You can do what Piers Anthony
does in his Xanth series and replace the profanity with symbols, ]!@#$%^&*()_' or have the other person react in a way to le the reader know what was said.
May Your Light Forever Shine
or do what Heinlein did and...
...replace current profanity with various "conservative" acronyms, like Tanstaafl* in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The fact is that "curse words" change over time and from place to place, and there was a time in the USA when "Golly!" and "Wow!" wouldn't be uttered in polite company, except perhaps by vulgar hooligans.
I knew a man (my German teacher, actually) who'd served in WWII. He'd been born in Sacramento, California, so that city name was engraved on his "dog tags." He was in Italy, and "Sacramento!" was an Italian curse almost as shocking as "Fuck!" might be today. He got a lot of mileage out of those tags, and more than a few doubtful looks as the Italians wondered what sort of barbarians the Americans must be, to name a city "Fuck!" or the near equivalent.
––––––––––––
* There ain't no such thing as a free lunch!
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Just my two coppers
A good h-ll or d-m just helps to develop the character, anything more shows just how evil the mind is of this person.
If they are in a situation where they string a number of colorful expletives together, if they are capable of doing so, just refer to it as “The Ranting of raving lunaticâ€
Just my two coppers.
Karmon
Cursing, Damnit
I'm with Laika on this one. Realism is your friend here. Bowdlerized language is just plain silly, and hurts your credibility.
Liz
Fuck yeah!
Sorry...but if it fits the cultural context, profanity is a good tool to indicate emotion. If you want to go for real, it's perfectly alright to risk sensibilities, since darn and heck went away a long time ago. But HELL...that's just me!
Love, Andrea Lena
Feces yeah!!!
Tell the fornicating story as it is!!! Love your writing. Just be honest...as usual!!!
Love and Prayers always...
Brat
He used to say !
He used to say things like "God damn you, you little shit, you are going to act like a man or I am going to kill you." or worse. I never thought he looked silly until the day I went after him with a hatchet.
G
Right it!!!
That's what you need to write. Otherwise...what's the point?
Love again...
Brat... :)
It depends.
Depending on the character in my fiction, I let the character choose his or her or hir own language. When describing real life situations, it depends on my anticipated audience. if it was here on BC I would presume rightly or wrongly that the majority of BC readers can rub along with plain bad language though I must confess even I don't hold to readily with the 'cee' word and I avoid it except in extreme circumstances.
If your audience is a general one Gwen I suggest you simply use the first and last letters with hyphens replacing the middle letters thus. f--k, or s--t, etc. most abusive words are single syllable short words where this technique is effective.
I look forward to reading your story Gwen though we've often chatted at length about it on Skype. It always seems to carry more weight and punch when set down on paper of screen.
XXX
Bevs.
I'd Use Both Methods
I think, purely for literary reasons, that you have to be selective when it comes to using foul language. Use a word too often and it'll lose its edge. Better to insert profanities at inappropriate moments in a conversation, that way they'll keep their shock value. In other words, a blend of the two alternatives you suggested is probably the best solution.
There is a certain element of British society - well, English society - that seems hell-bent on normalising what politer echelons refer to as 'Anglo-Saxon' language.
Here are Peter Cook and Dudley Moore demonstrating this to hilarious effect.
http://youtu.be/RYGy-j_oH5Q
Peter Cook also performed the following routine (this is my version, not his)
So this geezer comes up to me in a pub and he says, "You're a cunt."
So I says to him, "What d'yer mean, I'm a cunt?"
And he says, "Well I think you're a cunt. Everyone else thinks you're a cunt. Even your wife thinks you're a cunt. In fact you're probably the second biggest cunt I know."
"Hang on," I says, "if you think I'm a cunt, and everyone else thinks I'm a cunt, and even the missus thinks I'm a cunt, how come I'm just the second biggest cunt you know?"
"Because you're a cunt."
There ain't half been some clever bastards...
http://youtu.be/PPvRsLWlDXw