tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post3830324063965740504..comments2024-03-27T23:55:17.673-07:00Comments on Flogging Babel: Primates, Billingsgate, and Meaningless IntensifiersMichael Swanwickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18389836784776252022noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-21287241872832904302016-02-12T20:56:36.534-08:002016-02-12T20:56:36.534-08:00Okay, what about Gardner Dozois's "Kingdo...Okay, what about Gardner Dozois's "Kingdom by the Sea"? Can you justify each curse word in it? And I hold that work in high regard, and I would never accuse such a writer of gratuitous obscenity. But is every word, even in such a masterful piece, necessary? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-36274966961720220362016-02-10T16:37:47.723-08:002016-02-10T16:37:47.723-08:00I will admit to occasionally, while watching Jeopa...I will admit to occasionally, while watching Jeopardy! with the wife, mentally recasting it as Vulgar Jeopardy!, where every answer must be in the form of an obscenity:<br /><br /><i>"Who the fuck was Teddy Fucking Roosevelt, Alex?"<br />"That is incorrect. You dumbshit."</i><br /><br />(I amuse myself easily.)<br /><br />In my fiction writing, I try to use such words appropriately; rough characters sometimes use rough language.<br /><br />I did, once, use variations of the word "fuck" about a dozen times in a single sentence, in a comment to someone's blog post about politics. But this was during the Bush administration, so I figure I can probably be forgiven for it.Brucehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14293116210969876175noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-91419094475043886852016-02-08T12:38:35.908-08:002016-02-08T12:38:35.908-08:00A f*cking masterpiece!
More seriously. I have ne...A f*cking masterpiece!<br /><br />More seriously. I have never once been paid to write a single word, so my thoughts on the matter have only the smidgen of relevance, especially when they're posted on a pro's blog.<br /><br />However, for that smidgen's worth: profanity when used in dialog often has a singular advantage over more genteel prose in that it has the advantage of *being how people actually speak*.<br /><br />And the reason they speak that way, in addition to the obvious vocabulary-limitation reason, is rhythm, and the admitted accident in the alternate you suggest that "very" begins on the accent. <br /><br />"A f*cking masterpiece" is iambic trimeter. But "very much a masterpiece" is trochaic. In English, the trochaic sounds more unnatural and less powerful, if only because it peters out, while the iambic ends with the cymbal crash. It is the wolf, unleashed.rastronomicalshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16475251545087211066noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1484180326012950400.post-43386973932920211962016-02-08T10:34:05.776-08:002016-02-08T10:34:05.776-08:00Thank you! I have been beating this drum for decad...Thank you! I have been beating this drum for decades, especially since having children. When used as meaningless intensifiers, not only do swear words add nothing, they detract from what one is saying by drawing attention to themselves away from the argument being made. <br /><br />And when they do belong in a sentence, often the lengths you have to go to to avoid them can result in more creative writing. I point to Douglas Adams in <i>Life, the Universe, and Everything</i>, and the award for the most gratuitous use of the word "Belgium" in a screenplay.<br />Kevin Cheekhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17615258563790520320noreply@blogger.com