Comments on: I swear…

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:04:00 +0000

ow *offers steel toed boots*

I actually dislike "real" swearwords in a fantasy world. Read a book recently and every time it knocked me out of the world slightly. Seems a pity as well - missed opportunity... swearwords can make a strong statement about the culture/history of a people if thought through enough. Ok so they're not going to immediately resonate with the reader, but there are other ways to draw them into a world.

I really love the idea of Muslim/Malaysian swearing tho. A book where a young noble goes pale over being told he's been badly taught would be great.

By: Jo

Jo — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:55:00 +0000

I do understand that in certain situations, swearing gives veracity to the plot or characters, but sometimes it gets very overdone. Most teenagers cannot say anything without injecting the word ‘like’ into a sentence half a dozen times, but authors don’t write that although they write the swearwords, more shock value I suppose, I get just as bored with the swear words as I would if I read ‘like’ all through the conversation.

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:14:00 +0000

Patty: yes, it could be the Islamic influence. Although I must say that I think all the races in Malaysia - no matter what their religion - appear to swear very little compared to their Western counterparts.

[I remember when my daughters (aged 11 and 14 at the time) arrived at the International school in Vienna, one of the first things the boys wanted to know was: what are Malaysian swear words? We want to learn them!!]

Jo - the big problem for mainstream writers is how do you be realistic in certain situations (depicting soldiers, teenagers in rough neighbourhoods, boys mucking around with their friends, etc) and NOT include swearwords? It is a delicate balancing act. TV shows sometimes manage without resorting to the realistic use of vulgarity...but it is tweaking the reality.

I have to agree, a string of obscenities ends up boring. In fact modern day English swearwords ARE boring and repetitious. Give me a good Shakespearean vulgarity any day.

Anghara - at the moment I drop all sorts of things because of the ulnar palsy. Very irritating. The other day it was a heavy glass dish on to the top of my bare foot. It hurt so much I don't even recall what I said. And the dish shattered.

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:51:00 +0000

Very true, Anne McAffrey’s characters in her dragon books say “Shards” and “By the First Egg” to give one example. But I do get fed up with books which are littered with four letter words just for the sake of it, without adding anything to the writing, the character or the book in general.

Come to think of it, didn’t Blaise have a few good phrases?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 14:34:00 +0000

If you are writing fantasy you can always make up swear words that sound totally innocuous to us but in the fantasy setting may blister the walls.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:18:00 +0000

“…drop a hammer on my toe in public…”

er, do you do that often…?

By: Joanna

Joanna — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 05:08:00 +0000

I don’t have a problem with swearwords in a book, but certainly, if they’re not there, I don’t miss them!

By: Jo

Jo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:25:00 +0000

Mind you it is very refreshing not to read a book filled with cuss words – mainly just for the sake of it. So please don’t start Glenda. Some books, like one I am reading now, use the f word with boring frequency. Its a good story so leave out the swearing.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 22:37:00 +0000

LOL!

But I know a lot of Asian languages have swear words, so maybe the lack of them is related to the Muslim tradition?

My daughter goes to a school with a lot of Asian students. At this particular point in time, swearing in Chinese (in class) is very much in vogue. Taught by true blue Chinese nationals to other teenagers. They also swear in Japanese and Korean. Must ask about her Indonesian and Malaysian friends.