WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG BAD WORD? by Valerie Laws
Naffing heck, smegheads! Today I’m considering swearing in books, so take a break from pinning crinolines round your piano legs or uttering paint-peeling oaths as you quote Pulp Fiction: whichever end of the sweary spectrum you inhabit. Recently, I gave an hour’s author talk/reading to an audience of 160 delightful people. They were very appreciative, and at the end, a queue of book buyers formed (a beautiful sight). One man waited patiently until it was his turn. But he wasn’t buying. He was waiting to tell me that he’d bought my crime novel, THE ROTTING SPOT, previously. He told me it’s a very good book, BUT there’s some swearing in it. (Very little, in fact.) And he wanted me to know that he didn’t think there was any need for it. I was fascinated that he’d felt the need to say it. It reminded me of another town, a group of mostly older women who listened to 
She said 'Older people don’t like swearing in books.' A mini-riot almost broke out, because the other older people were insulted, and they were quick to say they didn’t mind at all, if it was ‘called for’ in the story. And for the two who felt driven to make the point, there have been hundreds who have taken it in their stride or not cared.
Now don’t get the idea the book is all effing and blinding. It’s in occasional scenes in rough wine bars, or at moments of great stress, and almost all of the book is curse-free. Though I did take a risk by having some of it right near the start. But it also has skull collecting,murder, bereavement, suffering, suspicion, violence, fear
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| 'The Rotting Spot' by Valerie Laws |
I would argue that we as writers shouldn’t fear words, powerful though they are. We are there with our chair and whip to tame the critters. To make use of them, put them to work. It’s not convincing, in this day and age, for characters who’d swear in real life, to say ‘flipping heck’, though many people now swear at higher frequency than even the most liberal of us could stand in a book; boredom would kick in even if outrage didn’t. In comedy, they’ve dealt with this by inventing swear-words, to keep a family TV audience. Ronnie Barker’s Porridge used ‘naff’ (which was originally from Polari, the fairground/gay underground language used when being gay was illegal in the UK) for all occasions. ‘Naff orf!’ and ‘naff all’ ended up as part of our language. Ditto Red Dwarf, where ‘smeg’ was the curse de jour.
I’ve invented some oaths for saucy Lydia Bennet in LYDIA BENNET’S BLOG, who uses modern teen acronyms like ‘FFS’ which in her world means ‘for frock’s sake’.
Why raise this in a blog about electric books? Well much has been written about gatekeepers lately, and how instead of publishers and agents, the gatekeepers of ebooks are the readers and buyers, and how this is a good thing. And it is. But can the gatekeepers use their power for censorship? I’ve seen the swearing issue and the related ones of sex, and more rarely, violence, discussed online in forums and reviews. Some US writers in particular have been very concerned about reactions of readers to sex in their books, with good reason.
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| 'Naff orf, there's naff all swearing in here!' |
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| Just say that again, I dare you, m*&^%$f&"£$! |
But other things, such as women being subjected to sexual violence in fiction yet again, helpless and degraded, I find harder to take. Sometimes it works in a story. Sometimes you feel it’s just put there to shock out of laziness. That’s one reason my forthcoming crime novel, medical thriller THE OPERATOR, has alpha male murderees, surgeons in fact, to help right the balance! This post has been very ‘clean’, so here’s another filthy but funny piece to balance that out too. Advice for authors from Joyce Carrol Oates.
I’ve been talking about adult fiction here, though in YA fiction, swearing seems to be a no-no, as parents don’t like it and they pay for the books their YA’s read. It’s a minefield, folks. A supply teaching friend in all innocence recently decided to calm some restive lads by reading them some poetry. Too late, she realised 'The Owl and the Pussycat' was a mistake. ‘Oh lovely pussy, oh pussy my love, what a beautiful pussy you are...’ Poor old Lear, he’d have been smacked with a few one-star reviews for that one!
My website:http://www.valerielaws.co.uk
Twitter: @ValerieLaws
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Comments
I would have thought the question of swearing is as easy as it gets - do your characters swear? If they do, then you reflect that. If you don't, then you reflect that. Let your characters be themselves - whatever that is
As a writer I'm just the opposite. My characters swear and blaspheme and trample all over people.
Does this mean I have a split personality? :-))
Loved the post valerie!
Surely it's the reason we say these things, not just the words we use, that holds the key? We still have vibrant shades of meaning in English - let us protect this, even if it means foul language as well as lofty words. The most awful insult my son ever used - the other 5 year old was sobbing with the indignity - was when he called another boy a *Washing Machine*. Quaint - but said with hatred, it's as harsh a swear-word as any an adult might say.
Let’s not ban swear words – we’d lose some wonderful pieces if we did. Could Margaret Atwood have written ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ without using a naughty word? Ditto certain works by D. H. Lawrence… Even Shakespeare was not above character building by using sexual word-play – look at the start of Romeo and Juliet. Let’s make words work for us, not get precious about them.