A Few Notes About The Swearing/Cursing In My Novel (and a Bible Study of misinterpretations)steemCreated with Sketch.

in #writing8 years ago





original source (edited by me)

If you have been reading my material since I joined this site you will have noticed that I rarely use 'bad language' in my posts. I wrote an introduction to my original novel for steemit Today Again and I mentioned that there would be swearing, that F bombs would be dropped, that poop would start with sh. In case I am being passed over due to such unsavory language please allow me to clarify the reasons why I feel it's not only appropriate, but necessary for this story.





original source (edited by me)

First reason: The main characters come from a life and background where it would be incredibly unrealistic for them not to use those words.

Second reason: The life they are living currently would also make it incredibly unrealistic, not just for them but for the people they surround themselves with, not to use those words.

Third and most important reason: This is a story that will rely heavily upon character growth. In order for the growth to make a significant impact on the readers the characters must have a great deal of growing to do. While I may not agree with the sentiment, course language does tend to be looked upon as either - "shock value" or "lacking class and/or intelligence".

Now in my opinion there are times when no word can quite get the point across better than Fuck. In my own everyday speech I tend to use it sparingly because overuse causes it to lose its impact. Overuse also tends to make it abrasive, which is largely the point of it in the beginnings of this story when it comes to certain characters in particular. I also admittedly use it sparingly in my own speech out of respect for those in society who find it so offensive as I dislike hurting people even if I might think it's somewhat silly to be hurt by mere words (unless of course they are intended to be hurtful, but in that case you could angrily shout Frack You! and it would mean the same thing, in my opinion)





original source (edited by me)

Now for the Bible Study. For those of you who read my Playground Series, you will have heard a bit of this from the episode entitled Swear No Oaths. But I am going to take it a few steps further today.
Many modern day followers of the Bible believe that the use of Four Letter words is a Sin. This is at least partially due to terribly misinterpreted verses. One example is Matthew 5:34-37
34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:
35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.

Profanity had absolutely nothing to do with this decree, and if you're truly concerned about following this particularly edict than you ought to begin preparations to live as the Amish do. And not the modern day Amish who have bent the rules, but the old school Amish who followed them to the letter, because from this day forward you will no longer be able to "swear that the above information is true" or the many other variations of this phrase, which you will find in every single contract that you have ever come across, from your driver's license, to your bank account, to your credit cards, to your mortgage (which, by the way, the Latin root word mort means “death.” And the definition of gage in Merriam Webster is pledge, so mortgage is literally a death pledge) or any loan you have ever taken out, not to mention most online accounts you might have.

And if that were not enough, most of these things also require the use of your social insurance number or SIN number (in Canada they are more above-board by calling it this, in the US they hide it slightly by using the word security in place of insurance)

And just to make sure the point is firmly driven home for any of you that think you can still skirt this somehow, let's take a look at the word SIGN. How many of you think that throwing a silent G in this word is an arbitrary thing, done for the hell of it? (hm, perhaps that was an ironic way of phrasing that) And how many of you, following the general rules of the English language wherein a vowel will be pronounced with it's short sound unless a silent e is placed at the end of the word, can say that this word is not in fact SIN? Well I suppose you can say it, but you'd be hard-pressed to make a good case for it.

So all ye people who are concerned about sinning, it is time for you to put your pens away and go live off the land. At the very least get a horse so that you can climb down off it for I guarantee that saying Fuck is far more preferable to your Lord than all of the many, many ways you have sinned and will continue to sin according to the accurate interpretation of Swearing No Oaths.

So what have we learned by the information above? That four letter words, while they may be considered vulgar or course, while they may be socially unacceptable in some circles due to societal views, they have nothing whatsoever to do with swearing,

And they also have nothing to do with cursing. Putting a curse on someone or their house goes something like this: "A pox on Jones and the house of Jones and the ancestors of Jones, and thereby the house of Jones will suffer all the days of their lives." Definition of pox; (Merriam-Webster)
1: a : a virus disease (as chicken pox) characterized by pustules or eruptions
b archaic : smallpox
c : syphilis
2: a disastrous evil : plague, curse

Saying Fuck you Jones and Fuck your house is certainly not a nice thing to say, just as giving someone the middle finger is not a nice gesture, but neither are these things a curse. They are empty words that can be mean when said in anger.

So in Conclusions (Conclusion Number One): The vulgar words must be in my book for the reasons I outlined in the beginning of this rant and ramble.

Conclusion Number Two: If you are someone who believes saying or using the word fuck is a terrible sin you should probably do a bit more research on the subject of sin and deal with the vastly more worrisome sin that your guilty of on a daily basis.
You say Jesus came to save us from sin--I say if we'd actually listened to him then the sin of debt leading to debt slavery may well have been avoided, of course that would have required pastors to teach the Bible accurately. Hell is defined in Black's Law dictionary as "a debtor's prison" and it refers to an actual prison, here on earth, not an esoteric afterlife. Jesus came to save you from the sin of debt, and also hell. Rather than some impossible to prove mysticism, might there actually have been a practical message in this book of law and equity? Something to think about.

And now a song because talking about cussing reminds me of it. (Disclaimer: It is South Park. It is vulgar and may be considered offensive to some, while hilarious to others)







Logo made by the incredibly awesome @papa-pepper

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I...er...whut oO

Whoever prompted you to write this will want to steer well clear of me then XD

Ha! Thanks. It usually comes down to either pseudo intellectual b.s. or holier than thou b.s. I feel a little bad because I have a few friends on steemit who are Christian and they're sweet people with good hearts, this isn't directed at them. Basically I like anyone who is genuine, regardless of their beliefs. Petty and shallow I can do without, particularly when you add opinionated to that combination, blech. For some it's just too bad that they've been brainwashed into believing that there would ever be such thing as a being that created all of life who would be offended that someone used the word shit instead of pooh, I mean come on. No offense to them, but that's just so silly. Only people with their very limited perceptions would think like that.

I often wonder the same. Are some of my posts overlooked due to the language? This is literature though. I'm much the same way. I use the words sparingly in life. I rarely use the words in the comment sections unless it's part of the theme of one of my articles. Certain writing styles benefit from the words though. I hate getting the feeling some may view me as a lesser person for using the words. I've also had experiences here where people have embraced the words and had fun with it.

I remember one of the first comments you left to me was something along the lines of -you're one of my new subscribers... and you went on to warn me almost apologetically that your posts are sometimes vulgar. It gave me the impression that you'd been given grief for it or snubbed at the very least, in the past. Obviously I'm one of the people who embraced and had fun with it and still do. You wrote that fuckity fuck post shortly after (that's how I met Karenmckersie, her comment to you made me laugh) then a couple of posts following which were extremely well-written, it's hard to believe anyone would question your intellect at this point. I've noticed that you've been more reluctant to throw in 'curse' words recently which sucks honestly, I feel like you're being comedically oppressed. Mix in posts that are clean, but please don't stop making off-color foul language comedic posts, they're brilliant, hilarious, and have made my day at times.
As far as my new novel, I have eight people who have expressed to me how much they're enjoying it, I gained two new followers due to it in fact, and while that might not seem like much to some- considering how little exposure it's getting and that it's just begun I think it's pretty good. To me the best writing is honest, believable writing, plausible characters that you can easily imagine. And Caleb or Tyler saying things like "shoot' or 'crap' would be ridiculous.

I've been giving everyone "the warning" lately if they tell me they are following. I'm not really sure what to say about it. I just don't want to anger people, especially when I do the excessive swearing stuff. I'm never targeting those words at anyone. Some of these articles are performances. You're right though. I have been holding back. Quite a bit actually. Oppressed might not be the right word, but it does fit unfortunately.

Just keep doing what you're doing. I lose the odd follower from time to time. I never really know why. I try not to blame myself or my work. Stay focused and try not to catch the being held back bug. It's a tough one to shake.

Thank you! It's funny but @merej99 wrote something similar to me, and I read them in a row, I'll be taking that advice ;) I hope you'll take it for yourself as well!

Whenever you are writing a story, it would be stupid to avoid those curse words if a character is a swearing redneck.
There is a big problem surrounding all the writers, tho: whatever you write about, people tend to think that you write about yourself. That is why when your character is using bad words, people might think it is actually you cursing. Nothing to be done here, just carry on with what you do and keep dropping those F-bombs when you want it/need it.

Interesting post my great friend @dreemit, excellent point of view, congratulations
Thanks for sharing this great material.

Sorry, originally posted under the wrong account

Interesting and well written post, and I agree with most of it... lol, you have to know an "EXCEPT" is coming.

"Profanity had absolutely nothing to do with this decree,"

OK, you got cursing almost down to a "T", but very few people other than me make the following distinctions anymore.

Vulgarities = non-scientific words for bodily functions, "I just shit"
Obscenities = vulgar words for sexual functions, "I just fucked"
Profanities = improper use of religious words, "Jesus Christ!"
Blasphemies = Profanities that directly controvert the religion, "Jesus Fucking Christ"

Cursing can be secular, in which case "Fuck you" (often translated "may bad things happen to you", or the way I most often use it, "may I forget you and never see you again") could be a curse. Adding a profanity (see above) makes it a sin to an Abrahamic Literalist.

The admonition in Matthew was to Jews, speaking as a Jewish Rabbi, telling them how to be adherent Jews (the Christian Covenant of Forgiveness came later).

Also, the definition of swearing that is "affirming before a witness" for legal matters is another different thing. Words can have different, exclusionary meanings.

Lastly, the silent "g" (and many silent letters) is used to make the vowel sound long. By extraction it explains a lot of "ough" constructions. Include it with "y" and "w" for these purposes.

Now that I have had a great amount of fun being nit-picky about language, I thank you for the post. It really brightened up my morning. Spent a happy hour typing this up.

I taught my son that all such words and phrases are simply sounds made with the mouth. We explored ways to use them properly as well as ways that using them were counter productive. I wish my dad had done the same with me, I could have saved a lot of time relearning things later.

Love the time you took to do this! Although I have reasons to believe that certain words, such as sign, are what I would call messages "hidden in plain sight". There is no reason why they would not just simply spell the word sign as sine, as the English language, or more specifically the American English often uses the same words, spelled the same way, to mean different things and seems to have many exceptions to the rules, and so I have to ask, Why? Why on earth would they just decide to stick a g in the middle of a word, call it silent, and say it is to make the vowel long?
But your definitions and explanations for some of the other words were enlightening, thank you! :)

It was a style at one point. That's all. They use it for a sign on the road as well as signing a contract. Because, seriously, if we tried to make sense out of English, we would have to make it completely unintelligible. Like this yearly improvement schedule attributed to Mark Twain (quoted):

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c" would be dropped to be replased either by "k" or "s", and likewise "x" would no longer be part of the alphabet.

The only kase in which "c" would be retained would be the "ch" formation, which will be dealt with later.

Year 2 might reform "w" spelling, so that "which" and "one" would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish "y" replasing it with "i" and iear 4 might fiks the "g/j" anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

Bai iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez "c", "y" and "x" -- bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez -- tu riplais "ch", "sh", and "th" rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

Haha! I enjoyed that! And I'm aware it's also used for signs (signs and wonders) can't help but also enjoy my bit of conspiracy theorism, which causes me to believe that there is at least a chance that these things were done on purpose, perhaps even as a private joke between some ;) And yes, I know theorism isn't a word LOL. I also find it quite odd that they teach kids to 'spell' words which one could wonder why they are directing them to put incantations on them? And they ask that we 'stay tuned for our regular programming' which is eerily like them telling us to keep ourselves tuned in for the brainwashing sequence to commence. See? Fun :)

lol... I get that. I posted one on how the Earth could actually be considered flat by using dimensional theories. I was a little scared because we really have some flat earth folks here and they can be nasty.

Nasty? Haha! I have a couple friends who subscribe to that theory, though they aren't nasty about it, just quite convinced ;) I remember them having one compelling argument, can't remember exactly what, something to do with the maps used by...British parliament maybe? Anyway, my husband had a rational argument to the contrary so we ended up agreeing to disagree, lol!

When I said I have friends who subscribe to that, I didn't mean on steemit in case you're worrying about your comment LOL. At least not that I'm aware of anyway, haha! One of my flat earth friends also happens to be a born again Christian, which is pretty hilarious considering this post :)

Couldn't agree with, @dreemit. If used in a certain context to convey realism and authenticity then go right ahead and writing the book you want to. I'm against censorship in any way, shape or form and support you 100% on this matter.

Thank you @ezzy ;) Honestly it's probably more of a sensitive subject for me because I grew up in a very censored household. I love my parents very much, but my childhood was spent in church and for many years I was surrounded by judgmental people. It was extremely stifling and it took years to break free from such narrow-minded thinking. Generally these days I take no offense from people who believe this way, but once in awhile something said gets to me lol. I'm over it. I write for me, and if others enjoy it all the better, that's a code I stand by :)

I love everything about this Effin post.

Okay, I refrained from using the F word out of respect - but admittedly it is my absolutely favorite word!
I kind of had the sense that the beginning was a bit of an apology. F that! Write what you will. Your audience will find you. :D

Thanks for saying that, I know that but sometimes I fall into old habits. A while back I came to the place where I write for me. I actually type on top of every new story (well longer story lol) To thine ownself be true. Once upon a time I wrote with everyone in mind, my parents maybe especially, which had the adverse effect of creating dishonesty.
And I love the F word too, it's just so versatile ;) Haha, it is true that I don't use it constantly, but I use it with relish :)

I just had to chime in. For some reason this sounds all to farmiliar to me.... hmmm i wonder why? I think some of what you wrote could have something to do with me, and it wouldn't be a big suprise if it did. I'm sure you could write a book off of the shit i've done but i digress. My conclusion from the south park episode, nope, not chaging my "form", aint gonna happen lol. Oh and i'm not gonna tell ya how i really feel about it either but F'em if they can't take a joke, or something to that effect. Enough said i guess, because you can't make them all happy. Keep up the good work.

Wait...I'm not sure what you mean, I didn't hear about your interpretation of South Park, what's that about, haha! I mean I figure this stuff would all sound familiar to you, but definitely more in a "we are in accord' sort of way LOL

I love to curse but only on occasion write out my thoughts that include my beloved f-bombs...I try and only curse in private. I cursed in my soba noodle recipe and it didn't attract the big whales....maybe I should of included porn with the cursing and noodle recipe?

Hahaha!! Maybe! Men do like their porn...visual porn, not sure they'd be into the kind I could write for a novel, lol!

Well porn sells, I think I'll get creative on that idea with my next recipe...(not)

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