Anytime.
Dee.

Some years ago I was headhunted for a job to develop a chain of Canadian burger bars that was aiming to enter the British market... I did not take up the opportunity. Do you know why? The chain was called FuddRuckers. This did not appeal to me.

But the word has become so meaningless since it has been emblazoned on so many clothes worn by younger people. Who can ever look at the fcuk products and not ask oneself if the manufactuers had not made a mistake in the spelling?

Swear words must be used in writing only if they reflect the subject matter and/or contribute to the writing. Often they do not. There is room for all the swear words within our lines, or even 'between the lines', but this is one of the tests that any writer must face.

Firstly I shall remind you all that I am new to this community and therefore claim immunity from ridicule due to any naivety on my part.(and any spelling mistakes!)

I'd just like to say how interesting to find so many imputs on such a topic as this! More and more literature these days include increased usage of this, and many other examples of profanity.

I have to say that on the whole I don't mind it that much so long as it is used in the correct time and place. ok I'll admit that being in the Armed Forces I hear more of it that most normal individuals but I work with people who have to be rather aggressive and confrontational to survive their choice of occupation.

Personally, I find that EXCESSIVE swearing rather degrades the quality of a novel and screams "trashy read" in my consumer's ear.

The recent Booker Prize winner might make an interesting discussion-point in the context of this always fascinating and seemingly unresolvable debate. 'Vernon God Little' veers very significantly in the direction of Katy-Jane's EXCESSIVE, in my opinion.


F**k and B******s,

Mike

FCUK clothing are well aware of the implications of their logo and have used it to this effect in their advertising.

Swearing is cool. Swearing is what you do to express the very fact that words HAVE failed you. This is the very essence of using a swear word. Also, people are swearing more. There is a greater usage of profanity within film, television and literature than ever before. Watching 'Kill Bill' recently, I was amazed to see how many people are still amused and entertained by the F word.

I agree that an excess of profanity can seem a little cliche, but it depends entirely on the context, as has been mentioned before. The word 'shit' for instance, may seem overused in some areas. When a character only uses a profanity once within any medium, it can be highly effective, yet sometimes, an excess achieves the same result (remember Steve Martin having a go at airline lady in Planes, Trains and Automobiles?)

I guess like sex and violence, swearing sells.
There's no denying that most kids love it.

One thing that annoys me is that some people can sit or read through whole sequences of murder mayhem, explosions, graphically depicted violence or people performing or being on the end of exceptionally evil acts and at the end of it someone happens to react by saying a swear word and all you hear is complaints about the language.

I agree that overuse of expletives is a bit wearing. I also agree that sometimes profanity seems to be used just for the sake of it, it seems to be subject to a stange sort of language fashion and seems to on it's way 'out' at the moment, but you've got to keep things in perspective. I would never stop reading a book simply because there's a point where a lot of f-words crop up. There has to be other reasons as well. It's like saying, 'I'm not going to read this book anymore because of the excessive tea drinking that goes on in it.' Or for a vegetarian to stop reading because a character in a story buys a bacon sandwidge.

Someone mentioned 'Vernon God Little'. This is a good example of a brilliant book with a lot of swearing in it. But then it's about a teenager from a poor community who's being accused of horrendous crimes, so gosh, maybe he would swear a bit.

P

Hilary,

That was mother ******* hilarious, I nearly wet myself with laughter reading your first post.



Geoff

I know I'm probably out of line with everyone else, but I did find the amount of swearing in "Vernon God Little" a hard factor to overcome as I felt it "muddied" the meaning, at least for me. I appreciate it can be justified in terms of context, but it seemed to me that the writing without the swearing was energetic and accurate enough to convey the despair and difficulties if it had been given half a chance.

Anne B