Context is everything?

I agree in this case - not ?

Re use of expletives - yes my characters do swear as necessary - we are lucky to have the choice?

I'm thinking of 'For whom the bell tolls' - when Robert Jordan is so obviously saying fuck over and over with good cause but Hemingway isn't allowed to write it so has to bowdlerise... Or his publisher did?

Sarah

I never intended this thread to turn into a moral discussion about swearing. But now that it has, I have to say I can’t believe we’re having a thrash about whether certain words are acceptable in our writing.

If it’s appropriate, use it. I hate it when I see dialogue where you know the writer is avoiding the word ‘fuck’. If it’s that obvious, then for heavens sake use it. OK, keep it to a minimum because any word used to excess appears clumsy and too noticeable. But, in context, swearing is part of human culture – and I'm uncomfortable to see a trend in this thread which suggest it’s confined to certain levels of society – it’s not. It goes right across the board of social strata, whether that be defined by age, sex, culture, quaint rural village or shitty inner city.

Listen to people. Use the language. Learn the difference between real conversation and realistic dialogue – and fucking use it!

Dee

Agreed

Just amazed you don't have to go too far back to a time when you could get arrested if you did - Jim Morrison.

Sarah

'Frigging' reply to Colin:

Because it's not a proper swear word. It's a pseudo-swear word, a fraud. Something created by American TV to get round the obscenity rules. If you need a 'fuck' use a 'fuck'.

Frigging in the rigging? I don't think the Sex Pistols were trying to get round any rules (they enjoyed challenging them), but it did rhyme nicely...

Deb

I'm uncomfortable to see a trend in this thread which suggest it’s confined to certain levels of society – it’s not

In fact, some say that the upper classes swear more than most of us. I think it's mostly parts of the middle classes who can be a bit prissy about swearing (middle england? )

Deb

When I grew up "Friggin" was the obscene word for - how shall I put this... I'll use Jo Brand's term: The Kit-Kat shuffle.

It's used loads in Sunderland, '"Eeey, ya friggin frigga." - especially with old, gnarly women.

I agree - I believe masturbation is the meaning of frigging in the Sex Pistols' song.

I also agree that I don't think it's a made-up word.

Swearwords are strange things - there are so many, and they each grow a level of offensiveness which is hard to fathom. Why is "fuck" more offensive than "frig", for instance? Make no sense really, but none of us are immune.

Deb

There you go, you see. I’ve always thought frigging was a euphemism for fucking (as an adjective, not an activity), and therefore more socially acceptable before the watershed. I keep thinking of the wonderful Father Ted series, where they got away with ‘fecking’ all the time. Loved the one where the old geezer finally sobered up… oh no! don’t tell me I'm still on that feckin’ island!

Dee

was it the christmas episode where someone, in a very deep voice behind the camera, said - in shock - "fuckin hell"?

Twice, if I remember right. For some reason it was all the funnier that they'd used "feck" for so long.

Great show.