In-between other projects yesterday, I read some articles that were quite passionate.
The first article was about a lesbian writer and the various publishing folk she’s fired through the years when they made bad suggestions to her, like “toning down” the same-sex content in her books. I thought that was brave, especially when a lot of writers would fall over themselves and do anything to get published.
(One forum I follow is in the midst of a debate over whether a writer should participate in an anthology now that he knows it will contain work by another author who’s recently been public and vocal about his bigoted opinions on LGBT folk).
The other article was about the need for environmentalists to give up on hope. The writer has a grim view of things — and, sadly, he wrote this four years ago. I fear we’ve thoroughly proved his point in the time since. But his message isn’t as dark as it sounds.
In both cases, the writers were unflinching about getting quite sweary in their pieces — and I liked it! I’ve made an effort to not use cuss-words on my site ’cause I know it runs afoul of some people’s work-filters and can cause them trouble (whether adults should be monitored this way is another question, but it remains a fact for some).
And after it was pointed out to me that doubleZero contained 24 instances of a particular word — none of which I’d really consciously thought about when I included them — I made it an exercise to not use any profanities in The Willies. It wasn’t because I think such words are bad or wrong, but because I was using them lazily, in a way I’d received from things I’d seen. For instance, in a movie scene in which characters go over a waterfall on a raft, they’re pretty much obliged to all say “Sheeeeee-iiiiit!” As much as I don’t want to simply re-write scenes I’ve seen in other forms, I also want to be as conscious and original as possible in my use of language.
But there’s a time when “bad” words are necessary and good. On the flight home, I watched the political spoof In the Loop, and while I found the story a bit episodic, and I quickly tire of stories in which everyone acts hatefully toward everyone else, two of the characters — both played by Scots — were given such wonderfully clever sweary dialogue that the air just crackled with electricity in every one of their scenes. In real life, I’ve noticed that Scots either swear then immediately apologise or else do it with what I can only describe as a kind of grace.
We are living through some strange days, witnessing such a nadir in leadership and general bad judgment that I’m happy when someone stands up and spouts a well-needed, unapologetic invective at the stupidity of it all.
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