A Conversation for Writing Right with Dmitri: Cussing a Blue Streak
They cuss, but not like us
Willem Started conversation Apr 16, 2012
Heh heh! This reminds me of what I've read about Ernest Hemingway advising ... a good, honest swear word in the right place might be just what a piece of writing needs.
Anyways since I am writing fantasy stories, my goal is to have my characters use alternative swear words ... in different realities of course different things would be considered insulting or shameful. At the same time one also avoids offending people by using 'real' swear words. And one can get quite creative and also leave a lot to a reader's imagination. In the story I'm working on now a character loses her cool when encountering some spectacular 'official idiocy' with this (uncharacteristic for her) outburst as the result ...
“You crum-nucking, flit-spicking bubbleguard! You order-glarbing, nibulescent freck of a bewurbled son-of-a krogborster! !....! You idiots! You bunch of bogbimbered klookawortles! You … you complete, unabridged and unadulterated nincompoops! You secondhand, body-fluid-blemished facsimiles of human beings!"
Now even someone who's read this far into the story will not know what most of those words mean, but knowing this character and the kind of polite language she normally uses will, I think, give them a hopefully amusing sense of how exasperated she's getting.
They cuss, but not like us
Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor Posted Apr 16, 2012
I like it. That sort of thing always adds value to a tale.
I've noticed a similar technique being used in the trailer to the upcoming Tim Burton version of 'Dark Shadows'. (I'm not recommending this film, I'm hoping Awix will trash it. I'm a 'Dark Shadows' fan, not a Tim Burton fan.)
Burton has Barnabas say something funny and insulting that Jonathan Frid would never have uttered. 
They cuss, but not like us
Willem Posted Apr 17, 2012
Hey, I don't mind Tim Burton, not taking his films too seriously. I'll watch it when it shows here. Even 'bad' films usually give me something to think about, or a few laughs, or some visuals I could use in some way, remember Conan? Anyways I hope I'll be able to get back to some movie satire sketches soon without having to worry about lawyers.
I'll see if I can get any Dark Shadows on YouTube.
Oh ... poor Robert Browning! Didn't they even have that word in the *dictionary* back then? Over here I keep my dictionary here right beside the computer ... and use Google also if necessary. But also, any poet/writer really ought to have a good and worldly-wise editor ...
They cuss, but not like us
Dmitri Gheorgheni, Post Editor Posted Apr 17, 2012
No. I am positive Browning couldn't have used a dictionary.
This reminds me of my attempt to understand a certain passage in Chaucer. (I was young and naive.) The book I was using translated the naughty word - INTO LATIN. Once I'd learned Latin, this was no longer a problem. But sheesh...
Of course, then I ended up in a Chaucer class in Germany. On the final exam, I realised I didn't know the German for the rude word I was supposed to translate. I created an English footnote.
Well, they don't TEACH you that stuff. 
I recommend that you google 'Dark Shadows Annotated'. If you're not familiar with the 1225-episode soap opera saga, I think you'll enjoy the snarky comments an anonymous genius has left us on Youtube.
Such as this lovely introduction to Barnabas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgBMZOHZVLo
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They cuss, but not like us
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