Why Writers Should Avoid F-Bomb Barfers
The near-ubiquity of curse words has been lamented as evidence of the general coarsening of American society. That may be true and worthy of debate.
Two recent pieces in the New Yorker (Dropping The F-Bomb) and The Atlantic Wire (Have Curse Words Lost All Meaning?) wrestle with the issue. I agree with some of their thoughts, but have different reasons for lamenting today’s offal (no typo) language .
WHY WRITERS SHOULD AVOID F-BOMB BARFERS
People who barf a continual stream of F-bombs and other profanities are generally boring, inarticulate and hazardous to good writing. They rarely have anything genuinely interesting to say. And when the occasional item of significance slips in, it’s like the pony hidden under a pile of manure.
As a writer, I always try to read well-written books in hopes that I might learn something. I also try to avoid badly written books in fear that my own writing will devolve.
One of the toughest tasks for a writer is to create realistic dialogue where word choice, cadence, and syntax can help define who that character is.
I try to avoid people and writing who spew profanities like an overflowing toilet because they can only hurt my writing and ability to define characters through dialogue.
Language also defines people in real life. A thought for F-bomb barfers who might care about who they really are.
CURSING = CONFORMITY
Today’s all-pervasive profanity is also conformity.
Everybody’s doing it. Go ahead. Fit in. Join the clique. You don’t need your own genuine identity.
Continual cursing is the ideal mimicry for undistinguished people trying to hide in the safety of a mob.
Or for talented people lacking enough gumption to stand out from the gray backwash of the crowd.
Most significantly for a writer, conformists are usually boring people.
There’s little for a writer to learn from and nothing to take away for a dialogue lesson.
PLACEHOLDERS FOR THE INARTICULATE
Ubiquitous curse words are the new “uhmmm” and “ah” and “er” and “like” for the inarticulate who need placeholders for concepts that can’t be expressed using a limited vocabulary. Or maybe the vocabulary exists, but they’re too lazy to come up with a work that clearly articulates the thought.
Inarticulate people are Kryptonite for good writing.
DEVALUATION OF PERFECTLY GOOD WORDS
Profanity used to be powerful and expressive.
Curses used to be powerful because they shocked. They were used sparingly, saved for occasions when they carried meaning. Overuse has worn off profanity’s cutting edges, rounded the spear point, dulled the ability to sting. Left over are simply incoherent mumblings that the ear ignores and the brain discards as useless bits of sound carrying no meaning at all.
I mourn the loss of powerful language.
THE VALUE OF PERVASIVE PROFANITY
Pervasive profanity in writing or speech does have its uses. It can identify inarticulate, ill-mannered conformists with a clueless disregard for others.
It’s one of nature’s way of telling a writer who to avoid.
