There’s a good article in The Atlantic by Steven Pinker about swearing on TV. Here’s what the man says:
I noted that over time, taboo words relinquish their literal meanings and retain only a coloring of emotion, and then just an ability to arouse attention. This progression explains why many speakers are unaware that sucker, sucks, bites, and blows originally referred to fellatio, or that a jerk was a masturbator. It explains why Close the fucking door, What the fuck?, Holy Fuck!, and Fuck you! violate all rules of English syntax and semantics—they presumably replaced Close the damned door, What in Hell?, Holy Mary!, and Damn you! when religious profanity lost its zing and new words had to be recruited to wake listeners up. [Atlantic via NYT Ideas]
There were a lot of articles and reviews on this when Pinker’s Stuff of Thought came out last whenever. This just happens to be a perfect time for me to revisit it because of issues I’m currently facing — trying to figure out how much swearing is appropriate on this blog.
Some people have a problem with it and I have to decide whether I can afford to lose them (or more accurately, whether I can afford to not get them at all). Then there are people who think swearing is great and will read any shit with the word shit in it because it’s naughty and — well I don’t really know what the appeal might be.
I’ve been trying to figure out whether it works out better to gain punks at the expense of fogeys, or vice versa, or if there’s a way to appeal to both. I think the resolution to that is to accept that I’m too much of a punk myself to give fogeys what they want, and I’m also too much of a fogey to write like a genuine punk.
But there’s a third group: people who don’t have a personal vendetta against swearing but are careful listeners and readers. I’m thinking especially of writers. Swearing can be used effectively but it can also betray a lack of discipline. On the other hand, never swearing can indicate a lack of autonomy or talent [or objectivity]. Using tamed-down ‘doo-doo’ words makes people look powerless and scared.
[The best way to put this might be, swearing can be a sign of immaturity, but at some point in our development we ought to become mature enough to swear appropriately.]
I’ve experimented with swearing (which sounds funny: swearing is supposed to be all about letting go) about a half-dozen times, most aggressively in my post on Stupidity vs. Fucking Stupidity. My intention there was to drive a point and, yes, to generate attention. It also happens to be a genuine account of my thinking. But it didn’t really generate much attention, and when I looked back at it a day later it just didn’t look right. I seemed angrier and crazier than I wanted to sound.
Part of me wants to swear a lot, just to put my thumb in the eye of people who have hang-ups about it — as if to say, “Hey look, I swore. Nobody died. What’s the problem?” I also don’t want to have too many filters and cosmetics between my thinking and my writing. I want to be ‘authentic’ and ‘real.’
But then I don’t want to appear impulsive. I’m not impulsive – I’m naturally deliberate and cerebral — and writing in a way that looks impulsive is the least ‘authentic’ thing I could do.
As with anything, there’s no way to resolve this dilemma in principle. I just have to continue experimenting and evolving (like language itself). All feedback is welcome, as always.
