That's a Bad Word!

Jeff Cohen

Terri and Erin quite eloquently posted last week about Clean Reader, an app which apparently "cleans up" any work of literature--that is, anything that contains words--to best appease the sensibility of those who feel some parts of our language should not be employed. I do not intend to address that subject directly, mostly because I think everything Terri and Erin said was so dead-on I don't need to add to it.

But.

I do think we've regressed somewhat in our use of language. In fact, we've regressed a number of decades, to the point that simply using certain words can be considered scandalous or politically inappropriate. I grew up on the idea that words were tools, that they could express any thought if used properly. I grew up on George Carlin, and to tell the truth, I thought we were over this stuff.

People remember the classic Carlin discussion of Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television, but they miss the point for all the cursing. Yes, he goes out of his way to use all seven title words. But he doesn't do that just for the joy--which must have been palpable at the time--of saying them in a public forum. He's talking about the use of words, and why some have been segregated from the others.

It's a question of sensibility, and that's fair. The problem is when one sensibility decides to impose itself upon all others, which is what everybody thinks "the other side" is doing to them.

I believe in all words. I think each one has a use, and a specific one. Writers have been known to spend hours agonizing over a particular usage. To set aside some because they might offend others seems to me to be a poor use of resources. Some words are meant to offend. It's not the word's fault you're insulted. It's the thought behind it.

For the past 15 or so years I have been writing mystery novels and many of those fall into the "cozy" sub genre. The parameters of the "cozy" have been fairly well debated and I will not attempt to redefine the term here. But it is pretty universally understood that "bad language" is something that should be avoided in such works.

I don't have a problem with the idea of language fitting the form. I knew what I was signing when those contracts crossed my desk. I'm writing for a particular audience and that audience prefers not to see certain words. If I felt--as I did in my first published novel--that one of those words (often referred as a "bomb," which is sort of bizarre--does the word lay waste to entire city blocks?) was necessary to the story, I'd use it. Otherwise, I could find other ways to express the idea. I'm a writer. That's what I do.

(This is where I should say that I don't consider what I do to be "self-censorship." It's not like I'm dying to curse my brains out but rein it in for the sake of commerce. And my editors have never once asked me to change a word in order to appease anyone's sensibility. The changes we've made have been to make the book better. Period.)

But in some cases the whole breadth of the English language is necessary to the work. What has happened, particularly in comedy but certainly not limited to it, is that the giddy freedom Carlin, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and others helped create led to overindulgence. People swear without making a point just because they could. That's lazy. I'm not offended, except as a fan of comedy. Work harder. If the joke needs the word, use it. If it's just to show off how daring you are, I'm bored. It's 2015. We've all heard that before.

I don't believe in "bad words." As Carlin said, "There are bad thoughts. Bad intentions. But words?" He had a point. And that's the point.

Comments

[Patty]

I also love Carlin, and his banned words list was one of the first times I heard them all used together. Still, I'm not offended by language that is used where needed. I am bored or offended when whole pages are nothing but swearing. I once started a book, on the first page that "bomb" word was use fourteen times, on a page that was fairly short because of the white space around the chapter title. That book I have never finished, in fact I didn't read the 2nd page. Normally I do the 50 page test but this book, not even two.

[carl brookins]

Good one, Jeff.

[Llyn K,]

Good post. Dirty words exist because some/many people need them to release emotion. And we need those words in our color palette because a drug dealer shouting, "Aw, kittens!" would just be too distracting and misleading. Most dirty words have a pattern of a soft beginning and a hard ending that allows the speaker to release their frustration or whatever in a satisfying way. We could just as easily use another word, like "shut" to achieve the feeling, but the meaning we assign to the word also helps with the venting. In the end, however, what are these words, but simply sounds?

[Noreen Ayres]

Hi, Patty. Like you (apparently), I am as liberal as the next guy regarding language. I even used Carlin's insightful and inciteful recording in an English Comp classroom back in the '70s when I taught. But if I opened a book today to find what you did on that first page, I would just think the author's a show-off. I love J.L. Burke's all-inclusive, beautiful writing; but one book was silly in the proliferation of obscenities. I actually counted them, on a notepad, as I read. Ridiculous; a misstep. There are certain words that do make me cringe. The two I think of right now are both gender-linked. One is used ALL the time, by almost everyone. I wonder if foreign speakers have a concomitant word, and wish that someday it fades away. I'll quit teasing: it relates to a parent. Thanks for your thoughtful post, and to Jeff for providing the question and link on DL.

[Lynne Patrick]

Couldn't agree more with your take on this, Jeff - every word has its place. Over-use of those few words is just lazy writing.
I once asked an author to take out a word which makes me cringe (publisher can surely claim a perq or two!), and the change he made resulted in a much neater, and no less forceful, sentence.