How Do Y’all Feel About…

@devastate-lasting I feel ya. I haven’t had as much exposure to cussing in books as most people, since I read predominately Christian fiction–and because, for the longest time, there were never any cuss words in the Christian novels I read. Of course, classic lit is one thing. I recently read a Georgette Heyer novel, and one character cussed pretty much every sentence (half of them were British epithets, so they lost a little of their sting for me), but otherwise classics–like you said–aren’t half as bad as more recent works.

What bothers me is just that Christians feel, I don’t know, obligated to slip in a couple cuss words. If you’re not a Christian, I can’t judge, but I feel like you probably wouldn’t want your mama to hear you cussing, so why would you put explicit cussing in your book?

I use phrases and euphemisms like you do, and quite often, since my characters are, uh, very dirty-mouthed. 😉 I could probably use a couple cuss words, but I wouldn’t say them, so therefore I don’t feel comfortable writing them. I certainly don’t like reading them, since I know what they mean, how they affect people, and how they open doors for the devil.

I really appreciate you not using them in your finished product. Cussing (among other things people include in otherwise great books) really ruins the accessibility all books should possess. Books should be able to be read by children, teens, adults, and seniors alike, making them an adventure, an escape, and an expression for the author. Profanity, explicit scenes, etc., don’t make that possible.

*shrugs* So there was my rant for the day. 😉

@jenwriter17 Exactly! Euphemisms or phrases like “he cursed” are fine with me. I just don’t understand some Christian authors’ “need” to put cuss words where a euphemism or a phrase might would suffice. It takes away the meaning from the story, if you ask me.

@jenwriter17 Especially in Christian or YA fiction, when the emphasis should be on the message and  the quality of the story overall. It turns an otherwise good book into a propaganda pamphlet intended to desensitize people to profanity.

@devastate-lasting Very, very, very good point here. I totally see what you’re saying, and I think the issue is all in the way we’re depicting it.

I have a lot of rape, suicide, fornication, murder, lust, greed, depression, etc., in my books, and I’ve rarely been afraid to depict these things (even though my mom has lovingly freaked out on more than one occasion ;)). However, I don’t depict them as good.  They’re wrong, the characters know they’re wrong, and the actors of these deeds (minus dead people and villains) repent and turn away from their wickedness.

With swearing, authors who include it put those words out there in their purest, vilest form for human consumption–as if such language is accepted and commonplace and not to be reprimanded. As in, they depict it as good, when in reality it’s not. Make sense?

When using phrases like “he cursed,” we’re depicting cursing; however, by not including the words themselves, we’re depicting swearing as evil rather than good. So, just like we include murder and fornication, we’re putting that in there. But hopefully none of us Christian writers are writing out explicit sex scenes, so therefore we’re depicting all of that as evil.

Did any of that make sense?

I totally get what you mean, and it’s really making me think. It’s all in the context. I can write the h-word all I want, but if I’m using it in terms of condemning someone to it, I’m doing something evil. I can write about murder, but if my character isn’t feeling guilt for it, then I’m writing something evil. The context and the subtext is more important than the text itself.

@devastate-lasting Whew. I’m glad you understand it. To be a writer, I still have a hard time putting my thoughts into coherent sentences, you know?

@seekjustice You actually bring up a point quite like Linyang’s, as you come from a much different background than the rest of us do. Since cursing is more of a regional/cultural aspect of your life (rather than a “pop culture” aspect), it affects you differently. You’re used to it and therefore hearing those words (whether or not they’re directed at you) doesn’t offend you, right? So if you were to be writing to an audience of Australian adults from the same background, using cuss words wouldn’t offend them, so it wouldn’t actually be an issue because of the context. Sure, those words are evil, but when they have no affect on a person (which brings up the issue of there being power in the tongue), they lose their sting. An example I use is when my younger siblings call each other names. It’s quite obvious that your head is not a peanut, so being called a peanut-head shouldn’t hurt, right?

(That being said, I really appreciate that you don’t include cuss words and that your parents don’t swear.)

For us in America, for a young audience not as hardened to cuss words, or for a Christian group who do find those words offensive, context isn’t going to matter as much because we recognize the words as evil. Capisce?

As for the power in the tongue, cursing (verbally, mentally, or written out) opens up doors for the devil and will affect people whether they know it or not. Damning someone to hell in a slip of the tongue will have lasting affects, just like speaking life and prosperity over them will. It’s all in what the speaker/writer does, not what they intend to do. Just like it’s true my head isn’t a peanut and I know it’s not, that doesn’t mean I’m not going to be hurt by my sibling’s carelessness and the fact that, yeah, they called me a name. A stupid, untrue one, but a name nonetheless.

By the way, I’m learning as I’m writing this, because I can draw lot of parallels from this issue to an unrelated one I experienced. I was (unwittingly, I suppose) asked if I were something that I am not, and it hurt me. The person asking the question had no idea that it would hurt me, and I knew that was not true of me; however, I was deeply affected by the simple question.

And now I feel like I’m not talking about cuss words anymore. Hmm.

Anyway, I really appreciate the different perspectives y’all have brought up. It’s very interesting the background @seekjustice has brought to this conversation. On the subject of British cuss words, words like bl**dy don’t affect me at all, simply because I’m American. A word like bugger (excuse the language 😉 ) might not affect anyone at all, what with how commonplace it’s become in movies/TV/British language, but that doesn’t mean it’s not offensive. Before typing out a profane or crude word of any sort, one has to consider the different people reading your book. Although I intend my books for older teens and adults (simply because it’s over most kids’ heads), a lot of middle-grade kids end up reading them (thanks to unknowing grandmothers), so I should be prepared for that to happen if I ever used a cuss word. Kids could read that book, and it might open doors they’re unaware of. Also, I might feel comfortable using British cuss words or even having characters cuss in a different language, but I’ve had Canadians, Britishers, French, German, and other nationalities read my books, so I need to consider them as well.

Back to what Linyang said about other dark/evil things we depict, that’s why I also think we should include trigger warnings in our books (which I forgot to do for my last book, which deals with rape, miscarriage, and suicide…). We never know when someone who has been through those things, seen those things, has a friend or family member doing those things, etc., is reading our book. Trigger warnings can at least prepare them and younger readers for those things before they begin reading. I’ve basically rated all my books PG-13 because of that. I’ve had grandmas buy my first book for their ten-year-old grandsons (I mean, I know it’s about pirates, but it’s also a romance). The last thing I want is to be responsible for corrupting a young mind with profuse kiss scenes that he had not been forewarned of, you know?

Anyway…I’ll go ahead and end the rant now before I lose track of what I’m saying. Y’all get the point, right?

@kathleenramm @godlyfantasy12 @jenwriter17 I’m so glad to see that I’m not the only one who is upset by the profuseness of cuss words in “Christian” writing these days, and I am super thankful that y’all don’t use those words either.