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Are you offensive and tasteless?

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echo.

echo.

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So I was procrastinating at work today, and I was on a website where I've done a bit of writing. All was fine and dandy until I went to edit my own page, where I was greeted by an ominous message.

ACCESS DENIED.
Tru-View has categorised this page as Offensive & Tasteless.

Offensive and tasteless. I felt quite proud to have earned the title, if a little perplexed as to what I had done to warrant it. True, there were a couple of swear words but nothing especially gratuitous or controversial. I think it was mainly about the weather, which in Britain usually means opening up to a no-holds-barred vitriolic diatribe on how much it sucks. Did chucking a couple of 'bollocks' into my dialogue make me a tasteless fucko? I didn't know.

But it set me to thinking: what are your thoughts on swearing in books? Off-putting or bearable or are you so cripplingly desensitised that it's barely noticeable anymore? Alright in its place, and if so, where is that place? Do you too deserve the ignominy of 'Access Denied?'
 
Offensive, tasteless, disgusting- I've heard them all :D

I swear a lot (and I mean A LOT) in all languages I speak. That's partially why I try to avoid using foul language in my writing (there is too much of me in it already). I am less constrained in the dialogues, though, if it suits the character to have a potty mouth. Also, there are situations in which swearing seems appropriate- like "Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" to accent characters despair/annoyance. And, of course, the sex scenes. 'There is a real and great threat of overdoing it and making it unbearably vulgar, but when I see "bum" or "pecker" in one of those the only heat I can feel is that of embarrassment ;)
 
I typically have characters swear where it might feel right for them to swear. Past that, I don't really place a constraint on what words might be used. Again, it comes down to whether that character would use the word (or not). Surprisingly, I typically won't use swear words in science fiction stories because using colloquial swear words in the context of a highly speculative world just feels strange to me.
 
My characters swear when it seems "in character" but probably less often than the people I know in the real world.

Who is Tru-View and who elected them judge?
 
Paige 99 swears on occasion, but if 905 hears her, she gets scolded and tries not to again, just to humor him. Most of the other characters swear a little when surprised or angry, but nothing too fierce. Paige 99 also has giggly first-time sex with Lyla, but I don't go into a lot of detail. I'd still probably get "Offensive and Tasteless" anyway.
 
In my litfic stories, there is some swearing, but that's very normal for litfic.

In my other types of stories (of which I only have four so far) I have tried to use made-up swear words because I have an idea that that sort of language is inappropriate for genre fiction, at least for sci-fi. I suppose I picked this up because I've never yet come across blue language in a sci-fi book. I'm sure they exist, but hey, so far, the ones I've read do just fine without it, so I figure I should be able to as well.
 
The MG book I just finished is set in New Zealand, where kids swear a lot. I mean little kids--5, 6 years old. Teachers swear in the classroom. They don't even view those words as 'bad'. Which made it REALLY hard to write authentic dialogue between kiwi kids in this book without using words that'll offend any reader outside of New Zealand. And in MG, unless you're only going for the NZ market, swearing is pretty much a no-no. (I've seen some NZ books that use it as liberally as NZ kids do, but I can guarantee you those books didn't sell well anywhere but here.)
 
echo. said:
So I was procrastinating at work today, and I was on a website where I've done a bit of writing. All was fine and dandy until I went to edit my own page, where I was greeted by an ominous message.

ACCESS DENIED.
Tru-View has categorised this page as Offensive & Tasteless.

Offensive and tasteless. I felt quite proud to have earned the title, if a little perplexed as to what I had done to warrant it. True, there were a couple of swear words but nothing especially gratuitous or controversial. I think it was mainly about the weather, which in Britain usually means opening up to a no-holds-barred vitriolic diatribe on how much it sucks. Did chucking a couple of 'bollocks' into my dialogue make me a tasteless fucko? I didn't know.

But it set me to thinking: what are your thoughts on swearing in books? Off-putting or bearable or are you so cripplingly desensitised that it's barely noticeable anymore? Alright in its place, and if so, where is that place? Do you too deserve the ignominy of 'Access Denied?'
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I swear in my books when the character would do that in real life. I try to stay as real to the character as possible. My villains tend to curse more than my hero, except in my 3rd book where my hero swears more often, which I did on purpose.

Side note, if Tru-View is your work's monitoring system, likely what they've done is marked the entire writing site as offensive & tasteless. Unless it's searching for a specific word, monitoring softwares usually block by home site, not by individual page. Like, it would block all of Litopia, not just a single thread.
 
It sounds like I’m in the minority here because I don’t swear at all. (As a kid I was a goodie-two shoes type and now I’m a mum of two (5 and 8 years old), the worst I’ll say is ‘oh bum’ or something equally lame.)

I write YA/ children’s books which have no swearing so that suits me fine. As a reader, I will rather read a book without swearing, but am willing to overlook some swearing if they are in keeping with the character.
 
Sea-shore said:
It sounds like I’m in the minority here because I don’t swear at all. (As a kid I was a goodie-two shoes type and now I’m a mum of two (5 and 8 years old), the worst I’ll say is ‘oh bum’ or something equally lame.)

I write YA/ children’s books which have no swearing so that suits me fine. As a reader, I will rather read a book without swearing, but am willing to overlook some swearing if they are in keeping with the character.
Click to expand...

I had my mouth washed out with soap at age 14 for saying "butthead."

In the "church" I was raised in, "fudge," "gosh," and "golly" were considered offenses for which you were sure to be hellbound. And I was a very obedient child.

Mr Meerkat swears like a sailor . . . I mostly ignore it, because it generally does not offend me, but there is one term he knows he is not allowed to use, and when he does, I ground him. :)
 
You know, as soon as I say it doesn't bother me, someone is going to use it in a way that bothers me.....

So.... yeah.
 
General consensus - alright in its place? I'm all good with it, don't really like the word 'bitch,' though. Fine with a cunt, bad with a bitch, aaand that sounds like a horrible catchphrase for a porn mogul.

Should use the world 'mogul' more. Like it.
 
echo. said:
General consensus - alright in its place? I'm all good with it, don't really like the word 'bitch,' though. Fine with a cunt, bad with a bitch, aaand that sounds like a horrible catchphrase for a porn mogul.

Should use the world 'mogul' more. Like it.
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The cross-Atlantic differences in the generally perceived offensiveness of words are interesting; most people in the US would reverse your order of offensiveness. Personally, I don't like or say either. My cursing, and I do curse, is gender neutral.
 
In the spirt of this noble thread: today I learned a new Dutch saying: kut met peren (cunt with pears). It's not even considered that vulgar, apparently.
 
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