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What kind of cursing is okay versus not okay when writing? I
raise this question because when I was joining GoodReads, it asked me to rate
my upcoming novel. Judging by that
website’s criteria, my novel is borderline R-rated.
This was not intended, mind you.
Growing up I was told that cursing was for people who lacked
a big vocabulary. I don’t think I ever
heard my parents curse, or if I did, by now, I have blacked it out. Expletives just didn’t figure
prominently in my childhood. Growing up in a family of 6 children, ideas were
discussed, thoughts shared; it was better to express ones thoughts in full
sentences—to debate, more than berate. So
I’ve never been a good curser. I’m not
averse to cursing; I just can’t really do it in mixed company, except with my
closest of friends and family—and, when I do, it’s for dramatic effect. I don't slip it
into my conversations normally. If I use a curse word, I’m usually trying to
pontificate upon a matter that requires an accent of sorts – in the form of a
curse word.
I’m not sure how it happened, but some of my characters seem
to want to express themselves using “flowery” language, and I’m not sure why. Their use of foul language is not gratuitous,
but fits in the conversations of the characters using them, even if I can’t say
the curse words to good effect out loud.
Let’s face it: cursing
is also now part of our daily lives. I
hear my friend’s children use it in front of their parents, something I
couldn’t fathom doing when I was younger. When my oldest sister started doing it, I had
to make a mental adjustment (“Aha, she’s a grown up now.”) Mainstream bloggers
curse in their blogs; even news anchors are prone to use it sometimes in their
broadcasts. Of course, there are some words that are verboten, in mixed
company—like the “C-word,” one that makes me cringe every time I hear it. So, there are no words of that salacious sort
in there, but the curse words we’ve all used or thought to use as part of our
cursing parlance—well, they do have a place in my novel.
It could be my setting: rural Louisiana. But in my real-life
travels there in northwest Louisiana, I’m not sure I heard curse words there anymore
than I did any other place. Granted, I
didn’t know anyone in Natchitoches (pronounced, "Nagadish"), except my friend’s mother, whom I visited
one evening, to get some insights into the rural community upon which my story
is based, but I didn’t get one bad-word peep out of her. Perhaps because I was a tourist there, people
likely put on their best behavior. I didn’t sit in the bars by myself, and chat
with people, as I was doing lots of traveling, taking a look at the terrain of
the place, and interviewing people during the day, mostly. Another guest of the hotel where I stayed, who, along with me, was invited by the hotelier to dinner, did introduce me to the term “coon-ass,” which he said was reserved for swamp-dwelling rednecks of Southern Louisiana.
So, why the cursing? Not sure. It just fits, in my opinion. Should I feel
guilty about it? My novel would
otherwise be considered a cozy, a procedural-type novel with little sex and
violence, per se. Yet, the elements are there…
just not graphically—except that there may be some readers who might find some
aspects of the novel gruesome. But it’s
not intended to shock or offend; it is matter-of-fact, and in the proper
context of the plot. I believe the
cursing is, too.
One word I do not use is the “N-word,” believing that the
less we use the term, the less the world will use it, too. That term, to me, is
more derogatory than most other terms, no matter how friendly it is bandied
about by people of my racial background.
Of course, not all Black Americans use the term, but just to be sure, I
censor them from using the term, mindlessly, so that readers don’t feel
justified in thinking about the word, of even having it in their conscience. Only
in one chapter do I use the term, for effect, when some kids are debating how
to pronounce it properly, using celebrated rap stars as role models for how
they use the term.
Kanye West set the nation back decades when he used the term
in a popular song that we mentally chanted even when it was bleeped out; the
word was rhymed with Gold digger. And the world bopped to the song. Perhaps in Kanye’s
twisted epistemological genius, by turning it into a commonplace word, does it
somehow take away the sting?
I doubt it.
Maybe if he associated it with a less derogatory adjective,
like “brilliant n*gger,” instead of broke “n*gger.” Broke ones are the ones who are either unemployed,
or who die, shattered, dead and broken in the street, at the hands of a police
bullet, or too tight a chokehold.
Well… West is making millions, so, in his estimation, he is
doing something right.
Cursing is just cursing, to some. Hopefully, my use of the
term is poignant in its context, but even in making my case, it still bothers
me a bit. I still might take it out – I have six months to decide.
I at least want to explain myself, something I wish West and
Jay-Z would do.
N*ggas in Paris.
New Slaves.
Damn right.
Here are links to blogs that delve much deeper into the question of the N-word, in particular:
http://thyblackman.com/2014/05/07/why-i-decided-to-give-up-the-n-word/
http://black-socrates.blogspot.com/2011/01/doing-things-with-n-word.html
Post script: I had an interesting conversation on Twitter with @Malika_Polter regarding the etymology of the N-word; she sent me this link: http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-original-meaning-of-the-n-word-by-pianke-nubiyang/
It's a quite fascinating take on the history of the word; I still don't condone it's contemporary profligate use, but it's worth the read:
Post script: I had an interesting conversation on Twitter with @Malika_Polter regarding the etymology of the N-word; she sent me this link: http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-original-meaning-of-the-n-word-by-pianke-nubiyang/
It's a quite fascinating take on the history of the word; I still don't condone it's contemporary profligate use, but it's worth the read:
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