Thanks for the suggestion, Sheila, but, to be honest, I've never really understood this convention.
...It's obvious when reading what the word is intended to be, so wouldn't you be just as well using the actual word?
So it's a convention that's always baffled me. But perhaps there's a point to it that I'm missing and someone can enlighten me.
I'll give it a shot, LabRat. Using an asterisk in place of the vowels in obscenities is just like our writing "the f word" or "the s word" in this thread. Everyone here knows exactly which words we're referring to, so shouldn't we just use the real words?
No, of course not.
Knowing what word we're referencing is NOT the same as having to read it. Using the asterisk in dialog is a way to indicate the language the character is using without anyone having to actually read it.
If reading obscenities spoken by a character doesn't bother people, they probably won't see the difference that removal of the vowels makes, but it's there. It's approximately the same difference as hearing "shoot" vs hearing the actual word that "shoot" stands for.
Then again, maybe it's just me. I'm very visual, so I don't necessarily read aloud every word in my head. When I see a curse word with the vowels missing, I don't pronounce it in my head, any more than I try to pronounce Klingon names in Star Trek novels. I sort of use a mental place-holder for those names, recognizing who they refer to without bothering to "say" the name mentally. I do something similar with the curse words that are missing their vowels.
For people who feel that "it's obvious when reading what the word is intended to be," an asterisk won't affect their reading of the dialog. But for some people who prefer not to read that language, it allows a mental "out-of-sight, out-of-mind" sleight-of-hand.
That probably isn't clearer than it was before, but I don't know how to explain it better.
