Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Profanity in Fanfic

As far as profanity being a sign of lack of creativity or command of the English language goes, I have to say that it takes a fair amount of creativity for a single word to have so many meanings--even if it has to be repeated numerous times in a sentence to get all the meanings across.

I had an elderly friend who could swear very creatively. He had a large vocabulary and could combine pretty much any word with a profanity if something irritated him or he wanted to get a point across. I never heard him say the F word, but he said just about everything else.

I have two young nieces that I spend a fair amount of time with. When something happens that seems to call for a strongly-worded response, I often say "Goodness gracious me oh my!" I said that yesterday in front of the high school students and they found it hilarious (almost as hilarious as the time I dropped an 8-pound hardcover book on my toe and yelled "Owie!")

Annie, I like your non-curse words. My own personal favourite is, "Bother!" I loved it when, as a child, I read stories in which Winnie the Pooh used it and decided to adopt it for myself. My other favourite is, "Sugar!"

Joy,
Lynn

I really didn’t mean to offend anyone with my statement. Also, I was not necessarily referencing anyone on this board when I made that statement.

I do not use profanity or vulgarity in my personal life and it is a rare occasion that I will use it in my writing.

Like everyone else, I have been exposed to that kind of language, believe me, after spending 20 years in the military, I’ve heard it all. Fortunately it has not transferred over to my personal life.

My problem is with those individuals, let me reiterate, not necessarily on this board, that use it for shock effect or even gratuitously.

If you are establishing a character, and it puts that character in a certain light, that is an entirely different story. Disreputable characters will use slang, swear words and vulgarities. I would just hope that it would see limited usage here on this board.

The minister of the church I grew up in was a retired Navy chaplain. He tried to keep a civil tongue, but sometimes he'd curse anyway, much to the amusement of all the teenagers. When I was 16, I was at the annual ice cream social and decided to take a turn on the swings on the church playground. The chain snapped and sent me flying headfirst into a tree--and I taught the little kids on the playground a whole new vocabulary. The minister's response? "Thank God! She's normal!" (I wasn't much for swearing out loud, unlike some of my peers.)

I agree that using profanity in fanfic just for shock effect doesn't really add anything to the story (plus it quickly loses the shock effect). It actually makes me think of the Frank Miller comic The Dark Knight Strikes Again, which has a lot of material that seems to be used for shock effect and wound up not being a very good comic (IMHO).

I agree that the reason there is very little profanity in LnC fanfic is because the show just didn't have that tone, and generally, we're copying their lead.

However, I don't necessarily agree with the 'swearing is such a bad thing' view point. I can think of far, far worse things to say than a word that someone, sometime, probably arbitrarily, decided was a BAD word.

You're ugly.
You're worthless.
You can't get anything right.
You'll never succeed at anything.
I hate you.
I wish you were dead.

OK - they're not words, they're sentences, but a *^$#@ let out in frustration or pain or even just said for emphasis, particularly when there are no kids around, is IMO a lot less offensive than some cruel things said using non-swear words.

People who swear are easy targets. However, there are other people who are aghast at swearing, but quite happy to indulge in gossip. Or unfair character destruction. Or verbal bullying. Or judging others - particularly those who might use an occasional (or not-so-occasional) swear word.

I knew a little boy who moved from one English speaking country to another. A few days after starting his new school, he was chatting in a group of kids when suddenly a girl jumped up, pointed at him, and shouted "You swore!" Then she ran off, very self-importantly, to inform the teacher that a terrible crime had occurred.

The boy was dragged before the teacher, and after a lot of to-ing and fro-ing, (because the teacher couldn't actually bring herself to say the shameful words) he grasped that his crime had been to utter 'Shut up'.

Now, where the little boy had come from 'Shut up' was used mostly with affection, along the same lines as 'Get out of here' or 'You're kidding'. He was stunned to learn that words that were quite acceptable in some places inexplicably turned into swear words in other places. Even worse, the teacher (and the tattle tale) very effectively got across that because he used BAD words, he was obviously a BAD person.

I don't particularly like listening to/reading a lot of profanity in movies or books. But it's the writer's choice to put them there, and my choice to close the book or walk out of the movie if I want to.

The fact is that people swear. Some 'bad' people swear. And surprisingly, some 'good' people swear, too. In the scheme of things, I don't think it's the big deal it's often made out to be.

Corrina.

An excellent point. Swear words may offend, but they don't hurt the way your examples would. And the offense is usually quickly forgotten, but the damage done by the hurtful words can be lifelong.

Joy,
Lynn

Speaking as someone who was verbally bullied during my 6th, 7th, and 8th grade years, and told more than once by more than one person that I should go kill myself, I would whole-heartedly agree with this.

Thanks, Deadly Chakram, for giving me the idea for my latest story .

Joy,
Lynn

My Alt-Clark (Wrong Clark) is a bit more liberal with his language than canon Clark is, but I would never have him say, let alone think, THAT. I, too, attribute this to his upbringing after his folks died. I try not to have him swear outright (or even a blue streak as Lois is known to do, mainly because Christina would bash my head in with her OOC club), but he does THINK terms I can't imagine canon Clark thinking without blushing (even in regards to Lex Luthor). But he'll never drop any of the main 5 ones from George Carlin's list of 7 words people can't say on TV. (Not recommended for anyone who covers their ears for 'hell', but a VERY informative bit of comedy, even if slightly out of date.) /cowers from Christina's club for even bringing up the list/.

When Annie brought up the topic of Profanity, I believe she was referring to these specific words (mostly), which are considered profanity pretty much world wide. These are the type of words, which were originally used for intimidation and to cause fear in others and why they became risque`. They are the ones I could picture Martha washing out Clark's mouth with soap, had she ever heard him use them (when he was a child, and, some, even as an adult). None of those words are appropriate for most of the canon characters from LnC (although, I might make an exception for Cat... who would be wise enough not to use them in one of my stories or in the office.) While I could see some thugs saying them (but only in a Nfic), I would hope the character's stay in the story would be of short duration.

In my story 'Panem', Clark says "damn" and "dammit" several times, but it's in high-stress situations. Some of the OCs, however, are a bit more willing to use strong profanity, though I haven't spelled any of the words out completely. (One character got halfway through the 'f' word before falling asleep at the breakfast table.)

Always happy to help!

You bring up an interesting point, Virginia. And not one I'd considered. Alt characters get a pass from me, if only because their upbringing may have been completely different from canon characters. While I typically choose not to have them swear, I can imagine that in some universes, they might. Heck, in some universe out there, maybe Clark is completely evil and bent on enslaving the Earth before he meets Lois and has a change of heart.

That would make an awesome story!

That would make an awesome story! </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> I think I smell a challenge...

In one story I wrote, I really wanted to use the F word. It was the right word in the circumstances. It was said by one of the bad guys. And it is the only time I've ever even been tempted to use the word in my writing.

Of course, we don't allow that word to be used in a pg story, so I faced the choice of posting it as a nfic or changing the word. Since there was no other nfic in my novel-length story, I ended up changing the word and posting it as a pg story.

I've disliked the story ever since. It feels as if I compromised my story.

ML

ML, you can always go back to the story, add the word, and post it on the nfic side.

Your post reminded me of a movie in which swearing was necessary for the movie to have the proper impact. No, I'm not referring to "Gone with the Wind," but rather to "Children of a Lesser God." In the climactic scene, the Deaf female lead character tells the hearing male protagonist about how, when she was a teenager, the boys would line up to have a turn with her. The sign she used (which the male lead translated aloud for the audience's benefit) was a very graphic one which was translated as something like "repeatedly F*-ed me." As much as I dislike such terminology in either language, and as much as I usually avoid R-rated (and, nowadays, many PG-13 rated) movies in part because of their use of such language, I have to admit that that was the perfect sign/word choice. That scene was refilmed to eliminate such terminology so the movie could be shown on TV. The lead female character in the re-shoot used the sign equivalent of "make love." It was completely inappropriate in the context. She was trying to emphasize the mechanical, animalistic, nature of the encounters, and love had nothing whatsoever to do with the actions being described. The televised version's scene did not work at all, in either language. (At the time, I had been fairly fluent in ASL, so I can make that statement from first-hand (no pun intended) observation.)

Even I will agree that sometimes -- on very rare occasion -- foul language is the best choice in telling a story.

Joy,
Lynn

Another perfect example of profanity suiting the story is in the movie 'The King's Speech'. Prince Albert is struggling to speak without stuttering and his speech therapist shows him that during certain circumstances, he doesn't stutter ie. when using profanity. It's a perfect and very funny scene in a brilliant movie!

Irene

Sometimes ugly situations require ugly words. As MLT said, if you water it down, the story loses something.

You forget... I now dislike the story. And who wants to post a story she dislikes?

ML

Sometimes a well-placed, well-timed swear word is exactly the right touch (for example, in the movie Paint Your Wagon, the holier-than-thou preacher goes around preaching obnoxiously at everyone, but when he predicts that God will make the town sink into the ground and it does, taking him with it, he lets out a very apropos profanity; if you've seen this movie, you'll know what I mean). Other times, I get the impression that the profanity is there just to be there (if you took the "F" words and other profanities out of The Wolf of Wall Street, it might actually be a reasonable length).