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Thursday, July 3, 2014

The "F" Word

This is a rant, if anyone is not interested in my rant you may leave now.
The subject it's a word that is creeping into so-called "romance" books. It's the F word, and I don't mean Fork. See Definition from Dictionary.com

I have no problem in using the word, if appropriate in my writing. My character Bjorn Tremayne uses it as an expletive--a lot. But I'm not a big fan of it in using it as a--well--verb. I find it vulgar. Especially when used by women. But then I'm from the old school where women were taught not to swear (and I do my share of it on a daily basis), or spit (I only spit when I'm brushing my teeth, or eating watermelon at a picnic).

Anyway, I got something in my e-mail box the other day, and it simply bothered me, when I read the excerpt. I don't know why I went ahead and opened it. The title [of book] should have warned me off. It's called "Carnal Magic" by Lila Dubois. The site is Paranormal Book Reviews. If you read the excerpt (here). You'll see that the POV is the woman's. And from descriptions I'm guessing it's sort of "high fantasy". But what I don't get is the use of fuck. Twice in the same passage. The rest of the excerpt was well written. But using that word ruins the whole atmosphere of it.

In a way the use of this word is becoming all to common in this way, in writing and speaking. I hear it used a lot by not just men, but women too. Back to the the writing. To me, when I read it in such a book, I feel that the writer didn't use her writing abilities to say what this woman actually wanted to do. Why didn't she say something like rip my clothes off and rape me, or visa versa? There's a lot of ways I would have written it and it would have been more fitting. But then, I'm not a young writer. I'm more seasoned and know that if you're going to write something that you want a broad array of people to read, you don't want to use foul language to do it, or in this manner, and in such a fantasy genre. But that's just me.

It's usage, I read at my Dictionary.com is that it's first use was in the 1400's, but it has been used before this. I have read somewhere that it is a German word for "strike", but because it was considered a banned word, it's history has been lost.

Anyway, I had to get this off my chest. As a writer, I hate to see women resort to the word in such passages as the example above. If you're going for gritty novels, fine. However, think about who your audience is, and consider if your female character would really think I want to fuck him.

Have a Happy 4th, everyone!

2 comments:

  1. I think in general that it's a word best used extremely sparingly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We're on the same page, William. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

Hey, did I get you thinking? Want to add a comment? Be my guest and be nice about it. Since I've seen too many "anonymous" users I've taken this option off. Sorry, but you are only interested in selling me something. But my regulars are always welcome!