Robert Brumm
  • Home
  • My Books
  • Birds and Ponds

Foul Language in my F$cking Books

6/27/2012

5 Comments

 
A few months ago I was talking to my mom on the phone and she informed me she and my dad read my book Desolate. As she told me how much they liked it, I grimaced as I pictured all the F-Bombs and their cousins peppered throughout the dialog of the story. Most of my characters are prison inmates. Although I don't know any personally, I took the liberty of assuming most of them use expletives on a regular basis. It's a stereotype I suppose, and if any of you convicts out there would like to convince me otherwise, feel free to drop me an email. I'll send you a thank you cake that may or may not contain a file.
I'm pushing forty years old and I'm still not comfortable swearing in front of my parents. I wish my sixteen year old son would feel the same way, but I yell at him on a daily basis for his language. But that's another blog post.

As I've gotten older over the years I've tried to keep foul language coming out of my mouth to a minimum because it's in poor taste and a bad example for my kids. That being said, I'm not offended by other people swearing. I'm not too happy when they are swearing at me in anger, but if somebody wants to have a profanity filled conversation with me, I don't care. I'm a grown up and they are just words. Big whoop.

Recently, one of my author friends got a bad review on Amazon because the reader was offended by the language in his book. I read that book and didn't remember any cursing in it. I checked and there were a few here and there. PG-13 stuff. That got me thinking about the language in Desolate. By my count, there are seventeen instances of the F word and I wrote forty-one variations of the S word. Not to mention a bunch of other curse words, plenty of gore and violence, and even an attempted rape. Not wanting a bad review based solely on language, I added this warning on the book's Amazon page:

"This book is intended to be read by adults and may be unsuitable for children under 17. Contains indecent language and descriptions of graphic violence."

I felt much better after adding that since it should scare away easily offended readers looking for a light hearted rom-com. Not to mention actual kids. Unlike the marketing geniuses behind The Hunger Games who think kids slaughtering each other is clean YA fun, my books are not kid friendly.

Check out this reader review I found today for Outlaw Platoon by Sean Parnell. This book is the real life story of Sean's experience as a platoon commander in Afghanistan for sixteen months:

"Our newspaper had an article about this book never dreaming when I bought the book how disgusting and foul the language was. I wouldn't want my teenage grandkids to read it. I will not read it and I'm sorry I spent the money."

Seriously? Soldiers in combat swear? Who would have thought?

Where do you stand on bad language in books? Personally, I don't care. I'm more offended by Andrew Zimmern eating a baby pig on TV or some shirtless guy with a D cup on the Biggest Loser.

Just words. Big Whoop.
5 Comments
Andrew Lace link
8/30/2013 11:00:48 am

First time to your blog and just wanted to say hello.

Reply
Robert
8/30/2013 12:29:27 pm

Hi! Thanks for stopping by.

Reply
David A
4/28/2014 05:36:53 pm

Interesting rant on the use of foul language in literature. Nice try to justify it as being realistic. Personally, I find that an author's frequent use of foul language in literature is most often an obvious indication of a small mind. Seriously, as an author, an aficionado of words, you can't figure out how to tastefully convey the loathsomeness of a character in any other fashion? Just the fact you probably wouldn't read it out loud to your mother should be an indication that at some point in your past, she tried to teach you to be better.

Reply
Robert
5/9/2014 06:55:33 am

Hmmm....writing swearwords in my own work or insulting somebody by saying they have a small mind? You win, David A. Rock on, buddy.

Reply
margaret
6/19/2014 09:32:02 pm

People swear; if you don't, you're in the minority.. My kids learned the F-bomb on the school bus when they were in first grade. If you're offended by it, hang with people who don't. Read children's books... or at least check out the book more carefully before you decide to buy it. I kinda like people who swear. They're generally more tolerant and lest judgmental

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • My Books
  • Birds and Ponds