On Cursing in fiction

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Is It acceptable to, while writing a piece of fiction, have a character in it curse in the sense of obscene language? What if it’s portrayed positivly namely one character telling another one to “P*** off” (I hope I can do that.) as a victorious moment, given that the character receiving clearly deserves it.
 
“Created “in the image of God,” man also expresses the truth of his relationship with God the Creator by the beauty of his artistic works.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2501)
 
I’ve been asking the same question myself. I’m working on a piece of fiction that includes a lot of violent scenes. I’m thinking of using cursing as rhetorical strategy in some parts of the novel. I just need to know whether or not it’s morally acceptable.
 
In terms of the morality of cursing in general, I don’t think that cursing is in and of itself immoral. Certainly saying the Lord’s name in vain is wrong. Using cursing as a way of distributing unrighteous anger is wrong. And you don’t want to violate the fourth commandment if your parents (assuming you are still living with them) don’t want you to. But I think outside of that it is not a sin, certainly not a mortal sin, to curse.

So in relation to fiction writing cursing I think CAN be acceptable, but you would probably need to be careful. It is not something that should be abused, to be sure. But if you were to use language to, say, show the immorality of the character who is saying it then I think that is acceptable.
 
I wouldn’t recommend it,but if it is necessary,so be it.Personally,I would rather hear or read a thousand curse words and obscenities then one blasphemy.
 
Bad people do things that they shouldn’t do. If you’re going to write realistic fiction, then it will include bad people, and to keep it realistic, you will have to show them doing things they shouldn’t do. One of those things is using scatalogical language, and as long as you aren’t gratuitively dropping f-bombs, etc., into the dialog, I don’t see a problem. Take you cues from the Old Testament. It has rapes, murders, fornication, and all kinds of bad stuff in it, but the writers didn’t include it just to be including it, and they didn’t go into the kind of detail that you see in modern American secular fiction.
 
ThePuppyTurtle said:
Is It acceptable to, while writing a piece of fiction, have a character in it curse in the sense of obscene language? What if it’s portrayed positivly namely one character telling another one to “P*** off” (I hope I can do that.) as a victorious moment, given that the character receiving clearly deserves it.
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Be different! There are hundreds if not thousands of very profane novels on the shelves right now. In fact it is difficult to find even one that doesn’t have the “F Bomb” in the pages many times! Many people are so desensitized to bad language that they no longer even notice! Try to find a way to have the characters express themselves WITHOUT using cuss words!

If you have a rough character or two, where it is in their nature to curse, try to redeem them somehow by the end of the work. Let them come into contact with a more honorable person and have that character influence them for the better. By the end of your piece, maybe the rough character will have made lots of changes including learning to speak without cursing.

The great writers of the past did not need to use coarse language to create their characters. It takes more skill to create 3-dimensional characters instead of just a stereotype. Work at keeping things clean! Aim for the highest level, not the gutter!
 
Foul language is what is used when peoploe run out of intelligent things to say.

Three days ago I was reading a book by Tammi Hoag. I got tired of the swearing and took a two hour break. Went back to page 23 and the third sentence had a swear word. Tossed the book.
I vowed that if I ever read another book by Vince Flynn I will total the number of times he uses the F word.

Agatha Christie, Alistair McQueen, John Steinbeck, Mary Higgins Clark can all write books without swear words, descriptions of how intelligent, brave and athletic the hero is. Also with pages describing the fantastic figure of the heroine. But they had writing telent.

Others need to swear in lieu of talent.

Since I do read a lot I am looking for authors I have no previous experience with (I am not into romance novels). I have recently experimented with J A Jance, Alex Berenson and Jeffrey Archer to be clean.
There are writers who writer for Catholic publishing houses but they are few and their books can run to $30 which is too pricey for me.
 
My take on swearing (in real life, writing, television, etc.) is this: Look at how many words are in the dictionaries of the world. So many to choose from. Swearing makes a person (to me) look as if they don’t have a strong enough grasp of the English (or any other) language to be able to find a more appropriate word! 😛
 
I don’t think that swearing is funny or cool. I think it’s really weird to have a character use appropriate language throughout a whole book and then suddenly decide to use a swear word as if that makes them cool and edgy or something. I actually find it very childish. Now, if you have a character in the story that is supposed to be a crude personality, that’s another stroy. I don’t think that there’s anything inherently sinful about what you described, but it doesn’t sound like good writing to me either.
 
Allegra said:
I don’t think that swearing is funny or cool. I think it’s really weird to have a character use appropriate language throughout a whole book and then suddenly decide to use a swear word as if that makes them cool and edgy or something. I actually find it very childish. Now, if you have a character in the story that is supposed to be a crude personality, that’s another stroy. I don’t think that there’s anything inherently sinful about what you described, but it doesn’t sound like good writing to me either.
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He doesn’t swear throughout the entire thing. He does it once. let me give you the relevant exerts. A character named Kron who is basically has supepowers, is drafted into an alien army that is warring against humanity (Note that I don’t give either side a more sympathetic treatment.) Now of course, he’s drafted BECAUSE he can turn the squad (Who are assassins btw) invisible and make people fall through the ground. And he is put right in with 0 training whatsoever. This exchange takes place between the squad leader Aaron and a member, Nax

“Thank you,” said Aaron. “Remember, everyone go easy on the new guy. Despite what he can do he has no combat experience or training. Don’t expect him to be able to enter a fight like he’s been through advanced combat and stealth like you have.”

“So in other words, he lacks every skill necessary to be an assassin, or even a soldier, and you are throwing him in to drag us down until he is full of bullets, has a knife through him, or is scattered into pieces by an explosion,” Nax said.

“That’s enough,” Aaron shouted. “The hour has become late. Everyone get to sleep.”
They did as instructed.

“Not you Nax” Said Aaron.
Code: 
Aaron pulled Nax aside, “Are you trying to scare him to death?”  he asked.

“It would keep him from impeding our progress” Replied Nax.

Aaron just glared.

“What? Am I seriously the only one here who realizes what an awful idea this is?”

“You do not decide what a good idea for this squad is,” said Aaron.  “I do. You just follow orders and do as you are told.  Understand?”

“Well don’t come crying to me when he’s in the medical ward bleeding to death.” Nax replied.
Later, in TEH CLIMAXX Kron IS injured in battle. and ends up in the medical ward bleeding to death. This exchange occurs.
Code: 
    “Not to gloat but-” Nax started.
“P*** off,” Said Aaron.
This is the only cuss in the entire work. You can see that “Go away” doesn’t have the meaning or emotion. I cant think of anything that does. If you can, I’d love to replace it.

EDIT: I suppose i could say “Go Away” Aaron snarled, but that just approximates it.
 
Never mind. I think the cursing isn’t that important overall.
 
ThePuppyTurtle said:
He doesn’t swear throughout the entire thing. He does it once. let me give you the relevant exerts. A character named Kron who is basically has supepowers, is drafted into an alien army that is warring against humanity (Note that I don’t give either side a more sympathetic treatment.) Now of course, he’s drafted BECAUSE he can turn the squad (Who are assassins btw) invisible and make people fall through the ground. And he is put right in with 0 training whatsoever. This exchange takes place between the squad leader Aaron and a member, Nax

“Thank you,” said Aaron. “Remember, everyone go easy on the new guy. Despite what he can do he has no combat experience or training. Don’t expect him to be able to enter a fight like he’s been through advanced combat and stealth like you have.”

“So in other words, he lacks every skill necessary to be an assassin, or even a soldier, and you are throwing him in to drag us down until he is full of bullets, has a knife through him, or is scattered into pieces by an explosion,” Nax said.

“That’s enough,” Aaron shouted. “The hour has become late. Everyone get to sleep.”
They did as instructed.

“Not you Nax” Said Aaron.
Code: 
Aaron pulled Nax aside, “Are you trying to scare him to death?”  he asked.

“It would keep him from impeding our progress” Replied Nax.

Aaron just glared.

“What? Am I seriously the only one here who realizes what an awful idea this is?”

“You do not decide what a good idea for this squad is,” said Aaron.  “I do. You just follow orders and do as you are told.  Understand?”

“Well don’t come crying to me when he’s in the medical ward bleeding to death.” Nax replied.
Later, in TEH CLIMAXX Kron IS injured in battle. and ends up in the medical ward bleeding to death. This exchange occurs.
Code: 
    “Not to gloat but-” Nax started.
“P*** off,” Said Aaron.
This is the only cuss in the entire work. You can see that “Go away” doesn’t have the meaning or emotion. I cant think of anything that does. If you can, I’d love to replace it.

EDIT: I suppose i could say “Go Away” Aaron snarled, but that just approximates it.
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I don’t really consider that to be major profanity. However, if you are still concerned, you could have him say, “Get Out!” and probably get the same effect.
 
TheRealJuliane said:
Be different! There are hundreds if not thousands of very profane novels on the shelves right now. In fact it is difficult to find even one that doesn’t have the “F Bomb” in the pages many times! Many people are so desensitized to bad language that they no longer even notice! Try to find a way to have the characters express themselves WITHOUT using cuss words!

If you have a rough character or two, where it is in their nature to curse, try to redeem them somehow by the end of the work. Let them come into contact with a more honorable person and have that character influence them for the better. By the end of your piece, maybe the rough character will have made lots of changes including learning to speak without cursing.

The great writers of the past did not need to use coarse language to create their characters. It takes more skill to create 3-dimensional characters instead of just a stereotype. Work at keeping things clean! Aim for the highest level, not the gutter!
Click to expand...
Yeeeeahhhhhhhh… Next time I write about Hitler I’ll have him eating twinkies…😉
 
ThePuppyTurtle said:
Is It acceptable to, while writing a piece of fiction, have a character in it curse in the sense of obscene language? What if it’s portrayed positivly namely one character telling another one to “P*** off” (I hope I can do that.) as a victorious moment, given that the character receiving clearly deserves it.
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Definitely not. As a writer myself, I avoid all such language, And as someone who works in the media, I’m noticing it appearing in historical books as of late. In other words, attempts are being made to normalize profanity.

In the past, I enjoyed reading just about anything, but, in one case, I had to throw one book out because the author added sexual references that ruined the book for me. I wrote to the publisher of another book to complain about certain words and phrases. To my surprise, I got an e-mail from the author offering the lame “well, that’s how me and my friends talk.” I could’ve replied by saying, “You are writing this book for the general public, not you and your friends.” But I just threw the book out.

As an editor of fiction, if I see a manuscript with profanity in it, I take out my yellow highlighter and mark every word. My recommendation is the substitution or deletion of such words.

Peace,
Ed
 
Nimzovik said:
Yeeeeahhhhhhhh… Next time I write about Hitler I’ll have him eating twinkies…😉
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The OP was asking about FICTIONAL characters, not real historical figures.

:rolleyes:

Besides from the example given, I think it’s more fanfic than a novel, so…

🤷
 
As an (amateur) writer as well, I say it all depends on the character you’re writing about. Personally, I have a tendancy to write about villains; that personality type fascinates me (How did they become like this? Why? What happened to them to turn them this way? etc). In a situation where one of these characters is hurt, in mortal peril, or just plain angry, they’re hardly likely to say something like: "Gee, owchie, golly’, etc.

Does this mean that you’re not a good writer if you add swearing? That it ‘cheapens’ the work? No. It means that you are writing from the personality of your character. Anger is a legitimate emotion, and expressed often through such swears. Naturally, it is can be overused; I wouldn’t have Blasphemy, of course, but that’s another matter entirely.

Personally, I don’t swear in my private life. Ever. The characters, however, write themselves. I have little to no control over their actions.

Just my opinion.
 
Nimzovik said:
As an (amateur) writer as well, I say it all depends on the character you’re writing about. Personally, I have a tendancy to write about villains; that personality type fascinates me (How did they become like this? Why? What happened to them to turn them this way? etc). In a situation where one of these characters is hurt, in mortal peril, or just plain angry, they’re hardly likely to say something like: "Gee, owchie, golly’, etc.

Does this mean that you’re not a good writer if you add swearing? That it ‘cheapens’ the work? No. It means that you are writing from the personality of your character. Anger is a legitimate emotion, and expressed often through such swears. Blasphemy, of course, is another matter entirely.

Personally, I don’t swear in my private life. Ever. The characters, however, write themselves. I have little to no control over their actions.

Just my opinion.
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I think the reason I want to is because swear words contain a lot of emotion. That’s what’s happening here. Nax is about to gloat about the fact that he successfully predicted that a squadmate would be mortally wounded. Aaron doesn’t want to hear it. This is the most 2ed most emotional way of expressing it.
 
ThePuppyTurtle said:
I think the reason I want to is because swear words contain a lot of emotion. That’s what’s happening here. Nax is about to gloat about the fact that he successfully predicted that a squadmate would be mortally wounded. Aaron doesn’t want to hear it. This is the most 2ed most emotional way of expressing it.
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Precisely. The swear fits the scene. So long as the swearing doesn’t become ridiculous (a very fine line, I assure you), then it should be fine. :cool:
 
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