Obscenity in novels

[wondrousgnat]

o I still wonder why there is more profanity in books than there is in real life. And my grandkids are watching cartoons with foul language and violence. I grew up with Mighty Mouse and this stuff would never have been acceptable in the dark ages when I was a kid.

 

[LoAmmi]

o I still wonder why there is more profanity in books than there is in real life.

Artistic choice, really. I do tend to think that too many people, writers included, view a mature novel as being sex and foul language rather than adult themes.

 

[sylverpiano]

I read a lot also. Profanity does work in context. For example, you would not expect a street level drug dealer to speak in perfect grammar and avoid profane language. On the other hand, for all characters to talk this way as a matter of course is just lazy dialog creation. If a writer can not figure out a way to convey and emphasize an emotion other than constant use of the F-word, their fiction will likely be less thought out to begin with.

 

[Tallguy88]

And yet societal standards have unquestionably deteriorated. Why jump on board with that and risk offending people?

Sigh. The same goes for movies. It's hard to believe that "The Godfather" (movie) had so little profanity in it, after seeing other mobster movies. Of course the book did have it.

The book had a lot more than extra profanity in it. It had several graphic sexual scenes that were left out of the movie, or only vaguely hinted at.

 

[Tallguy88]

For example, many people were up in arms about the 50 shades books (not for their awful writing) because of the explicit description of the theme of sexual activities between consenting adults. Yet the Hunger Games books, with a far worse theme of graphic violence against children was lauded as a young adult series. Odd priorities

The Hunger Games series did not glorify the violence, rather the opposite. The society within the book that was glorifying the violence caused the oppressed people to rebel against that society.

 

[wondrousgnat]

Quite often I will be reading a novel and the author uses swear words in the description. Frankly I regard it as a lack of intelligence if he cannot avoid swear words in those situations.

 

[Antigone]

None of you have read Lolita, have you?

 

[Tallguy88]

None of you have read Lolita, have you?

My grandma said her and my grandpa got it when it first came out (in the 50s?) and said they considered it inappropriate contentographic back then.

 

[Antigone]

My grandma said her and my grandpa got it when it first came out (in the 50s?) and said they considered it inappropriate contentographic back then.

It is. Let's face it, it's about a paedophile having a sexual relationship with a girl and trying to justify his behaviour.

There are no swearwords in it. None. Maybe mild ones, but no f-bombs or c-words.

The other way around: if the protagonist of your novel is a hardened New York criminal it makes sense to have him swear like a dockworker. Good authors use language authentically, not to shock their readers.

 

[brewmama]

None of you have read Lolita, have you?

Yes, I have, why? I did find the sexual aspect disgusting.

 

[brewmama]

The book had a lot more than extra profanity in it. It had several graphic sexual scenes that were left out of the movie, or only vaguely hinted at.

Right. Godfather is one of the few movies that is better than the book.

 

[Mountain_Girl406]

The Hunger Games series did not glorify the violence, rather the opposite. The society within the book that was glorifying the violence caused the oppressed people to rebel against that society.

True, but it was still graphically described, and you could claim for many novels the sex or profanity isn't glorified either. I just think we have s much higher tolerance for exposing our kids to violence than we do to sexuality. That concerns me because I think we condition them to see violence as normal or ethical.

 

[saintandrew4life]

what book can one red beside ChirstianBooks

 

[topcare]

Well there is Red Cell by Mark Henshaw that is very good no obscenity in them http://www.markhenshaw.com/red-cell/ and Goodreads has a clean books section list that I belong to here https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/5989-clean-reads
and here https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/clean-read and https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/clean-adult are some good recommendations. Also there are cozy mysteries and most have no obscenity in them and a wonderful lady runs a blog where see list the titles for cozy mysteries here http://www.cozy-mystery.com/blog/. Hope this helps

 

[WarriorAngel]

I do read a lot and many of the books I read are novels. Many of them are loaded with obscenities. And I have no doubt that some of what I have read I would have enjoyed if the author would have cleaned up his language. For example I read a couple of books by Vince Flynn and thought they were too long and he could have shortened his books by 50 pages by simply eliminating the F word. And I recently read one by Douglas Preston which seemed to have several swear words on every page. Why do so many novelists rely on such language? I have heard the argument that they are simply reflecting society. But what society are they talking about? I was in the army and was a blue collar worker often in bad neighborhoods and I never heard such talk.

I know that some novelists are clean (for example Mary Higgins Clark, Dean Koontz and I am reading my first Ted Dekker novel). But there are too few of them and I would like a greater variety in what I read.

Again, why do novelists use such bad language?

Todays world is quite different. The F word is common usage among most.
I find it hard to find a funny meme on Facebook without the use of cuss words.

 

[WarriorAngel]

For example, many people were up in arms about the 50 shades books (not for their awful writing) because of the explicit description of the theme of sexual activities between consenting adults. Yet the Hunger Games books, with a far worse theme of graphic violence against children was lauded as a young adult series. Odd priorities

Its interesting - there were 2 witnesses who felt quite sure of a Cardinal's entrance into Heaven...when he died.
However; an apparition of said holy man showed them he was in hell because he painted in his youth sensual women which corrupted the minds of many men.

So is it harmless just because the woman wrote about 2 consenting adults?
Do you even consider how many women and men have lusted from that book and the movie?
I fear for the writer...i really do.