Sod and Bugger

[robinturner]

No, I'm not having a swearing fit; I'm thinking about how culture-specific many swear words are, and whether I was right to use the word "sod" in the novel. It's in tune with our narrator's character to say "sod" or "bugger", but "sod" comes from "Sodomite" and "bugger" from "Bogomil", and I'm not sure I want characters in this world to be dropping references to religious history. On the other hand, SF swear words tend to sound comic or strained, or at least not quite natural. There are some notable exceptions, such as Ursula LeGuin's wonderful "Meshe's tits!" but in that case, it's the tits that provide the profanity, not Meshe, so it doesn't count.

Comments

[asteriskhere.livejournal.com]

You've inspired me Robin...I've got to get back to cranking out my mystery.

[asteriskhere.livejournal.com]

I actually meant to leave this reply to your other post featuring the 2nd page of your novel but somehow it ended up here (via that last glass of wine I s'pose). Why not replace "sod" with "schmuck"? ;)

[solri.livejournal.com]

Too American for a British writer.

[asteriskhere.livejournal.com]

I know, it was a joke. :) Or an attempt at one, anyway!

[solri.livejournal.com]

Maybe I could add "meshuggenah" ;-)

[trochee.livejournal.com]

I knew what "sod" meant (though it strikes my American ear as an Anglicism). My confusion was just that I wasn't 100% sure that Our Hero was speaking to the room of publicans, urging them to be kind to the obviously shaken messenger. The single quotation alone for some reason led me to question (1) whether zie meant "take care of him" like "put him out of his misery" and (2) considering how specific Our Hero is about the other instructions, I'm surprised zie didn't say "you there, get that man to a washtub, clean clothes, and down in the mine with the rest of you."

but hold on, "Meshe" is profane and "tits" is vulgar (or perhaps obscene, for some), right? In my culture, references to male homosexuality are both obscene and vulgar, and I gather that European English finds them vulgar but less obscene (much like the c**t word for women, much more common in UK English than in American English, where it is considered quite obscene).

...Anyway, the structure of swearing/cussing/vulgarity/profanity says a lot about your culture, and I somehow doubt that male homosexuality has the same ring in your tri-sexed world. So though I agree that the religious-etymology terms are iffy based on their origin in a certain very well known Middle-Eastern monotheistic doctrine's holy book, they are also tied to some odd^* sexual assumptions.

^*I want to say "anachronistic", but the "-chron-" morpheme is wrong. "contraversal"? no, how about "anacosmic"?

[solri.livejournal.com]

I like "anacosmic"!

[trochee.livejournal.com]

heh. me too!

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

This.

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

So find a cultural relative, then. If it's in character for your person to be saying "sod" (but "sod is not culturally there), build the backstory that makes "sod" legitimate usage (or whatever substitute you use for the term). You've already beat the hardest part--you know what "sod" means, where it comes from, what it implies....

[vret.livejournal.com]

Sod means earthy, doesn't it?

(... he said innocently, but suggestively)

[sjcarpediem.livejournal.com]

:-)

In a manner of speaking...