Hello! Thanks, Dawn, for letting me blog here! Here’s a quick intro – I’m KC Burn, and my first release was in March from Loose Id – MIA Case Files: Wolfsbane. I’ve got a blurb and excerpt up at my site if you want to take a look. But I’m here today to talk about one of my favourite topics – expletives. Or, maybe they’re more a favourite pastime than a topic!
I recently wrote a blog post on my own site about expletives, and why I find them useful and appealing. However, I focused solely on contemporary expletives and the creative use of them. What I didn’t delve into is the creativity and effort required by fantasy and sci-fi writers as regards to swear words.
I believe swear words, curse words and foul language are all very necessary, valuable tools, especially in writing. They can create tension, they can reveal character traits, and they can help give immediacy and realism to a scene or dialogue. But the ones we use today, no matter how creatively applied, may appear out of place in sci-fi or fantasy. A few short words can break the world-building spell. And yet, I know from personal experience how agonizing it can be to create swear words that fit into your imaginary world.
Many current swear words have been around for a long time. For some, their origins are commonly known, others are more obscure. They may also be reflective of cultural mores and ideas that no longer exist! That’s a lot of work for one little word or phrase.
One example that comes to mind is “blimey.” Not used much in North America, and although I’ve heard it used on British television, I’m not sure how common it is. What I do know is that it originated from the phrase “God blind me”, which then got shortened to “gor’blimey” and from there to “blimey”. It’s an evolution which tells us that expletives are not always simple or easy, no matter how trippingly they fall off the tongue.
Sci-fi writers have the luxury of choosing, if they wish, to use expletives we’re all familiar with, especially if the future they write about isn’t far off. Fantasy writers, however, need to make up words that have a wealth of meaning or weight of history for their characters, possibly involving back story, religion, or historical events that may never be described explicitly in the story.
One of the first times I noticed this phenomenon was well before I started writing seriously. Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern use the expletive “shells” and “shards”, among others. The survival of Pern’s people is dependent on dragons and these expletives reference the shells of the eggs their dragons are hatched from. While these aren’t based on religion (as many are), there’s a lot of history, culture and sentiment embodied in the words.
David Eddings’ Belgariad/Mallorean is another great example. There’s the colorful “by One Eye’s nose” or “Torak’s teeth”. The polytheistic world David Eddings created provides ample fodder for curse words, which are based on the religion of the peoples in the book.
Most of the sci-fi I read uses contemporary expletives, but Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor uses the word “smeg” in the place of another extremely flexible four letter word.
While my own book is a virtual bounty of expletives, they’re all fairly standard, current ones. The futuristic romance I’m working on? The first draft had the phrase “futuristic curse” scattered throughout because I knew I needed to put some serious and focused thought into them and I didn’t want to interrupt the flow of the story at the time to do so.
So, lay some of your favourite sci-fi/fantasy swear words on me (but keep it clean, please - I’m guest here in someone else’s house!) or let me know your thoughts on making up expletives – does it add realism to a book’s setting and characters, or is it completely extraneous? I’ll give away a copy of my ebook to a commenter.
www.twitter.com/authorkcburn
MIA Case Files: Wolfsbane - available from Loose Id
Link 1: http://www.kcburn.com/books?utm_source=dbn&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=swear1
Link 2: http://www.kcburn.com/?utm_source=dbn&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=swear2
12 comments:
An interesting topic. A couple of other unique expletives in fiction: Cable Series Battlestar Gallactica, pilots use the word "frick" for our favorite "f" word. In Robert Jorden's Wheel of Time series, people swear using the word "light". I would agree using contemporary expletives has a place in characters in our place and time, but needs to be more creative in alternate worlds.
Great topic! I also use the phrase 'futuristic curse' in my wip :-) until I can figure out what the curse will be. You've given some great ideas on how to create them.
Oh, and I believe the BG curse word was 'frack'
Wow, I never really thought about this. But you're absolutely right. Most of what I've been reading use contemporary words, but it makes so much sense for them to have something based on their history/culture. Thanks for the insight.
Interesting topic! I think it's a hard line to toe. Modern expletives sound out of place, but fabricated expletives often sound forced or silly. There needs to be a dictionary of "real" expletives through the ages!
I never watched BG (I know, I should probably turn in my geek card right now) but I think both frick & frack are decent alternatives, although... maybe not together :)
And Dan, I'd forgotten about "light" in the Wheel of Time - that was a good one.
Lynda, aren't those curse placeholders just agonizing? I glad you found something helpful.
Nina - sometimes the contemporary words work. But I do think it's a little easier with sci-fi because most sci-fi 'worlds' have evolved from our own.
Suzanne - I have read stories with fabricated words that sound silly, and I think in general they should be used sparingly. I use the f-bomb with much more frequency in contemporary stories than I use any of my made-up words in my futuristics. I like your idea of a dictionary of 'real' expletives. Maybe I should write one - a labour of love ;)
The latest SF series, Caprica, uses frack (a lot) as a swear word, too.
caity_mack(at)yahoo(dot)com
Hi KC,
Great blog. Language is something that ties me up in knots with Science Fiction. You want it to be familiar to your audience and yet different enough to have an exotic appeal. Well done. Thanks.
I can't come up with any right off the top of my mind...well except for the usual *great balls of fire*...don't know where that's from...but there have been some real awesome ones...I'm gonna have to go and search out my futuristic/sci-fi books.
hugs,
Anna
s7anna@yahoo.ca
Hmmm... good to know about frack, Cathy, maybe that could be a new option. Everyone should be able to guess what it's a stand-in for :)
Hi Marlene - yes, that's exactly the dilemma. I have to admit severe envy about authors who create their own alternate languages - I have a hard enough time just with the expletives!
Hi Anna - thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for having me and thanks to everyone who came out to play! The winner of my book is Cathy M! Cathy - I'll contact you via the email above, but if you don't hear from me today, drop me a line at authorkcburn (at) gmail (dot) com.
Thank you very much KC. Loved the excerpt for Wolfsbane, definitely my favorite kind of storyline.
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