Fantasy worlds and cussing
Jan. 26th, 2007 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayreI've just finished reading The Decoy Princess by Dawn Cook, and it crystalized a petty annoyance that occasionally disturbs my reading.
Cussing.
No, not that it happens. Those of you who know what a devoted Christian I am might be surprised (and amused) at parts of my vocabulary, and the frequency with which I use those parts.
No, it's the way cussing is handled in lots of fantasy worlds. Writers go to great pains to imagine and develop their "world" and then fall down when it comes to cussing. 1) They come up with some silly sounding cuss word, often when they haven't introduced many other new words and expressions. 2) They only come up with ONE, so it's all purpose-- same expression for everything from a broken fingernail to the murder of the king and queen and imminent overthrow of the kingdom. 3) If you're going to have different cuss words, why maintain other American colloquialisms? In the above book, I was tolerating the "flaming ghu pits" bit until the heroine referred to a wedding as "I do's." Why, in a different world, would a wedding still consist of questions answered with that particular phrase?
Failure of imagination-- and a minor failure, easily remedied, that repeatedly snaps my suspension of disbelief.
Shards.
Cussing.
No, not that it happens. Those of you who know what a devoted Christian I am might be surprised (and amused) at parts of my vocabulary, and the frequency with which I use those parts.
No, it's the way cussing is handled in lots of fantasy worlds. Writers go to great pains to imagine and develop their "world" and then fall down when it comes to cussing. 1) They come up with some silly sounding cuss word, often when they haven't introduced many other new words and expressions. 2) They only come up with ONE, so it's all purpose-- same expression for everything from a broken fingernail to the murder of the king and queen and imminent overthrow of the kingdom. 3) If you're going to have different cuss words, why maintain other American colloquialisms? In the above book, I was tolerating the "flaming ghu pits" bit until the heroine referred to a wedding as "I do's." Why, in a different world, would a wedding still consist of questions answered with that particular phrase?
Failure of imagination-- and a minor failure, easily remedied, that repeatedly snaps my suspension of disbelief.
Shards.
