Profanity in Life and Literature

"Only pastors are allowed to swear," my father told me after I asked him about curse words when I was seven, which was convenient considering that he was an associate minister at the time. It makes for a humorous anecdote now, but that became my very first conception of the morality of profanity. My views have understandably expanded since then; I now sort profanity into two categories: cursing in life, and cursing in literature.

I (usually) swear infrequently. Because I attempt to present myself (keyword: attempt)as a clean-mouthed individual to most people, I can use vulgarity for the purpose that I believe that it holds: shock and awe. Curses are funny things; Once normal words, at some point they were given incredibly negative connotations by the society that uses the language. Connotations are powerful and negative ones have their place, but connotations suffer from diminishing returns. If I decide that a situation calls for it (which is rare), I need only use a single word, and any of whom hold the view that I never swear tend to go silent and slack-jawed. Compare this to your common foul-mouthed lout or lass whose curses hold little to no meaning. I also try (though unfortunately not as much recently) to refrain from profanity when I am alone so that I don't develop a habit which can eventually ruin everything if I accidentally let a curse slip, which has happened multiple times, and therefore shattering my company's perception.

When it comes to writing, I believe one should swear less than what is normal for them. With much of the reasoning being the same, the difference being time. When one is writing and the urge to use vulgarity arises, they have time to turn that emotion into a brilliant piece of wordplay instead of using the shortcut that is swearing.

Now it's time for exceptions! In life, there are two exceptions that I can think of. First, there are some people around who I would never swear, such as children or grandparents (parents? yeah.. well we try, right?). Secondly, never- with no exception to this exception- is it ever alright to use God's name in vain. As for writing, there are also exceptions. Such as emotion filled personal writings, and in fiction. Both are rather self explanatory, I think. Finally, there are those strange, inexplicable, atypical, unconventional, rare-synonymic situations where a single use of profanity just sort of works.