thefourthbrother: the average one

My kingdom for a clean word. August 8, 2011

I hate profanity. I hate that sometimes, when I am alone, I say it under my breath.

I hate reading a book or watching a movie and being subjected to it. I hate that there are people I know that use it, frequently.

I hate that everyone who uses it has a reason or excuse for using it.

It makes me mad.

I do not understand why people won’t even try to stop using it.

I read some of the posts on facebook from teenagers I know, and they use it. That makes me mad. Where are the parents stopping their kids from putting profanity on facebook?

I was recently visiting a blog site by an author and one of the posts was about using the F-bomb in literature.

There were no pro’s or  con’s to the discussion. It was applauded and encouraged and accepted.

Bottom line – if you want to be an author of note, one that is considered worthy of comment or sales, then you better be using profanity, because by the way, everyone says cuss words and if you create a character that does not use profanity, you are not being real and your character will be discounted as flawed.

I had to leave a comment in defense of people who love to read and want to do so without having to read profanity.

It is so pervasive in our culture that nearly everyone it seems feels that they have to use it or portray it to be respected.

That is so far from the truth it is staggering.

Good grief, even the PG-13 movies now are notorious for dropping the F-bomb.

Some of my favorite authors who started out keeping their prose cleaned-up, in spite of already having made it big-time, are now putting it in their books.

There are books and movies who have been successful without using profanity. I will give only one example. The entire series of Left Behind novels is free of profanity, at least as far as I can remember. And they enjoyed tremendous sales in spite of having characters that if portrayed as they really spoke, would use profanity.

I think this is all a big compromise. No one is willing to swim up-stream anymore. No one is willing to go against the tide.

I used to work for Wal-Mart; a company founded by an individual famous for swimming up stream, going against the tide. He was a moral individual, a fine man and an outstanding boss. To my knowledge he never used profanity nor allowed it in his corporation.

So where did they all go? Where are the authors and movie producers and directors willing to tell a story without lacing their narrative with profanity? If there are any, in my opinion they are the ones who are strong. It is so easy and weak to be like everyone else and use it so that you won’t be called untrue or disingenuous.

I know I asked earlier why everyone does it. This was really rhetorical. I know why everyone does it. Even some of God‘s greatest prophets used profanity. Isaiah in his book, chapter 6 verse 5 said:

It is sin.

There is no other reason why people speak profanity.

There is no other reason they put it in books and movies.

Cries of being true to real life in writing a book with profanity ignore the need to repent and turn back to God. He has called us to be Holy because He is Holy. Leviticus 19:2 Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God,am holy.

My other question was not rhetorical: Where are they? Where are the people willing and able to produce good works of fiction or scripts for movies without using profanity?

Because if they are there – I’ll buy their book and I’ll promote them however I can. I want them to succeed. I want them to prove it can be done. I have a few on my book shelf already and they are treasured.

So come on! Where’s the clean word?