>okay i need to jump in here. if we are going to write
fiction with any
>sincerity to the language of the street we need not
be afraid to use harsh
>language. what, are we going to lie about how folks
communicate with one
>another? you cite ellroy's language as being
offensive. is the use of the
>words nigger or spick offensive to you?? i am a white
dude and every time i
>walk down to the liquor store the local youth greets
me with "wassup nigger?
>you drinkin' a 40 tonight?" is it offensive when
donald goines uses the
>word nigger?
I think you're misreading Mark's comments, but he can speak
for himself.
as for me, well, in fiction, I find that often it's not the
words themselves that are bothersome, but the gratuitous use
of them. I can understand offensive characters using
offensive terms in dialogue, and even a narrator using the
words, but too often, lesser writers use the words, not to
shock, or add colour, but because they think it automatically
qualifies them as hardboiled. Sorry, but the mere act of
spouting swear words or offensive terms does not make one
tough.
In fact, as much as I admire Ellroy, I think he does tend to
overdo it. Sometimes he comes off like a ten year old kid in
the schoolyard, spouting off all the "bad words" he can,
trying to impress his friends.
Doesn't Marlowe at one point say something like "He snarled
and called me something nasty." Would that sentence really
have been better if Chandler had written: "He called me a
motherfucking asshole."
This issue never really bothered me before, but as a fiction
editor for my site for the last few years, I've seen some
pretty poor writing, tarted up with "fuck you's" and
"cocksucker's", and enough misogyny, racism, ignorance and
just plain hatred to make you despair for the whole
planet.
Were the actual stories any good, it might be different. But
they're not. They're bland, adolescent, usually
poorly-written shoot-em-ups, full of plot holes, logic gaps,
rape fantasies and pointless gore. So, when they're rejected,
I get the usual high-school retorts, questioning my
masculinity, the size of my dick, how much of a PC faggot I
am, etc., etc.
I don't think we should be afraid of using harsh language in
our fiction, but I don't think we should be afraid of not
using it, either.
By the way, it's a sad day in the "sincerity of the language
of the street" when the word "nigger" has become so devalued
that it's applied to a white dude like yourself.
--
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
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