Wednesday 12 December 2007

SWEARING

Following a comment on my blog in which I wrote "Well Swearing Mother, you said all that without one fucking swear word! Are you rehabilitating yourself?"

This prompted an EMAIL, no less, from DogLover the patron saint, saviour, grammar/spelling expert, self appointed censor of all bloggers and great fan of WITN. Watch out, he’s scouring the blogs right now. This paragraph alone will give him enough to work on for at least a week. It will throw him into a frenzy of indignation. So…… he wrote:-

If she is rehabilitating herself, I approve.

Swearwords don't shock me, though you may be surprised to hear that. I think I have probably used most of them in my time!

You see, I am all against the modern trend of "dumbing-down". What is the benefit of it? It was started on TV, I imagine, so that a greater viewing audience could be attracted - from the unwashed and uneducated. I don't see why the rest of us have to lower our standards to follow suit.

I think that, instead, we should try to contribute to blogs with the best quality that we can manage. Cutting out unthinking swearwords and putting carefully considered alternatives in their place - there are usually several possibilities, with pleasing shades of difference.

That's why I sometimes object. It's also why I sometimes mention spelling mistakes. And try to use good grammar myself. Let's present something that looks good, makes sense and is interesting for others to read.


I replied that he should get a life!! I do, actually, totally agree with him but my fingers take over and swear, mis-spell and write inappropriate and grammatically incorrect comments. What can I do?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds a bit strange to me! Swear if you want to, who can stop you writing down swear words in your own blog? If people are offended by swearing they should either not read on or just ignore it.

I very rarely swear in my blog myself, but i did use the F word the other day, just telling of something that my husband had said in a fit of rage!

Oh bugger them.
Crystal xx

Anonymous said...

who decides what is a swear word?
I laugh when people used to say oh sugar instead of oh shit. The meaning is still there.Most so called swear words are actually acceptable English ,what if I swear on here in Welsh , who would know?
Some times a few good oaths are good for your soul

Anonymous said...

A blog is a personal diary and if Doglover knew that he may not be so quick to comment. I think doglover may actually have very little to do, who died and made him God? In my workplace we are openly encouraged to express ourselves and this means that some of us enjoy adding the odd swearword into our presentations and it definately makes people sit up and listen and can actually be an ice breaker, showing that you are human!! One of our directors is so un pc it is refreshing, his blog is probably one of the most popular blogs i have come across - oh and he swears like a trooper :)

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

I must defend my good friend DogLover. He is an old fashioned sort of guy and like to keep up standards. I fear that I have always been a disappointment to him.

And strangely enough I agree with all points of view. I find that swearing can be very liberating at times and sometimes I feel that I am letting myself down.

And then there is the modern text language! I think that the young generation are great in the way they have invented their own form of shorthand. It is so logical that it makes we wonder why we don't use it more.

PS - anonymous, do you work for old grumpy and me? It sure sounds like it!!

Bathsheba said...

Hi RetiredandCrazy - I can't see where to email you, so am doing a comment instead. I've just discovered your fabulous blog through dulwichmum, which I also love. I am 10 long years off retirement which makes me young enough to have teenage children. These (well one of them) has given me cause to create a blog called imightcomedownformeals.blogspot.com - I am blogging little letters and ephemera from children to parents. I am looking for more contributions - from you? from your friends? Take a look and see what you think. In the meantime, I'll be posting a link to you on my blogroll as it makes me laugh.

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Hi Bethsheba, I have read your blog and love it. I do have something that I would like to contibute. It's a letter I received from my granddaughter many years ago. Hopefully it's not too faded with age (like me) to scan. I will look it out and submit it. By the way, thanks for your kind comments. I am such a saddo. I live for strangers to love me. Do I need to get a life?

dulwichmum said...

Lovely Retired and Crazy,

I can only apologise. I have failed to rise to your kind challenge. I am brain dead right now trying to finish the final draft of my book.

I get dozens of hate mail emails, and many of them comment on my poor grammar. I always find it interesting that people email me abuse and take the time out to contact me with their thoughts. Isn't it perfectly super to have the ability to touch people so deeply?

laurie said...

i like well-written blogs, but i also love the immediacy and forthrightness of blogs. that includes typos and swearing and occasional lapses in grammar.

no, i wouldn't read something that was just a fucking screed, or unintelligible. and i, myself, do not capitalize words in my blog--it's faster this way.

but i love how blogs feel so fresh, like a conversation. and so they have to be a bit spontaneous and unpolished, don't you think?

who IS this guy, anyway?

laurie said...

(and valleys mam has an excellent point. i have friends who didn't want to swear around their kids. so they say "mammit!" and "puck!")

Anonymous said...

Ooooh, I am so excited!

I really look forward to seeing it. Even though this project is proving very difficult to get material for I am obsessed by it - checking my Google Analytics every couple of hours sometimes (even though I get max 9 visits per day). Now we're talking sad.

Anonymous said...

An extra benefit of reading your blog is reading the comments. I appreciate Doglover's comments. He does have a way with words. If only I were so sophisticated...and could spell.

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Dear Flagmaker, I so agree with you. (That pharase will send DogLover into a frenzie). I love reading the comments which have become my reason for living! (Well not quite, but I do love to exagerate).

I think my co-bloggers are a fine bunch of intelligent citizens and it's great to read their views.

Swearing Mother said...

I think there are several different sorts of swearing - there's the ugly, violent and nasty foul-mouthed sort (which I dislike intensely), the casually peppered-into-every-sentence sort, which I think is a waste of speech, and then there's the fantastically expressive, satisfying and amusing sort, which I enjoy. Hopefully most people can tell the difference, or boy am I in trouble!

If DogLover emails you again, Retired and Crazy, tell him my lack of swearing was only a momentary lapse, and if he'd like to pop over to my blog I'd be delighted to tell him to f*ck off in person, no problem.

In a friendly and hopefully grammatically correct way, obviously.


:0)

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

I couldn't have put it better myself SwearingMother. I sometimes can't resist shocking people sometimes. Swearing rocks!