On Writing: Swearing

[aldersprig]

How do you handle swearing in your constructed (fantasy, sci-fi, etc) settings?

I've run into this more than a few times over the years. Sometimes, I find out something about the setting when I have the characters start swearing.

Gods below... swear men in Tír na Cali, which leads to the question... below what, and why are they below.

Eleven departed gods... people curse in Fae Apoc. Why are there 11? Where did they go?

I'm still trying to decide about curses in Reiassan... Girey blasts things a lot and, coming from a maritime culture, sometimes swears by whirlpools. Rin... doesn't swear much.

How do you handle swearing? What's your favorite and/or least favorite ways you've read other people handling it ?

Comments

[alexseanchai]

I'm entertained by how Seanan McGuire handles it in October Daye. The fae swear by various body parts of the three (vanished) rulers of the fae.

[clare_dragonfly]

Ooh, and this just reminded me of Catherine, Called Birdy--it's set in medieval England and people frequently curse by various body parts of God, and the narrator decides to swear by God's thumbs because she considers the thumb the most important body part.

[clare_dragonfly]

There are eleven Words, aren't there? I always figured they corresponded. (Not counting frodleikr, of course.)

Anyway, I usually just narrate the swearing rather than putting it into dialogue, but theoretically I would consider the religion and taboos of the world. Any world might reference excrement in its swearing, but not all will reference sex, gods, or eternal punishment like we tend to in English.

I always liked "shards" in the Pern novels. I'm sure I've read books where the characters have said "damn" and that bothered me because I didn't think they would actually consider the possibility of damnation or "gods" when the god(s) are irrelevant, but I can't think of any examples.

[aldersprig]

yes, but that does beg the question of what about Frodleikr.

Actually, now that I'm awake, they often say Thirteen Departed gods, so I had to figure out what happened to the Fourteenth.

[clare_dragonfly]

I figured they forgot about the god corresponding to Frodleikr when they forgot about the Word. Of course, then you have the question of why they forgot...

Hmm.

[aldersprig]

The answer I came up with was she didn't depart. ;-D

[clare_dragonfly]

Ooh!

[thnidu]

(grumble, grumble) → raise the question

OED, beg, v.:
6. To take for granted without warrant; esp. in to beg the question : to take for granted the matter in dispute, to assume without proof.

[aldersprig]

beg pardon.

[thnidu]

Gods below... swear men in T****ir na Cali, which *leads to the question...

Not relevant really, but I see extra symbols in this line: small boxes where I've put asterisks. I can't get them to show their values, but in one attempt they behaved like backspaces. ???

[aldersprig]

How very odd. Silly DW.

[thnidu]

Do you see it? Is it just me?

(WHAT I TRIED TO EDIT TO: )
Gods below... swear men in Tir na Cali, which leads to the question...

Not relevant really, but I see extra symbols in this line: four boxes before the "i" in "Tir", and one before "leads". I can't get their values and I can't get them to show when I'm pasting, but they show when I preview this comment, and in one attempt at analysis they behaved like backspaces. Wha' hoppen?

[aldersprig]

It was doing something weird when I tried alt-0237 before, í, maybe that's what happened. Tried editing it to see if it fixed itself.