You could easily, as someone said, make him speak French, especially if the swear is uttered accidentally (in a state of shock). For example, "putain de merde" would be f**k, but would actually translate as "Whore sh*t". He could also say "Fils de pute" or "merde!", son of a bitch and sh*t, respectively. Also, it would depend on his background. If he was lower than the rank of general, or even if he did, he would most certainly swear like a sailor daily. My personal reccomendation would be for him to say "Bordel de merde", literally "Bloody Brothel/Hell"
In my writing, I like to make good use of the phrase "Holy Crap". It's not really swearing and isn't going to get you into trouble with anyone, yet I find it's sufficient to reflect the intensity of the situation. However, that's all in English. I presume, as you mention that this guys has been in the Napoleonic Wars, that he is French. To be honest, I think swearing in French would be fine. Even if kids reading your book pick it up - which is always the fear with swearing - they're not going to get into any trouble for using it since, in England, we wouldn't interpret it as swearing. Holidays to France could be interesting though.
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge!!! Store High In Transit!!! My God I love acronyms! But I've noticed the better authors tend to avoid them. Unless of course the story compels it and targets the readers. Reminds me of a Stephen Hawkin's quote. Something about the inverse relationship of formulas and number of books sold. For each formula he included in a "Brief History of Time", sales would fall by the thousands. 1 formula = 1000 less books sold or something like that. So he wrote the book and if I remember correctly, there was 1 formula in it. The story compelled him. The Rants, the Irish Blessings, the whole nine-yards of four-letter words must hold a similar inverse relationship. Makes sense....What MFing GD Sheit-talking bee-och reads anyways. Or even can read. For-Unlawful-Carnal-Knowledge them!
Well the Uprising was years before, Easter 1916. 1921 was the War of Independance which caused the Civil War. But yeah you are right, Ulysses was banned for many years for obscentities, hence the word wasn't used, well not widely and definately not in public. If it was, it wouldn't have been banned.
Phrases that are nothing but watered down swearing really bug me. Either curse, or don't, going half way leads to a an awkward situation where your insulting your readers by trying no to offend them.
I'd rather see some frakking originality rather than the same old knuckle-dragger fifty shades of fuck.
I've heard some pretty creative insults that didn't require cursing and come up with some myself. It's a lot of fun. Yes! Exactly!
I think physical reaction is oftentimes better. Words not coming, he hits a wall or the ground, wordlessly and with barely a grunt, teeth clenched and bared. Another one is to be so utterly horrified that one just stands still, "checks out," as it were, and drops into his own thoughts, leaving his body silently behind. Numbness. "No" is also a good one. Also, some creative word usage is always interesting: "I'll have the sniggering mouth-breathers by the neck, and see how they grin with my hands crushing the spit and pus from their forsaken throats," or what-have-you.
I think that the old adage that actions speak louder than words probably applies here. Perhaps your character could smash a glass in anger, and such an action could either be portrayed on its own or alongside swearing. At the same time I would say don't overdo it but if your character is going to swear, don't hold back in your writing.
There are some great posts here and I can only hope to contribute to the discussion. First off, yes. You can absolutely get away without swearing. As so many fine people before me have demonstrated, there are a number of ways to get around it with great effect. There are a few things you'll need to consider if you want to include cussing. Do you want to be historically accurate? If so, there are some concerns, which John Eff addressed. Historically accurate cussing will probably not have the right, dramatic effect on a modern audience. "Humbug" used to be a curse and now it's a silly thing. I've no doubt you'll come across a lot of that if you look into historical curses. If you use modern cursing, though, you'll be historically inaccurate (probably) but you'll get the impact you're looking for by tailoring your language to your audience and their lexicon. Regarding the f*ck controversy on here, I have found on the greatest website ever a comprehensive history of the word for anyone interested: http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=fuck&searchmode=none The guy who runs this website is nothing short of amazing (especially for a linguistics geek like myself) and if you ever have questions about the etymology of a word, go to etymonline.com. You won't be disappointed. I use this baby all the time. I cuss a lot every day. Surely not as much as others but I put the F-word in a lot of places it shouldn't go. As such, cussing has lost a lot of its literary spice for me. I tried integrating f*ck into my novel once and just couldn't do it. Even though a guy was getting icy water poured onto his hamburgered leg, it just didn't fit. I went with the whole describing him screaming and carrying on rather than spelling it out. Not sure how that could be useful but it might prove to be. However, I do use lesser cussing depending on the character. It really hinges on the individual character's personality.
Depends on your character. If your character is someone who would swear, I don't think you can get away with this. This depends on your actual character's character/personality, and/or his role - someone mentioned a solider. This is a good example. He's something that might normally swear, and if he is in a situation where a typical soldier would, I think it would be unnatural for him not to. That said, character development is something I struggle with.
I'd say it depends on the character and his/her background. Be true to that. I have read novels where certain characters catch phrases seem to be "God dammit!" And I'd hate if it was anything else. I can't imagine those characters reacting in any other fashion. It's who they are, and I'd be urked if I read them censored.
If it's a book for youths steer clear of it. As far as adults go I believe if the character curses, he curses. Simple cursing doesn't make literature bad. If I'm reading a book of drug dealers/smugglers or career criminals in today's time and they're calling each other "scum sucking privy-maggots"...I'd throw it down laughing. If you're going to do it, find what they used at that time in history and use it. Although cursing was more serious back then I beleive unsavory characters still did it (enter criminals or soldiers/sailors at war here). I read about the French calling certain unsavory characters "goddons" for their use of the phrase "God Damn it". A quick google search turns it up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_goddams
I use swearing for two reasons, the character calls for it and to help differentiate between speaking characters. During my lifetime I've spent a long time in the US Army, including two in Vietnam, and been a cop twice for short periods. In my experience, granted, many years ago, if you get three police officers or enlisted soldiers together in a social setting, there WILL be swearing. One oddity I recall is how cops, at least at that time, commonly used the word "Nig**r. It designated someone who had given us problems in the past, was giving us trouble now, or had the potential of doing it in the future. In other words, nothing to do with race. Like mentioned earlier, some people swear in every sentence, others do so rarely. In general, the less educated use "F**k, and the educated prefer more obtuse though derogatory language. As a sergeant, I've known quite a few soldiers that didn't seem to understand simple orders unless sprinkled with swearing. They wouldn't take me seriously. When I left the military I had to consciously change my speaking habits. I prefer using as few speech tags as possible and find it fairly easy to do so with several characters speaking at the same time. One way is to have one swearing in every sentence, another with some sort of accent and a third using perfect English. Using that method it's easy to get by with only an occasional speech tag. As was also noted earlier, some characters are simply unrealistic without swearing. I like war novels, for instance. Before buying one I'll leaf through the pages. If I DON'T find copious swearing, I put it back on the shelf. The same with police stories. Oscar Rat
