outback to jungle

Musings on experiences of volunteering in Papua New Guinea with some gratuitous domestic social and public comment

Saturday, June 17, 2006

I am concerned about

the increasing use by myself in response to social condonation if not acceptance of vulgarity in choice of language. There was a time on TV when s*** was bleeped out and the offender's contract terminated. Graheme Kennady got away with ?uark and last year Rove MacMannus got away with the actual f word. I am reading Boule de suif by de Maupassant and it lambasts the hypocricy of the French bourgeoisie at the time of the Fr-Prussian war 1870 and I wonder if there are more things to be concerned about than language which goes through evolution of vulgarity to indecent to decent? It is a matter of being aware that some people do not like vulgar language - as though language were like art - well it is really , but what I mean is vocabulary per se rather than the broader context of language. The f, c, b, s, words generally do not belong in my vocabulary but it would be hypocritical of me to say I have never used them when I was angry - as when my mobile was stolen. They were never part of our family vocabulary. I never heard Mum or Dad use them. Even "fart" was very impolite and it still is in my family context. It was used by vulgar people. These days it seems to be artistic to use the word in context and without being too vain, that was the context of its use yesterday.

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