tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post7338894296249949193..comments2024-03-27T09:27:33.931+00:00Comments on Idiotic Hat: Gadzooks!Mike C.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-66685367887695941722009-07-01T09:14:10.206+01:002009-07-01T09:14:10.206+01:00Kent,
Thanks for the comments. You write "A...Kent,<br /><br />Thanks for the comments. You write "Apparently it's okay to curse God, but what about the Queen?" You are joking here, aren't you? The Queen is the butt of innumerable jokes, and is satirised in the crudest ways on publicly-funded TV -- we Brits hold very little, if anything, sacred (I blame Henry VIII), hence the limited and crude nature of our swearing. There was something weird and un-British going on with Diana for a while which I never understood, but that's over now.<br /><br />For example, the whole "mother" thing -- so sensitive in Latin America and Russia -- is incomprehensible here. "OK, but why would you <i>want</i> to have sex with my <i>mother</i>?"<br /><br />The only thing I can think of that will incite a mob here is child abuse. A mob in Portsmouth burned down a man's house because had been identified as a paediatrician... (Allegedly -- Southampton people will believe anything of their neighbours down the coast...)Mike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-33267791494127866042009-07-01T02:36:52.802+01:002009-07-01T02:36:52.802+01:00Mike,
Pretty similar experiences here on this end...Mike,<br /><br />Pretty similar experiences here on this end. No swearing from the rents when we were growing up, and none from me as my own child is growing up. I'm totally able to separate work language - which is rough as might be expected from building tradesmen, but far from blasphemous or imaginative - from what is discussed at home in front of my daughter. She'll hear it, I fear not, I don't need to be the bearer of foul language. It gets used on occasion w/ the wife for emphasis and a bit of colloquial color.<br /><br />As a parenthetical aside, I read somewhere that when actor R. Lee Ermey read for the part of Gunner Sgt. Hartman in <i>Full Metal Jacket</i>, he let out a stream of cursing that lasted for 15 minutes during which he never repeated himself. Only a bit of it made it to the film.<br /><br />You raise an interesting question: what are the out-of-bounds topics of derision and invective? Apparently it's "okay" to curse God, but what about the Queen?Kent Wileyhttp://www.manmadewilderness.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-61463606035920065222009-06-30T16:43:51.276+01:002009-06-30T16:43:51.276+01:00Thanks for that, Gavin -- isn't it interesting...Thanks for that, Gavin -- isn't it interesting, though, that an expression like "God is a pig" is entirely without any taboo power in English? "God is a fucking pig" would raise an eyebrow in polite company, but take out the adjective and you might as well have said "The Queen is a quantity surveyor".Mike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-49855069631462721462009-06-30T10:25:25.682+01:002009-06-30T10:25:25.682+01:00I work for an Italian offshore contractor and when...I work for an Italian offshore contractor and when I first went offshore as I stood on the bridge of the vessel most of the communication was in English except when things went wrong when huge streams of what I now know to be very rude Italian invective would pour forth. One I heard as "bocadillo". I was learning Spanish at time and I thought that given the similarity of Latin languages that it also meant sandwich in Italian (I am an engineer and have always struggled with languages). How wrong I was they were saying "porco dio" god is a pig. I have since learned this is very rude and once made an Italian girl pale with the words I learnt offshore. I would also agree with "class" side of swearing, I started my schooling in a Scottish pit village and the use of a mild swear word would result in a harsh punishment, though not the "tawse". It took a move to the middle class paradise that is Wokingham in Royal Berkshire for me to encounter the full range of English profanity. GavinGavin McLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14630089445696518084noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-74551178153639846712009-06-29T23:02:17.624+01:002009-06-29T23:02:17.624+01:00Interesting point, Miguel. British swearing is al...Interesting point, Miguel. British swearing is almost entirely sexual now, but in a fairly unimaginative way, and based on about five taboo words -- it lacks any of the scope for personal improvisation or creativity of the sort one associates (perhaps stereotypically) with Southern European languages. Frankly, it's dull and generally witless. Shakespeare would be ashamed.Mike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-36357723881409963732009-06-29T22:35:11.171+01:002009-06-29T22:35:11.171+01:00Another view on the issue, besides social class an...Another view on the issue, besides social class and age (generational) differences, is how blasphemous us Southern Europeans must seem compared to the English. I always had thought that my family was almost swearword-free (with the notable exception of when driving), but when I once attempted to translate what my sweet grandma used to say when feeding her chickens, everybody realized cultural differences were huge: on strength and variety.Miguelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14907418314189037766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-86465981756587626462009-06-29T22:22:34.171+01:002009-06-29T22:22:34.171+01:00Oh, tobacco... It's been 19 years (and two ex...Oh, tobacco... It's been 19 years (and two extra stone in weight)since I gave it up, and I still miss it occasionally. I think that definitely needs to go up on the rack as a future post.Mike C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11279776665185060446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6096844366367766843.post-69827777458421937662009-06-29T19:36:48.375+01:002009-06-29T19:36:48.375+01:00Well fucking phrased.
Breaking ones self of "...Well fucking phrased.<br /><br />Breaking ones self of "vulgarities" is probably as hard as it was for me to wean myself from tobacco. I'm tobacco free, but still put voice to the other.Bronislaus Janulis / Framewrighthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15839855368056037541noreply@blogger.com