Pre-note: I don’t want to justify cussing with this post.
I want to talk about books a bit more. I recently read some really good books with good topics to think about. I'm not going to write a book review. What I want is to tell you my opinion on certain topics and you're all welcome to leave your opinion. I'd love reading what you think.
Today I want to talk about cussing in books. I'm using The Book Thief as an example. For those of you who haven't read it, here is a short summary I found on the internet:
Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. (source: randomhouse.com)
I never had much of a problem with cussing in books and movies. It depends a lot how it is used and how often and also how the cuss. I usually don’t get angry or upset about too much cussing, most of the time I think it’s ridiculous or I get bored (like the one time when I watched a thriller and they said the f-word like twice every minute…I mean Come on!).
The Book Thief is and excellent book, but you should know that it contains a lot of cussing (and if I say that it contains a lot of cussing, it means A LOT). But let me tell you: It’s not that bad.
There are about 4 different words they use in this book to cuss. Three oft hem are only used about 1-4 times each. Ther fourth word is used like all the time. I don’t feel bad to write this one down here. I don’t cuss at my blog (at least I’ve never realized it…you can tell me, if I’m wrong), but this time I’ll use this word and I’m going to explain you, why I don’t feel bad about it. The word they use all the time is Saumensch.
I read the book in German and when I read this word the first time I found it weird. I’ve never heard someone saying it. After they used it over and over again I decided that it is just an odd translation from English and tried to find out which word Markus Zusak used. I asked Shaynie (who stopped reading the book because of the cussing) and she told me that Markus Zusak originally used the word Saumensch and not an English word.
After some research on the internet I decided that this word is just old fashioned. It sounds ridiculous to me. I found it awkward all the way through the book, I just couldn’t get used to it. That’s one reason why the cussing in this book wasn’t that bad for me. I would like to find out if they really used this word during the time of WWII.
The other thing is that it is not really used as an insult. Not Saumensch. The other cuss words in the books are used as insults and I was shocked twice how someone can say something like that.
The main cuss word is more a word to tease someone. Like you sometimes give people a nickname that is a tiny bit mean just to tease the person for fun without hurting anyone's feelings (I think you know what I’m talking about). Nobody gets hurt in the book by being called a Saumensch.
So reason number two: It’s not an (actual) insult.
I thought a lot about this book and I’ve never thought so much about cussing in books (or cussing at all). I completely understand if someone says that he/she still don’t want to read the book because of the cussing. It’s okay. I just think that you should consider putting cussing into different categories. Even though everyone should avoid it as much as possible, it’s still part of every language and different social groups. I can’t judge about cussing during WWII, because I wasn’t there.
So, my questions for you:
What do you think about cussing in books/movies?
Do you make a difference between different kinds of cussing?
And have you read The Book Thief?
Note #01: Saumensch is German and means Pig-Person in English.
Note #02: This book is narrated by the Death. That’s awesome.
Note #03: I totally recommend this book to everyone who can stand cussing. It’s really good.
Note #04: More about the book coming soon. I'm going to talk about realistic characters.
Mainly, because I cuss myself, I have no problem with cussing in books or movies. I mean I don't watch movies/read books with like 50 f-bombs in it but I don't not watch movies/read books with any f-bombs in it. I think that is the one word that it's kind of like really irritating to hear said over and over and over again.. but when it's said a few times and not overused I'm fine with it. So yeah but other wise it doesn't bother me. I have not read The Book Thief but it sounds like a great books so I will be checking it out.. for sure! =)
ReplyDeleteI don't mind cussing in books, as long as it isn't ALL THE TIME. But I don't like books or movies with the F word in them, although once or twice is okay. I found the cussing in The Book Thief incredibly annoying! It seemed to happen too much, and it took away a lot of the story, just because of the fact it was so annoying! I might give it another try...now that you say the word just means pig person and isn't all that bad. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of foul language in books/movies/life in general, though I'm accustomed to hearing it-I don't use it, and think it is often unnecessary, however I definitely distinguish between different kinds of cussing. When words are used solely to hurt someone, that's different than… adjectival swearing(the beeping toaster), or swearing out of fright/shock/whatever(BEEP! Oh, sorry, you scared me!). I'm not easily offended by cuss words, but the F-bomb does tend to annoy me :-P. And YES I read The Book Thief! I absolutely loved it :D. Can't wait to hear more of your thoughts on it!
ReplyDeleteHmm... cussing in media makes me feel uncomfortable because I believe that words are loaded. If people actually took the time to check the meaning of sh*t or f*** in the dictionary, they might have second thoughts about letting those words pass their mouths. Sometimes, though, when I get too much of it at a particular time, I lay off.
ReplyDeleteEven so, I'm curious about The Book Thief. A friend recommended that to me... and, lo and behold, a year and a month later I haven't read it yet. Haha. I'll be waiting for your reviews on it to see if I really want to read it. ;)
I actually really liked The Book Thief - though I agree that I hate when they have cussing in books/movies/etc. I think it's worse in movies because it's easier to skip over the cuss words in books. But it makes it much harder to read the book to someone or recommend it. I can see in this book why they put it in - if I remember correctly, most of the time it was the "bad people" saying those words. Or it was to show how rough their lives were at that time.
ReplyDeleteSure, I roll my eyes when I read a movie content overview and see that there are 80 f-bombs in a 90 minute long. I mean, what's the point of that? But overall, it really doesn't bother me. It especially doesn't bother me in books/movies set in a time of war, maybe I find to be more justified, I don't know... haha!
ReplyDeleteWell if given the choice I'm always going to pick no cussing over cussing. But because it's pretty much everywhere, you kinda have to get used to hearing or seeing it. There have been movie though, where it was used so often that I've just turned them off and gone on to do something else.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I saw the cutest movie over the weekend "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" If you can, you should see it =D