The Art of the Curse Word

(This is a tweaked version, with a bit less rant and more support, of my LiveJournal post)

I remember when I would not swear for the life of me. Probably because my mother would abuse me if ever she heard even the mildest of curses. "Crap" was a swear, Dang It. I even remember when Dork was a sufficient insult. It was only fifteen years ago, I'm not THAT old. But then came the day in sixth grade...when I lost it. All caution, all resolve, my equanimity was shattered as flicked off every person I knew. A torrent of curses, hexes, and swears tore from my lips, composed on the fly, to assault, accost, and affront all those around me. And I did this in an almost giddy manner, as if suddenly I was free to express whatever had been held inside. These horrible things that came from the bowels of my existence, unloaded like a juvenile Eminem pissed off at all things living.

And at the end of the day (yes, this lasted but a day), such a weight had been lifted off my shoulders, as if I had taken a long-awaited step into the "I ain't takin' shit from nobody" attitude... Yet I was still dutifully flagellated for the rest of my Middle School career by a few choice people (more on that later).

The reason I mention this experience is because also at the end of the day, my lips felt stale, as if I had exhausted my entire vocabulary associated with ire. It was like I would/could never be irascible again, because I would have no comeback. I had lost my power, my words had lost their power, and that is a painful realization.

Which is why there is an art to cussing.

It is a careful, calculating section of the human language. If used too much, its entire existence could be jeopardized. If used too little (like my case most of the time), the reaction changes to that of surprise, and it is no longer powerful. The key, then, is in moderation; choice moderation. I believe one must choose a word, and use it upon choice occasions.

For my brother, it is the word "Damn", or more often, "Damn It". This he says barely under his breath, but my ears have been trained to hear it. You hear him and you know from that very utterance, that he is pissed. And the wrath is turned entirely inward, but you can FEEL it radiating from him. And these are words thrown around, especially in college, without a care in the world, but here, slipping just under a whisper, I get goosebumps.
My brother rarely swears, and when he does, it is quietly, but the sheer amount of times (which is very minute) he says it strengthens its effect dramatically.

I think one of the major issues is that we swear too much in casual conversation. Swears, instead of being expressions of anger, have become Filler Words, synominous with words like: Uh, um, (pause), LIKE, hmm, eh, mm-kay. This...is a tad bit dumb, if you ask me. An actual curse word is meant to have weight to it, so that when you say "God Damn It!" it MEANS something.
Text messaging confuddles the situation further. Phrases like OMG, LMAO, BRB, FU are just...weak. Usually I would use a longer word to describe this... but that is just weak, dude. I never use OMG, because it means, duh, Oh My God, which is a phrase I only use on extremely rare occasions...like when I mean it! But when people use it to show that they're surprised, they would sound so much more intelligent by typing, "I'm surprised (or better yet, flabbergasted!).” Language is a beautiful thing, use it!
Though I sometimes fall into uses of text messaging as much as the next guy, it doesn't stop me from feeling a little lazy. As if we just don't have enough time to simply communicate anymore. That if we don't save those precious half-seconds that would be consumed by typing three words instead of three letters, that we might not be able to Tivo our shows, or play our video games, or do whatever else we do...to procrastinate (aka Waste Time). Hmm, anybody see something strange about this logic?

But I digress, what I am at is that the overuse of these words has left them without depth. Add contractions to the mix, and a conversation can become nothing more than a slurred mess of meaningless palaver. Cusses, without strength or timing behind them, hold no more value than the next teenage abundance of “Like.” And in most cases, there is ample room in the conversation for intelligence. With swears being thrown around to mean so many different things, I am thankful for words that can actually serve their meanings and are available for my use to describe exactly what I am feeling.

It is different for each individual to discover when it is appropriate to swear and to communicate. There are some extremely striking words in the human language, and if you don't abuse some, we'll have a chance to delve into others. Forget the whales, save our curse words. If we can succeed in returning the strength to our curse words, maybe we can save the rest of our language.

Over and Out,
Adam

PS: I think Fuck is a lost cause. It is no longer a powerful word. Saying it multiple times in a sentence only seeks to degrade the speaker. "Can you not think of anything else to say? You indolent moron?" Fuck just means too many things. It's a multipurpose word. Did you ever like the Multipurpose Room in school? No, mine was covered in Geometric, neon-colored shapes, and it was always dusty. Or better yet, it is the slut word. It does everything. I don't like using something where I DO KNOW all the places its been, and I don't want to go there myself. That is one word that can never be sterilized.
Ever.