Subject: On cursing
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Posted on: 2022-08-23 16:54:07 UTC

I think cursing is a lot about what you're used to... what is considered "strong language" really varies between groups. I've noticed great variations, depending on the groups of people- kind of a sociolect thing, in places. I had to tone it down, myself, because I tend to be fairly direct and at times somewhat, hm, crusty? But if it doesn't get the message across because the tone reads differently than intended, it's better to change it.

For some reason, I've found several PPC stories by different authors using German curses. For me, this is extremely strange, because they are not toned down at all in some cases and may not necessarily fit the rating. In one instance, someone used a term that is very much in "whoa, you didn't just say this" territory. Even if it is congruent with the emotions described (rage, disgust and scorn turned to the maximum, specifically aimed at women), it rather floored me. Probably because it's not what I'd expected here.

The occasional "shit", well, that's just what people shout when they hit their thumb with a hammer, so someone saying "Scheiße" is not really upsetting. Just rather hilarious when the same text would use "frell" otherwise (again, depending on the character- if someone else does this, it might work fine).

I'm quite probably overthinking this. But, as you said, it's about having fun, and puzzling out these linguistic things is fun for me.

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