“I do have a cause, though. It’s obscenity. I’m for it.” – Tom Lehrer
I’ve been flipping through some of the fantasy novels from my youth, the big medieval fantasy paperweight novels — you know, those books. One interesting characteristic they share is that there is very little swearing. Oh, there’s indirect swearing. “Lord Kelvin muttered a vile oath” or “Kazragh the Bold cursed in impotent rage” or some such. But throughout the entire 5,000 page series, there’s not a “fuck” or “shit” to be found. Why is that? It’s not like this is protecting the delicate ears of our children. Explicit sex scenes? Check. Impalings? Check. Desanguinations, decapitations, massacres? Check, check, check. Foul language? Weirdly excised.
Science fiction does much better on this account. Yes, certain novels have experimented with silly made-up “futuristic” swear words[1], but for the most part, science fiction has its act together. And of course, there are many fine counter-examples of medieval fantasy authors that use foul language and use it well, such as Glen Cook and Steven Brust. Still, a huge chunk of medieval fantasy simply has no swearing at all. Unfortunately, this has infected my writing style. I’ll start writing, “[Character X] cursed…” and then I’ll stop. Wait, wouldn’t it be better to write down what Character X actually said? Is there a good reason to be indirect here? Usually not.
Real medieval people (like real Old West people) no doubt swore a lot, maybe even more than we do. Now clearly, medieval fantasy characters should not think and act like 21st-century North Americans — for starters, they’re probably speaking a completely alien language. It’s just that in the author’s “translation” to Modern English, they ought to sound natural to us. Leaving out all the swear words is just as big a mistake as using stilted “high medieval” dialogue.
Anyway, the upshot is that I’m still confused about why medieval fantasy usually has explicit sex, always has very explicit violence, but tends to elide the coarse language. What is it about medieval fantasy that makes it different from other genres, such as science fiction, thrillers, mysteries, or even non-medieval fantasy?
1. You could always argue that the language has evolved, and words such as “frelling” are incredibly shocking to people in the 25th century or whatnot. However, I submit that the only reason you should inject new words into the language is to evoke a particular feeling in your 21st century reader, not your imaginary 25th century characters. And in this 21st century reader, “frelling” evokes the feeling that your tough-as-nails space mercenary is a wussie who wouldn’t survive a five minute stroll in downtown Los Altos.
Fuck if I know.
(Sorry, somebody had to…)
Unlike sex and violence, there is no romance or fantasy associated with foul language. Cursing is mundane; you don’t want a learned mage to lurch from solemn intonations to sounding like your next door neighbor trying to fix his lawnmower. Once something is too familiar, it cannot credibly be called fantasy.
And to delve into science-fiction again, “smeghead” isn’t much of an insult if your insultee’s real name is “rimmer”.
Mike — quite right. And by the same token, we don’t want our learned mage speaking in overwrought High Pseudo-Medievalese either. I think there is a happy middle ground where fantasy characters can speak in direct language to modern English speakers without sounding like the next door neighbor screaming at the lawnmower. That’s what I’m shooting for, anyway.
Your comment about romance is particularly on-point. Medieval fantasy is attractive because of the romance and fantasy, and so you have to be verrrry careful when scuffing up the shiny armor of your knights. Certain authors have self-consciously tried to create “grim and gritty” fantasy, but I would argue that this sort of project doesn’t succeed quite as often as the fans of “grim and gritty” would have it.
Just as an aside, consider the American Western. That genre, which encompasses about 1/3 of all American movies produced in the 20th century, is based on the premise that violence is cool and glamorous and romantic. But Clint Eastwood can come along and create a smashing success like Unforgiven, which is a film specifically created to destroy that myth. I like Westerns both old-school and new, and I think Eastwood didn’t succeed because the Western was “ripe for being knocked down” or some such. He succeeded because Clint Eastwood knows more about the Western genre than anyone alive. You’ve got to know your genre before you can destroy it.
Eh, quite frankly I’d rather have swearing over explicit sex scenes. The real classy fantasy novels don’t have either. Lord Of The Rings for example. The language a character uses tells me more important things about story, and the character and their relationship with those around them than how good they are in bed. Explicit sex scenes do nothing to progress a story. I’m not saying don’t put a sex scene in a story if you don’t want to, but my reasoning on leaving them out would be to take your parents for an example (if your parents have a healthy relationship. If not parents, take somebody else you know who has a healthy relationship), you don’t need to see them have sex to know they love each other. I think the better author can express two characters in love without the use of a sex scene. You don’t need to see two characters having sex to know they lust each other either. That is often quite apparently in the body language leading up to what could be a infered sex scene. So, I think it’s an interesting point you brought up here.
You have a good point. Assuming you’re not writing porn or erotica, I think it only makes sense to include a sex scene if the sex scene progresses the story or tells us something about the characters that we didn’t know before. If you can replace the entire scene with “And then they had sex,” then it shouldn’t be there.