I’ll start it off with a couple of things I have just seen. First a funny one.
In 2018, a librarian in Hong Kong was arrested for fraudulently reporting people’s library cards as lost, so they have would have to return books she wanted to read.
And one a bit closer to my own experience.
In 2016, 181 books published in Britain had the word F*** in the title: three times as many as in 2015.
I can really believe this, it has lost it’s value. I use it alot, always alone, screaming at the tv or radio. So much annoys me these days. So much that I hate which is going on in the world, but never, ever, do I use it in conversation with others. Then I don’t need the safety valve that it provides. But I can well believe the above quote, so many films now, and tv dramas, use it extensively and it really offends me. I am watching a series at the moment ‘The Gentlemen’ , a Guy Ritchie film which is very violent, but very funny, but what really annoys me is the use of that word in almost every sentence. Where I used to say, and still do for instance ‘what the hell are you doing here’, a mild expletive but which nevertheless does have some force, in this film and so many other it seems, the above word is used like confetti.
Who wants confetti when there is something to shout about, what have we left to shout about?
If you can get it on a streaming service, “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is very good. Another Guy Ritchie film with good cast and based upon real events and Ian Fleming’s ideas.
In the 1980s there was a car breaker in Crystal Palace parade. The guy who ran the shop would say F*** 1 word in 3 to the point it was almost funny, but also sad. His words had no power at all.
That’s just it, I feel as if they have stolen a useful safety valve, I’ll jlust have to go back to ‘bother’ again whenever the Natton Yahoo is mentioned.
Yes, and once or twice in my lifetime I heard my lovely Mum say ‘shitbuggerarsehole’, all one word, but it was the fact that it was so rare that gave it its strength.
Indeed though nouns not always required. The rabid Scot Malcom Tucker in The Thick of It had the immortal line “Come the f*** in or f*** the f*** off!”
I once worked with a very religeous lorry driver who would not swear, but, like most of us, he had needs of such words so ‘flopping’ was his curse of choice. He couldn’t even bring himself to say ‘flipping’ as it was obviously beyond the Pale.
BTW, one of the rare times when I could live with that word flouted almost to extinction. It made the point wonderfully about Tucker’s character.
Yes, the universal swear word that functions as noun, verb and adjective. I’m pretty sure that, with a bit of effort, it would even function as an adverb.
While we are on the subject of books I have just been offered this by Amazon.UK for £0.99. I won’t buy it or even put it on my list for later. I couldn’t stand the man behind the mask of Lily Savage, mainly because female impersonators leave me cold, but also because the Scouse accent conjures up bad memories for me, but when I began to see him on ‘For The Love of Dogs’ I forgave him most of that.
Without the face and the accent it sounds as if it might be amusing though:
Still Standing: The Savage Years
by Paul O’Grady
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Funny, forthright and sharp as a knife . . . O’Grady writes just as he speaks. ’ Daily Mirror Lilian Maeve Veronica Savage, international sex kitten, was born on the steps of The Legs of Man public house, Lime Street, Liverpool on a policeman’s overcoat. Her mother, the lady wrestler Hell Cat Savage, had no such luxuries as gas and air. She just bit down on the policeman’s torch and recovered afterwards at the bar with a large pale ale. .
Thanks for mentioning that film “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”. I have the book and always thought it would make a good movie. Ian Fleming was only marginal in that whole history, his brother Peter Fleming was actually more of a commando soldier.
Never mind, I just looked at the trailer for that film and it has nearly no resemblance to the history. It looks like the Expendables crossed with a circus heist movie, on steroids, or drugs or both.
A shame as the real stories were fascinating and exciting enough.
Peter Fleming was an explorer who wrote delightfully about his expeditions, my favourite is News from Tartary (cf also Robert Byron and latterly Eric Newby).
So either you tilt to the left (French) or lean to the right (Anglo).
Becomes a bit awkward when placing succeeding volumes on a shelf. You might naturally want to place 1 through 5 from left to right, which looks fine if you are head leaning left for French or German books. However, with head leaning right for English the left to right volumes position is a little inconvenient.
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