Why neither Ayn Rand or I use
4-letter words in our novels

Blazing Reader,

I never use obscenities in my fiction (or in my day-to-day speech). Here’s why:

I see most curse words as dehumanizing. They turn the body, or acts of the body, into mantras of malice. The F-bomb deserves its reputation as the worst of them for it perverts the sexual act into a vulgar term akin to rape. (It has been argued the word originated as a legal acronym for Forced Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. I don’t know if this is true, but it’s appropriate.)

Ayn Rand, author of the best-selling Atlas Shrugged, agrees with me. In her book The Art of Fiction, she writes: “Obscenities are language which implies a value judgement of condemnation or contempt, usually in regard to certain parts of the body and sex.”

She makes the argument that four-letter words are based on “the anti-body school of thought” that many religious institutions preach. This is why she says that the “more religious a nation is, the more varied and violently obscene is its four-letter word repertoire.”

Spanish is the worst, Ayn Rand claims, with Russian not far behind.

“Obscene language is not an objective language which you can use to express your own value judgments,” she writes. “It is a language of pre-fabricated value judgements consisting of the denunciation of sex and the earth and conveying that these are low or damnable. You do not want to subscribe to this premise.”

When it comes to literature, especially, I see no place for obscenities.

Novel writing, of course, offers the challenge of how to deal with foul-mouthed ruffians and villains who are often essential characters in any good versus evil story. Much of the art, then, is to find ways to suggest their vileness of speech without literally reproducing it. In the same way that a story might contain a horrific murder, a skilled writer can include such an element without going into its gory details.

But is it realistic to not drop at least a few F-bombs in a novel or movie? Here’s what Ayn Rand says: “Do not use obscenities and never mind all the arguments about realism.”

When people read a novel or watch a movie I don’t think they are looking for realism. It has to be believable enough, but not 100% realistic. A good fictional story is a metaphor for deeper truths, not a historical account or a legal transcript.

Nonetheless, when I published Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story I was expecting negative comments to arrive over the lack of obscenities in the dialogue. Instead, I regularly get comments about how people love the banter of the characters and the psychological depth of the villain.

Nonetheless, despite the book containing no obscenities, I’ve received at least two emails about the novel containing too much “foul language” and “curse words.”

It’s a funny story that I’ll save for my next post.

Until then, whether you’re a writer or a reader, and whether you despise or collect obscenities, I highly recommend ordering a copy of Ayn Rand’s The Art of Fiction. It’s a short book that will leave you with a new appreciation and understanding of the role fictional stories play in shaping society. You can buy a copy through my shop at this link: https://blazingpinecone.com/shop/the-art-of-fiction

—John C.A. Manley

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/