writing is fun but I really want to draw you here…
The shock value of fuck is slipping slowly down the slope. F bombs are common from anyone. Any age. And are laughed off by all of us as fucking funny. Nothing shocking at all. Just an F bomb. Man the word is taking a beating. Cannot even hold its water as a sacred cuss word. No shock value of any value.
I got a lesson in deflated shock value as a five year old. My aunt and I are walking the few blocks back from town to the parsonage in Farmville, Virgina where we both live. She as a daughter. I as a granddaughter. It is dusk. On coming car lights kept glaring in my eyes. “Damn those lights!” I stamp my foot. Nothing. We keep walking. “DAMN those lights!” No response. “Didn’t you hear me I.G.?” She nods. And we keep walking. After all it was only damn.
One of my favorite childhood chants is one choosing who goes first in a game. Eeny, meeny, miny, moe catch a N word by the toe. I always use it over the boring one potato, two potato. Until one day Mom’s had enough. “Sandra Leigh!” she shouts out the kitchen window. I am told to never ever use the N word again. Ever. Good advise. But just listen. It does have potential as a shock word. Not. Let me repeat not to be directed toward anyone of African descent. But just as a shocking expletive. I mean does, “I can’t get the fucking toaster to work,” imply that the toaster ever had sex. Of course not. So using the N word in general terms to lay into something could work. But of course I really don’t advocate it. I just want a good shock value word. And fuck doesn’t do it any more.
Fucking shame.
