Jan
18
Profanities
Filed Under Feuilletons |
No baby yet. So today, I would like to talk about the Devil. If The Book of Job is any indication, it would seem all too likely that if Satan or the Anti-Christ were to walk the earth today among us, he or she would be a suave PR/marketing guru of devastating and ruthless acumen, leaving the throngs of his followers craving and craving. That is not the only reason why I think Steve Jobs of Apple Computers is the devil; when asked if Apple would design a e-Reader like the Amazon Kindle, Jobs replied -
It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore… The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.
Sweet. What a dick. Before we scoff at his reductive comment, though, I’m sure most of us would admit that we had such a thought cross our minds. I live in NYC right now and such a comment seems just patently false to me. But I used to work in an independent book store in Los Angeles as a Buyer, and analyzing weekly/monthly sales, I’d often think about the same thing - that people were reading less and less. (Although I hate to be elitist, I’m not talking about books like Eat Right For Your Blood Type.) Even in NYC, I’ve talked to a few editors at publishing houses who lamented about the same thing, especially about the decline in readership & sales of literary fiction. Depressing, for sure, but at the same time, I don’t think there’s any cause for alarm. Literature will stick around.
On a more cheerful note, here’s a memo that the National League of Baseball sent to its players in late 1890’s. In an attempt to redress the use of profanity by the players on the field, the memo makes a conscientious but colorful effort to define exactly what sort of language that the League is concerned about -
That such a brutal language as “You cock-sucking son of a bitch!” “You prick-eating bastard!” “You cunt-lapping dog!” “Kiss my ass you son of a bitch!” “A dog must have fucked your mother when she made you!” “I fucked your mother, your sister, your wife!” “I’ll make you suck my ass!” “You cock-sucker!” and many other revolting terms are used by a limited number of players, and are promiscuously used upon the ball field is vouched for by the almost unanimous assertion of those invited to speak… whether it be the language quoted above, or some other indecent and infamous invention of depravity, the League is pledged to remove it from the ball field…
Thankfully, History has sided with the profane.
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