Language and audience
Last week, my wife and I went to a local Barnes and Noble to pick out some new reading material. Having burned through all her current favorite authors, we were looking for some new faves.
The thing is, my wife and I don’t like to read excessive profanity, especially the “G-d d–n” instance; we allow only three stikes on that count before pulling out a DVD or setting aside a book. It’s a personal preference, that’s all.
So my wife tried to explain this to the guy, and while he tried to be helpful, I felt (my wife sees it differently) that he spent most of his time disputing our personal reading standard, until a different sales associate took over and helped us find some potential candidates.
What all this points out is that language and audience are always concerns for writers to take into account. You’re not going to reach an African American audience well with characters that talk like they stepped out of Huck Finn, for example; and you’re not going to reach a lot of church-goers or the baby strollers brigade if you’re a cuss bucket.
And heck, my wife and I are hardly prudes; I can understand from an artistic perspective needing to use the word “damn” now and again. Is it too much to hope for that more writers could consider refraining from adding God onto that particular turn of phrase?
Tags: books, language, strollers
