: Re: Swearing in a book, within a context. Too offensive? I am currently writing a science fiction novel. The characters are almost uniformly pirates and/or miners in the asteroid belt. Having worked

@Berryessa137

Relating to the common adage that persons with inadequate "social vocabularies" will "resort to cursing," I feel it necessary to point out that "Tourette's syndrome" manifests in uncontrollable cursing . . . ALTHOUGH it is now recognized that victims of strokes affecting portions of the frontal lobes of the brain can also begin "adulterating conversations with cursing." This can often be acutely unsettling to the victims!

I am aware of a Protestant Bishop who felt he had to resign from his church position because of his new-found "potty-mouth;" an English Professor with an IQ in excess of 150 had also felt she had to resign from Academia when a comparatively mild frontal-lobe stroke set her to swearing like a Stevedore; and I am very familiar with several other, similar, cases in addition.

It has become a very glib, even mean-spirited, put-down; although it definitely not the case that only "very intellectually-challenged persons" indulge in cursing. With the aging of the population proceeding apace, the stroke-related cursing will definitely increase . . . perhaps even becoming somewhat common throughout the population!

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