The use of
profanity in literature remains controversial. Some people don’t like it and
don’t want to see it no matter what the circumstance. Others believe the use of
the four letter words can bring gritty reality and edge to a text. After all,
real people say f*ck and other things all the time. It’s everywhere in movies.
My own opinon is that if an author cleans up the language too much it can sometimes
sound dull and contrived. Real people swear, that’s a fact. But can it be
overused? Judge for yourself.

I compiled
a list of books that are generally considered to be literary fiction and did a
search for the word “f*ck”. Not surprisingly, the older the book the less it is
used. The type of story also matters, of course, but it shows clearly that many
works of revered fiction contains profanity to great effect.

List 1. F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great
Gatsby - 0 times

2. Truman Capote - Breakfast at
Tiffanys - 1 time

3. JD Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye - 5
times

4. Brett Easton Ellis - Less Than Zero - 58 times

5. Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - 84 times

6. Nick Hornby - High Fidelity - 98 times

7. Charles Bukowski - Women - a
whopping 336 times

-
That’s
more than 1 f*ck per page

8. Richard Blandford - Hound Dog - 304
times

-
Again,
more than 1 f*ck per page.

In my own
novel, The Jacket Trick , the f-word occurs a modest 106 times.