On Cussing: Bad Words and Creative Cursing

by Katherine Dunn

F uck the Fuckity Fuckin’ Fucker. Readers of Katherine Dunn won’t be surprised that this was her father’s favorite sentence, or that, as a young girl, she heard it as a kind of profane poem, a secret song. For many of us, the language of Geek Love carries a similar staying power, born of Dunn’s agile use of language and her strange, beautiful diction. And as a true exegete of the expletive, she remained undividedly devoted to obscenity—both as scholar and practitioner.


In On Cussing, Dunn sketches a brief history of swear words and creates something of a field guide to their types and usages, from the common threat (“I’ll squash you like a shithouse mouse”) to the portmanteau intensifier (“Fan-fucking-tastic”). But she also explores their physiology—the physical impact on the reader or listener—and makes an argument for how and when to cuss with maximum effect. Equal parts informative and hilarious, this volume will delight Dunn’s legion of fans, but it’s also a must-have for anyone looking to more successfully wield their expletives, be it in writing or in everyday speech. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Language, Audiobook, Writing, Linguistics, Humor

64 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 26, 2019

About the author

Katherine Dunn was a novelist and boxing journalist who lived and worked in Oregon. She is the author of the three novels: Attic; Truck; and Geek Love. This, her most well-known work, was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Bram Stoker Prize for horror fiction. She also authored the essay collection One Ring Circus. She died in 2016.

Reviews

[Patricija || book.duo]

5/5

Ar žinojot, kad nors visi žodžiai šiaip laikomi vienoje smegenų dalyje, keiksmažodžiai, kaip mokslininkai mano, laikomi visai kitur – vietoje, kuri atsakinga už automatinius veiksmus, kvėpavimą, refleksus, alkį ir emocijas. Todėl ir galvojama, kad kai Alzheimeriu sergantiems ar dideles smegenų traumas patyrusiems dingsta kalba, jie vis dar gali keiktis. Ir nors knyga toks labiau straipsnis, visgi net įdomesnis ir įvairialypiškesnis, nei tikėjausi. Labiausiai todėl, kad autorė paliečia ir mano galva ypač įdomią temą – keiksmažodžius literatūroje. Ji ne tik nagrinėja jų raidą (pavyzdžiui, kaip keikėsi Oskar‘as Wilde‘as? Ir kodėl amerikiečiai sako „roosters“ vietoje gaidžių, o ne „cocks“?), bet ir klausia – kaip įdomiai autorius gali keiktis? Ir kodėl aktualu tai daryti nenuspėjamai?

Įdomu, kad pateikdama pavyzdžius, ji tarsi apgina tiek visus įmanomus būdus pasakyti „fuck“, tiek labai originalius ir unikalius keiksmus, paties autoriaus sukuriamus, veikėjui pritaikomus. Bet negalėjau negalvoti, kad angliškai visgi keiksmai skamba vienaip, o lietuviškai, jei bandytume rasti tokių įdomesnių būdų žmogų literatūroje pasiųsti, nesunku ne tik keiksmažodį pritaikyti tik trumpam laiko tarpui (todėl skaitant vėliau bus cringe), tiek padaryti jį kažkaip perdėm tautišku, kai panašus angliškas variantas to paties poskonio neturėtų. Žodžiu, turėjau apie ką pagalvoti ir man patiko – ieškosiu dabar autorės „Geek love“ paskaityti.

[Bonnie G.]

A brief essay on using profanity in your writing that is quite good and super fun. About an hour on audio, time very well spent!

[Vicki]

Advice for writers on when and how to use foul language in one’s writing, some of which is laugh-out-loud funny.

[Bookeater504]

Her mention of "shit on a stick" makes me feel seen.

[Aquila]

On Cussing is surprisingly informative for such a short volume! I learned a lot of interesting things about the different flavors of "foul" language along with the history of it. This book is good for a laugh and a little education to boot!

[Gary]

Katherine Dunn wrote Geek Love. If you havent, you should. This one is really short and sweet. I'm a cusser. This made me laugh. Especially since she diagram a her father's favorite phrase. Let's say it's a colorful grouping of various uses of the first word. Hysterical! Does anyone remember diagramming sentences? I'm old, I remember.

[Erik Deckers]

A clever little tome that not only educates and enlightens, it certainly puts to bed the argument, “People who use profanity have a limited vocabulary.” Not only is this an erudite argument on the joys of cussing, it shows the long, rich history of swearing and obscenities. A must for anyone who loves to swear or wants to give it to the swear-scolds in their life.

[James]

This was a library find. A short little booklet on swearing and writing. Dunn discusses the history of bad language, and how to write less monotonous curses. This was fun.

[Geoff]

Short and sweet with some nice vignettes on the history and power of cussing. Ignore the horrible neuroscience.

[Ryan Schwartz]

I stumbled across this and realized it was from the same author of Geek Love, which I loved, which is probably, honestly, the only reason I was interested in this. This was very funny and the foreword, which contained commentary on many of the sentences and ways in which Katherine Dunn used cuss words in Geek Love, reminded me how much I loved her writing, how creatively she actually was swearing in that book, and how much it did add to her story and writing. This whole essay is on how to use swear words deliberately when writing and brought you through a bit of its history and I weirdly found it really interesting. Really what I took out of it though is that everyone has to go and read Geek Love.

[Vincent Scarpa]

“The tone of the language is the writer’s voice. Violations of tone are the equivalent of a singer‘s voice breaking or hitting a wrong note. It jars. With all of this ammunition, I trust you will give serious consideration to your cussing, both live and written. Bring zest and sting to the language. Avoid cliché and tedium.”

[Kent Winward]

Always fun to read writers on cussing . . .

[Holly]

Witty, fun. A short read. For anyone who appreciates swearing and swearing well.

[Aneesa]

I know exactly who is getting this for her birthday.

Though for such a short volume there seem to be quite a few editing mistakes, perhaps because it was published posthumously.

[•Kait• •Boers•]

this book is kinda stupid fun but also really interesting. it discusses the modern usage of swear words, and how to keep our cussing creative rather than relying on the words that have lost their punch due to overuse

[MonumentToDecency]

A brilliant and quick exploration of the wonderful world of swear words. So worth reading, I couldn't put it down (also partly because it was so gosh-darned short).

My Rating: 5 fuckity fuck von fucks out of 5

[Benjamin]

A charming little history lesson and advice piece on using profane and obscene language in your own writing from the best to ever do it

[jeremy]

on the bus reading katherine dunn's on cussing, a posthumous offering (adapted from a lecture given to pacific university's mfa writing program):

"is that a book on cussing?"

"yeah, it is."

"really, it's just all about cussing?"

"yes, it's an entertaining history about cursing and swear words."

"wow, that's wild."

it is, my friend, more than you fucking know.

[Molly]

A fun easy read about offensive words. Some of the best cussing combinations I’ve ever read.

[Tracey]

"When it comes to using foul language, be specific. Calvin Trillin urges us to never say car if we can say Pontiac. The same goes for cussing.

Make your cussing specific to the target, whether that's a person, an object, or situation. A sailor once explained it to me this way: 'He's never just a motherfucker. He's a conniving, bald-headed motherfucker. Or a snot sucking bastard. Or a whining, toothless cocksucker.' For longer phrasings, experiment with alliteration for musicality and ease of flow, as in, 'You slimy, pissing scum sack.'" Dunn covers a lot of ground in this very short book. Historically, there are three types of cussing in English: profanity, obscenity, and slurs. What I appreciate is that she spends zero time on slurs, as this book is meant to be an instructional text on how to morr effectively write cussing into your fiction writing (I appreciate that she was not instructing people how to write slurs more effectively - feel like people have a good handle on their hate speech). However, since profanity and obscenities are some of my favorite types of words, I enjoyed the "how to" categories, which included topics such as, "Get emotional" (e.g. he shit bricks), "Complain" (e.g. I'm totally fucked), "Flat-out Instruct" (e.g. Go take a flying fuck at a rolling donut), and "Issue an insult" (e.g. I wouldn't piss in his ear if his brains were on fire). I love language and I love cussing, so it was fun to read a short primer on this aspect of language. Totally fucking worth the read.

[Kathy]

That was a fun listen. Some great, and hilarious, examples of creative swearing.

[Larry]

Too bad I didn't experience the talk that this book is transcribed from. As an academic speech to an auditorium full of earnest graduate students, all those taboo words and examples delivered aloud in Katherine Dunn's memorable voice must have been a scream. Even an audio version would probably be both informative and hilarious. But, as the author repeatedly reminds us, such language has lost its shock value in literature and entertainment. Therefore, as a book it ironically suffers from the very thesis at the heart of it. Mildly entertaining and lightly instructive, Dunn encourages writers to be more creative with the cuss words we put in our characters' mouths.

[Dave Hull]

Short but comprehensive

This was enjoyable and instructive. It was aimed at writers looking to effectively employ foul language.There were many examples of how various writers shared swearing. It managed to both be comprehensive and to feel to me that it was abbreviated.

[Margarita]

Extremely interesting and informative--and short!--piece on the origins of cussing in literature and how to use cussing in your own writing for the most impact. This was a great tiny book adapted from a lecture (I think).

[Sarah]

“Fuck the fuckity fuckin’ fucker”— verb, adverb, adjective, noun; or, the only words you’ll ever need.

[Ralph Carlson]

Interesting little book.

[Jacob Seifert]

More insightful and entertaining that I could have possibly imagined. This makes me want to go home and practice my cussin'.

[Brianna]

The most adorable cute and tiny book on swearing. I loved it.

[Elizabeth]

Interesting and informative. From the cover, I did not expect to become more informed, just entertained.

[Jaime]

Interesting take on how overuse of swear words have made them less potent and less effective. Be warned, there are a lot of examples, ie. a lot of creative cursing.