I should probably study the technique of folks like Dallas Observer film reviewer Gregory Weinkauf, in case I get offered a snazzy paying job writing sarcasm-filled stuff like this review of The Two Towers. Oh, it was an inoffensive enough review -- he didn't seem as proudly ignorant of the plot as some other reviewers were. But all the smart quips get tiresome after a few paragraphs.
Side note: is it me, or are online journalists letting their fuck flag fly in their writing (and shit shirt, and bitch blanket, and so on)? I can be pretty potty-mouthed, but I'm not writing for a professional publication. I seem to remember not so long ago when you would not ever encounter a four-letter word in a newspaper, and I know this is a website, but the Dallas Observer is also a dead-tree paper if I am not mistaken. Of course, I can remember the misty days back when there were no online publications. I have never really thought about this until now. I'm not a prude about swearing, but I regret the fact that curse words now seem to have no more significance than any other words. That can't be good for society.
(Via Dagger in Hand, whose Blogspot December archives are so screwed up they go to some girl's porn-blog. Just scroll down for this and other links to Tolkien essays.)
Update: CMNewman says the archive links no longer go to any porn. Good, because that was weird.
Posted by Andrea Harris at January 3, 2003 02:35 AMIt's profanity inflation. None of the old swear words are worth a damn anymore. Elementary children routinely say "shit" in class, and no one blinks.
The only - ONLY swear word that gets a reaction anymore is cunt. And, if uttered by a white person, nigger - though neither is of any use for general swearing, only for specific denigration of appropriate individuals.
Where our fathers had a solid dozen serious, hard edged swear words, we have only two. We need a whole new generation of swear words. Things that people haven't ever said before. C'mon, the hip-hop culture is up to it! They gave us phat, deaf and dope, jiggy, fresh, and whoop (dey it is)! How about some new words to express something of low quality, things that we reject out of hand. Good, general purpose epithets that we only rarely use, and only when we really mean it! I'm down to using drat and jeezus! There has to be something new out there somewhere!
Posted by: Richard at January 3, 2003 at 04:33 AMThe DO is our alterna-wipe weekly. It sucks. I've bitched about it before, but basically just quit reading it, on- or off-line since it sucks. Buncha damn lefties, too...
Posted by: Scott at January 3, 2003 at 10:14 AM