Dean's Thoughts on Entertainment

I edited my conclusion, in case you were one of the confused.

Foul Language

The use of language on TV and in the movies has always been a hot button in conservative circles, and now with the new Janet Jackson scandal all issues about “censorship” have regained new vigor. However, me personally I have an opinion contrary to that of most censors and conservatives being that I don’t really give extra significance to the “big” curses. Now this doesn’t mean that I enjoy them, or would encourage the children of the world to rise up and curse, but it means that I see no benefit in the milder words that they replace curses with on TV or some of the bleeps and pauses that appear on cd’s.



For future reference, the words “filth” and “flarn” will be taking the place of curses in my blog so that I can illustrate my points (You can thank Bill Cosby for supplying “filth” and “flarn”).



I care very little about the words that someone uses to curse at me, it is the emotion that is harmful. So some woman who I accidentally cut off driving begins to picture my demise and lets out a string of curses at me, “You filth flarn fithing flarn flarn!”, I don’t begin to break down the meaning of her word choice, I just understand that I pissed her off royal and hope that she doesn’t follow me home. The actual curse words were almost entirely void of meaning. In a similar way, if I run into a friend and he says jokingly, “Hey filth-flarn what’s up?” I don’t take offense or fear for my life he is just using the words for humor. I find that curses add almost nothing to 90% of the sentences or phrases in which they are used, so since they are wasted so heavily why do we still attribute so much value to them?



Now, lets take a look at this fictional dialogue from a fictional movie that I created.

Thomas – “Look Johnny, if you short us again on your delivery, you are going to get your flarn stomped.

Johnny – “I got pinched by this filthing cop man, I had no choice but to pay his flarning filth off!”

Thomas – “I don’t give two filths where the money went, I just know that my flarning delivery to Paulie is going to be light and it’s your fault. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Johnny – “Flarn you and your mother, I can’t be responsible for police interference!”

Alright, now when reading this be honest, you replaced filth and flarn with the word it was supposed to be in your head. But lets play the TV game and calm it down.



Thomas – “Look Johnny, if you short us again on your delivery, you are going to get your heiny stomped.”

Johnny – “I got pinched by this lousy cop man, I had no choice but to pay his stupid hind off!”

Thomas – “I don’t give two pennies where the money went, I just know that my freaking delivery to Paulie is going to be light and it’s your fault. Make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Johnny – “Screw you and your mother, I can’t be responsible for police interference!”

Is this any better honestly? Did you not replace the words with the intended curses? I didn’t for “lousy cop” although his lips and the dubbing could ruin that. Did these words change the meaning in any way? No, the same threats and anger are present in both dialogues (unless they actually said flarn in which case I would laugh).



So this censoring would only work to hide the intended curse words from someone who was unfamiliar in the first place, which sadly no one but two years olds are ignorant of. And if you are watching the movie with this dialogue with your 2 years old, language is the least of your problems.

Now let’s break down some of these “big” curse words. I have indicated the actual words by the first letter; if you can’t figure out what I am talking about you are truly sheltered and make a note to thank your parents.



F – verb – its original usage was an acronym “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” which means to have unlawful sexual relations with some one. It is never used in its proper context, it now is used as slang for “sexual relations” and any other action based on context.

B – noun – Its original usage is to indicate a female dog. It also no longer is used properly, and now means an irritable person, or some other random insult based on the context.



I will spare you all from going through all of them, but I think it is clear that almost none of them are used as they were meant, and the replacement words are not at all weaker in reality. The culprit is us, we choose to add significance to these words, because they have no power on their own.

In my own life, and based upon my understanding of the Bible I don’t think that you could build a case that these words are more significant in any way. I would say that it would be the anger or hatred of a phrase that would be inherently sinful not the word choice. So “Flarn You” is as sinful as “I hate you” or maybe even “Darn you”. I think the whole language censoring argument is focusing on the wrong thing, and actually yields no benefit to the American public. When I raise my kids I would be more concerned with their expression of anger and frustration, more than their vocabulary.



OK, I made my point however, it has been brought to my attention that I play devil’s advocate too much and don’t always make clear my full stance. So here is my disclaimer. I don’t think cursing is intelligent, and should be avoided in society, and I would discourage my children from using foul language, especially flarn. I usually equate the overuse of cursing to ignorance, because you fail to understand the human language enough to expound your thoughts without just streaming curses together. I do think that censoring the “big” curses is an act of futility, and only benefits the lousy parents who are too stupid to shield their own kids from such programming. I do believe that the emotion is what is harmful and I add almost no significance to the language unless it was used by someone who I knew. So if Phil (sorry Phil, this is just an illustration) was to call me a “flarner” in anger I would be broken because HE can add such significance to the word because he does not curse normally. This is the only case in which these words can carry the weight that people worry so much about. Cursing is just silly, and the only real use I see for it now is humor and satire, and in movies it has become standard filler for dialogue. I would be far more engaged and excited by intelligent cursing and speaking, but thats just me.

Back to entertainment



If you aren’t watching 24, slap yourself. This season does not disappoint, and if you need to play catch up then head to Amazon and pick up the first two seasons. I have found an old Chinese proverb that prophesied the coming of 24. “A man who misses 24 but seeks to later find its wisdom is a fool for only a moment, but a man who never sees 24 is a fool forever.” Don’t be that fool.

Firefly



I have seen the first three episodes of Firefly, which is basically a space western created by the creator of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. It is good, and I want to watch the rest of it but the download time is tortuous. I would need to see at least 3 more episodes before I could justify buying it, but I think that there is a good chance that I will like them enough to do such a thing. If one of you wishes to buy it based on my saying so, let me borrow it when you are done.

While you are out buying Firefly for me, pick up a copy of Silent Storm for PC. I want the hell out of that game. I haven’t yearned this hard for a game since Maximum Carnage for Sega Genesis. (Which my father bought for me, maybe I need to call home.)