The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book: Toronto.
Too much swearing? WTF?
Submitted by Nathan Whitlock 2008 on June 19, 2008 - 10:08am
I mentioned in my post about literary envy that I have been doing my best to be zen-like in my reaction to reviews of my novel, to see positive and negative reviews as merely two different expression of the same idea – namely, that my book was worth reviewing in the first place.
Granted, I've done some grumbling up my sleeve – and up the sleeves of others – but I think I've done a decent job of accentuating the positive. (Booze and a boundless ego help.)
One thing that does have my puzzled, however, and which has been a near-constant feature of both the positive and negative reviews, is repeated references to the amount of swearing done by the characters in the book.
It only seems puzzling because A) I don't think there's much swearing in there, B) people swear all the time, and C) compared to say, a Martin Scorsese movie or a new album by fiddy or even a novel by Chuck Palahniuk or Irvine Welsh, my novel might as well be Anne of Green Gables.
Not that I'm complaining. Fuck, no.
