Readers
flock to the taboo
Nick
Genisauski
Last
week, a colleague of mine was informing
a group of students about the type of column
I write. He said they seemed pleased with
the subject matter overall, but were curious
as to which paper I wrote for. When disclosed
that I contribute to the On-line Forty-Niner,
my colleague (whom also works for the Forty-Niner)
informed me their responses were less than
enthusiastic. Some of them rolled their
eyes and commented, "Oh, that paper."
Had I been there, I might have invited all
of them to The Nugget, befriended them by
buying a round of shots, then in a drunken
rage I'd splinter a stool across each one
of their faces. This initial reaction might
not breed a cult following, but to hear
that other school papers were being applauded
and read over mine was almost too much to
take. Questions began to brew in my head
whether or not I was contributing to the
'right' paper. Was this feedback from a
few slack-jaw juniors enough reason to shatter
my ties with the oldest, most news-savvy
periodical on campus? I immediately took
to the scales and started to weigh the evidence.
Apparently,
the more popular papers on campus are those
inundated with taboo material. The definition
of taboo has been stretched thin over the
years and my prediction is that a decade
from now the only thing censored from the
pages of certain papers might be gratuitous
pornography. Wait -- that is the only thing
censored right now. I'm not saying that
it's entirely in bad taste to read about
a young man's first encounter with the opposite
sex, or his own for that matter. I always
wanted to find out what a "Stanley
steamer" really was while enjoying
a cup of coffee under one of our beautiful
eucalyptus trees.
If
it isn't the sexual content that will keep
you reading, it's got to be the four letter
words littered throughout the stories and
articles. What accentuates a noun better
than a dirty adjective! Four-letter words
drive the feeling home and in essence, places
the reader right in the middle of all the
action. I suppose that printing dirty words
is fitting given that the f-word flies pretty
freely around campus. If you thought the
second-hand smoke was bad wait until you
get a load of the verbal poison in your
ears. F-this! F-that! F-you! Forget reading
the Forty-Niner; wrap it around your head
or tear the corners off and shove them in
your ears and nose! It appears curse words
are what the public wants and it's high
time our culture brings back the "S***
Happens" T-shirt.
Maybe
these periodicals that continue to step
out of the margin are onto something. Who
is keeping it real? It's interesting the
most widely used, attention grabbing words
like "S***" and "F***"
are absent from my Norton Anthology. Are
the prestigious citizens (and editors) of
academia trying to tell me that Shakespeare
didn't let an explicit loose when he wrote
the dialogue between Hamlet and his mother
after his father's death? In the Canterbury
Tales, Chaucer describes the Monk as a "Fine
fat Lord." Could it be possible what
he had originally jotted down was, "Fine
fat F***?" It's hard to believe curse
words have yet to be brought to the grammatical
table. Essentially, they topple all barriers
placed around words in the English language.
What other words can act as modifiers, nouns,
verbs, and adjectives? And sometimes simultaneously!
I recently saw a shirt that said, "F***
You, You F****n' F***!" If this isn't
a curriculum in and of itself I don't know
what is.
In
a world where top-selling rap albums contain
no less than fifty F-words or the most commonly
read magazine amongst 20 to 30-year-olds
is sex-enriched Maxim; it's no wonder that
local papers are trying to cash in on what
seems to be hip. Maybe if the On-line Forty-Niner
gave me the freedom to drop some naughty
one-liners I'd be a happier more widely
read man. However, the reality is any drunken
monkey can swear like the Osbournes or enlighten
the reader with a story about their spring
break orgy. The elimination of filthy diction
and rhetoric might be a goal our society
can all shoot for. Results may vary, but
if we think beyond our adolescent shortcomings
there is a good chance younger generations
will benefit by our leading a select few,
rather than following the random masses.
But, hey I'm only 24, so F*** it.
Nick
Genisauski is an English major at Cal State
Long Beach.
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