$#!+ and other profane euphemisms

Science Fiction and Fantasy stories, in an effort to create otherness or the illusion of otherness, tend to utilize euphemisms, especially for expletives.  Dr. Seuss and Lewis Carroll are two authors who used this brand of contextual-based gibberish very effectively.  After them came The Smurfs (isn't that just so Smurfy?), then Pirates of Dark Water (noy jitat, jitatin, chonga, chongo-longo, and naja dog), then Babylon 5 (frag, shrock, etc.), then Farscape (frell, dren, arn, cycle, hezmana, and a surprisingly vast trove of others), then Firefly (gorram, etc.), followed by the reimagined Battlestar Galactica (frak, etc.).


As I mentioned above, use of this convention is - at its root - to highlight otherness.  This can be done just for fun, to bypass censorship in communicating strong expletives without using "real" words, or to make social commentary.


The posts to follow will delve deeper into several of the examples listed above.  For now, however, I wanted to talk a little bit about Firefly's use of euphemisms.


I never thought much of Firefly's use of Mandarin and Cantonese to execute all sorts of wacky vulgarities because I always took it at face value: that Joss et al were taking advantage of a loophole to do their best to sneak as much vulgarity past the censors as they could (without sacrificing the story).


I don't know if it's by accident or design, but their use of Mandarin and Cantonese as the vulgar or low language and English as the noble or high language parallels the culture in England after the Norman's conquered the island (German was the low language and French was the high language).  In Firefly, the Alliance is the official governing body, composed of two core societies that emigrated from "Earth-that-was" hundreds of years ago.  One core society is Western while the other is pan-Asian, and I suspect that - based on the use of language in the show - the Western culture is dominant, or at least white collar.  Alternatively, the pan-Asian culture might have contributed their language as vulgar if their values were more militaristic or blue collar in nature.


It's food for thought, if nothing else, and a great example of how the use of language provides tremendous insight into the history and values of a culture.

“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.” - Lewis Carroll