This comment....seriously?

[lovecraft68]

Some people don't find sex obscene or offensive, but do think God should be treated respectfully, if not reverently. I'm surprised that you (or anyone) is amazed by this, but whatever. Personally, I avoid God or goddamn in my stories for precisely this reason. Not that I'd expect anyone else to, and it's hard to imagine commenting on anyone's use of it in a story here. But I at least get why for some people it's a thing.

Readers comment on so many bizarre and incomprehensible things that someone with a vague;y comprehensible viewpoint at all doesn't seem worth grumping about. Better than some of the weird emails I've gotten.Someone accused me of basing a story on a TV show because three of the character names I'd chosen matched major characters in the show. (I don't want television and had never heard of the show.)

As I said I'm not grumping, it intrigued me and thought it was worth a discussion and its gotten enough replies to seem that it was.

 

[lovecraft68]

Going back to Pilot mentioning some of the grammatical points about goddamn and god...

I was called out by an editor for not capitalizing god. I told her simply I don't believe in god so why should I? Her first answer of most people do I told her meant nothing to me and was not good enough reason to make me do it.

Finally she went with the simply fact its a proper name and proper names should be capped. Then she made the mistake of saying 'People capitalize Hitler and look at what that animal did'

My reply that in my mind god-through his people -has killed millions more than Hitler ever had-was enough for to stop working with me. But I do cap it in e-books because the proper name thing at least made sense to me. "Cap Satan, gotta cap god I guess. At least in a story I want people to read, here I'm not bothering.

And I am not looking to offend anyone with that remark, its simply how I feel and take into account that by not believing in god I deal with what I consider crap every day from every one wearing a crucifix/cross in front of me to "god bless you" and 'god's will' and every other expression associated with it.

To each their own, it doesn't offend me, because I get when most people say it they mean well, but when its turned around? The god folk have never, nor will ever give the same courtesy to the non god folk.

And if anyone is wondering the reason I will use god or goddamn in a story is realism because yes most believe and many people say goddamn it. Although I actually never do nor do I say 'oh my god, god bless you' or anything with the word in it.

For a sneeze its goesintight And I have a wealth of profanity at my disposal to not utter goddamn. "For Christ's Sake" was the one I had a hard time not saying because my parent's and sister would say that 24/7. Those believers...

 

[RejectReality]

From what I've seen, capitalizing 'god' when used in any context other than theological draws far more ire than not doing so. Capitalizing the word ( or goddess ) when referring to non-Abrahamic deities also attracts negative commentary. Only on the rarest of occasions have I see readers complain about failing to capitalize it in any context.

So, unless it starts a sentence, the generic term gets no caps from me, and I try to avoid having it start sentences — no matter how many times editors and squiggly lines in the text editor complain.

 

[lovecraft68]

From what I've seen, capitalizing 'god' when used in any context other than theological draws far more ire than not doing so. Capitalizing the word ( or goddess ) when referring to non-Abrahamic deities also attracts negative commentary. Only on the rarest of occasions have I see readers complain about failing to capitalize it in any context.

So, unless it starts a sentence, the generic term gets no caps from me, and I try to avoid having it start sentences — no matter how many times editors and squiggly lines in the text editor complain.

Which kind of proves what I thought at the time with her that this was not an editing issue, but a personal one.

 

[HandsInTheDark]

So, unless it starts a sentence, the generic term gets no caps from me, and I try to avoid having it start sentences — no matter how many times editors and squiggly lines in the text editor complain.

If you don't believe in God you have no business capitalizing it. In your usage it's not a proper noun.

I've yet to see a text editor that wanted it capitalized. What are you using?

 

[le_kitty]

Sounds like a good Christian response, maybe from the Bible Belt. That is, it makes hardly any sense at all.

There's a commandment against taking His name in vain. No commandment against reading and enjoying gooey, incest-ridden smut.

I was about to comment the same thing. It seems rather ironic that they're religious enough to take offence at the apparent wrong use of 'god' but are nonetheless on a site for porn? You're right LC, lol, where do they get on their high horse.

 

[49greg]

At the time of Joan of Arc, the French referred to all English soldiers as "Goddams" because the French thought English soldiers swore too much and were Godless heathens.

Until the 1904 Entente Cordiale, the French still thought English troops were Godless heathens who swore too much.

After 1904, they didn't change their minds, they just stopped saying it out loud.

In fiction as well.

I think it's Bernard Cornwell, in his "Sharpe" series of books who has the French calling the Brit Soldiers the goddams. as well. I thought it was because the Brits where just profane and used the word themselves. By then (Napoleonic Wars) the French were revolutionaries and not so religious themselves.

In the C.S. Forester's "Hornblower" stories or maybe it is one of his heirs to the genre like O'Brien or Alexander Kent or one of the others, the French called the British "Bifsteaks". - Beef Steaks. It made me think of the tower guards, and Beefeater Gin.

I don't know if these authors did actual research on the slang of the French, but it made the stories more colourful.

 

[RejectReality]

I don't believe in Santa Claus either, but you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who will tell you it's not a proper noun just because it refers to a fictional character.

If you don't believe in God you have no business capitalizing it. In your usage it's not a proper noun.

Be that as it may, I'll continue to follow the trend I've observed on erotica sites and use the least offensive form, which drops the cap.

 

[sr71plt]

Going back to Pilot mentioning some of the grammatical points about goddamn and god...

I was called out by an editor for not capitalizing god. I told her simply I don't believe in god so why should I? Her first answer of most people do I told her meant nothing to me and was not good enough reason to make me do it.

Finally she went with the simply fact its a proper name and proper names should be capped. Then she made the mistake of saying 'People capitalize Hitler and look at what that animal did'

Just tell your editor (if using U.S. style) to read the Webster's entry for the word. First preference there is for it not to be capitalized--then ask her where she got her editorial training.

 

[lovecraft68]

Just tell your editor (if using U.S. style) to read the Webster's entry for the word. First preference there is for it not to be capitalized--then ask her where she got her editorial training.

I used editor loosely, pretty much a second set of eyes, but she'd been very helpful to me in catching a lot of typos, things like the their/there and watching my chronic misuse of to/too in some of my older stories from that time.

Again, I determined the cap G for god was a personal thing she was trying to pawn off as 'right' either that or she really believed it to be that way.

In either case she became upset with my pagan ass.

 

[robertreams]

I am one up on you there. One Wednesday a long time ago a nun asked me, "Timmy," (I hate being called Timmy), "what are you giving up for lent this year?" My answer left her speechless. "Guilt," I said.

 

[SecondCircle]

From what I've seen, capitalizing 'god' when used in any context other than theological draws far more ire than not doing so. Capitalizing the word ( or goddess ) when referring to non-Abrahamic deities also attracts negative commentary. Only on the rarest of occasions have I see readers complain about failing to capitalize it in any context.

So, unless it starts a sentence, the generic term gets no caps from me, and I try to avoid having it start sentences — no matter how many times editors and squiggly lines in the text editor complain.

I cap the word "god" when it is used as a proper name. It has nothing to do with whether I invest any belief in the deity. If a character is talking about "Him", they are talking about the specific deity that they name "God". It's his name in these cases.

Same say you wouldn't capitalize "wolf" until that is someone's name.

* As a founding member of the gang, Wolf was not the man to raise your voice to. *

* "I'm not giving up hope," Gina said. "I know that God put us here for a specific reason." *

It gets kind of tricky because "god" is a word meaning "Deity". But to english speaking Christians, that's the name of the Judeo-Christian deity they worship. At least, that's the name they use to refer to him. It just doesn't look right to me not to capitalize it, and even looks confusing in context.

* He was convinced that god would save him.*

To my brain, that looks like a name. And thus should be capitalized, just like:

* He was convinced wolf would find him and kill him.*

See? My brain says, "Wait, what?" Does the author mean 'A' wolf will kill him? If so, that sentence is incorrect grammatically. Is 'wolf' a name? Then capitalize it. That's a grammar/punctuation rule. Not because this guy "Wolf" is so important that he needs his name capitalized, but because capitalizing that word in that case actually conveys to a reader's brain, "Wolf is this man's name. The author is referring to the brutish leader of this biker gang, not a canine mammal."

So when someone capitalizes "god", thus referring to him as God, it conveys to me as a reader that they mean the Judeo Christian deity character. Whether I believe in "him" or not, I'll know "who" we are referring to in context.

In the context of cursing, I really don't think it matters a whole fuck of a lot. Because it's really all the same fucking thing.

God damn or Goddamn-- cursed by the Judeo Christian deity.

god damn -- damned by "A" deity

goddamn-- damned by... a deity?

gods damed-- implies that the speaker us polytheistic and summons the curses of MANY gods... so, cursed by deities.

I guess I'd follow written standards on how to spell it and all, but in the end, are we not saying the same god damn thing? It's a form of profanity that people say, usually when they are pissed at something or someone. A "god damned" idiot is supposed to be kind of a descriptor of that idiot. Just like "despicable idiot." I don't think the specifics of which god is doing the damning should really be involved, because that's taking the phrase a bit literally and missing the point.

So yes. The OP's feedback is a little pet peevish. At best it's humorous. I agree with the OP, because said feedback is basically saying, "I love your sex story but I'm hung up on a capital letter." That being said, any reader has that right to be hung up on whatever they want to. Those readers just shouldn't realistically expect me to care.

 

[Handley_Page]

People are fascinating. I've known several who were positive they would be saved because of their faith when the Rapture came. It didn't seem to matter that they were in the midst of extramarital affairs.

I would dearly love to know what happened to the woman who, convinced that predictions of Rapture and Doom, sold her earthly goods and awaited the universal disaster.
And waited.
For an event that never happened.
Did she ever get her life back ?
I suspect that there is a legal plot-bunny there. . .

In fiction as well.

I think it's Bernard Cornwell, in his "Sharpe" series of books who has the French calling the Brit Soldiers the 'goddams'. as well. I thought it was because the Brits where just profane and used the word themselves. By then (Napoleonic Wars) the French were revolutionaries and not so religious themselves.

In the C.S. Forester's "Hornblower" stories or maybe it is one of his heirs to the genre like O'Brien or Alexander Kent or one of the others, the French called the British "Bifsteaks". - Beef Steaks. It made me think of the tower guards, and Beefeater Gin.

I don't know if these authors did actual research on the slang of the French, but it made the stories more colourful.

As I recall, the expression was "Rosbiffs" (from Roast Beef), and both of those authors did a great deal of research. See Alexander Kent's notes at the back of a Sharpe's book.

 

[Jose_Rick]

If you don't believe in God you have no business capitalizing it. In your usage it's not a proper noun.

Capitalization of the word "god" is a matter of grammar, not religion. When addressing a god or gods in general, it's a common noun. For a specific god, it's a proper noun.

I don't believe Thor is a real entity, but I still capitalize the name, just as I would also capitalize the name of any fictional character.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

Like everyone else I've had comments run the gamut here. Effusively glowing to viciously abusive. I've had people tell their own fantasies and 'real life' experiences, had people complain about the weirdest things from character name to dress color etc...

This one from sometime last night killed me.

by Anonymous
02/12/16
Great Story!

This was a great, completely believeable story with hot sex and a happy ending. It could benefit from more careful editing. The use of the profane word "Goddamn" added nothing to the story, but for me detracted from it.

You're on an erotica site. One that contains incest and rape fantasies as well as every dirty filthy kink imaginable and the word goddamn offends you?

Also for the story in question, its okay they said, fuck, cock, tits, pussy, fucking and just fine that there were blow jobs and explicit sex, but...

The profane word goddamn is what was offensive.

Wow, is all I have to that one.

Lemme drop a quick assumption: No where in the context in which you used "Goddamn" were you (or your character) actually referring to a deity. More like "goddamn, where'd you learn how to do that with your tongue?" Or "the goddamn car won't start."

If i'm right, these contexts aren't in any way implying the need to capitalize. God as a deity is a formal name, hence the capitalizing; goddamn tends to be used in non-religious context.

Basically, that the letters G-O-D are in there, doesn't mean religion is on the table as reason.

On a side note, I tend to only use goddamn in dialogue, as it seems dated to me. Likewise, when I see someone else using it in dialogue, I always picture an older person doing the speaking. Not entirely sure why; never really stopped to wonder. Just something to maybe think about. Seems like from my generation down the word is dropping in daily usage.

Q_C

 

[oggbashan]

As I recall, the expression was "Rosbiffs" (from Roast Beef), and both of those authors did a great deal of research. See Alexander Kent's notes at the back of a Sharpe's book.

I think it comes from a late 18th Century account of a visit to England, after the French Revolution, by a French citizen diplomat during one of the rare periods when we weren't at war.

Being used to the sparse vegetarian fare of the French peasant, he was startled by the vast quantities of beef eaten by English yeomen. His account was more about the difference in economic status between the French and English rural workers. The English farm workers were not poor by French standards, were larger, fitter and very well fed. (The industrial revolution changed that!)

A typical English family ate more meat in a week than a similar French family would eat in a year.

 

[49greg]

I would dearly love to know what happened to the woman who, convinced that predictions of Rapture and Doom, sold her earthly goods and awaited the universal disaster.
And waited.
For an event that never happened.
Did she ever get her life back ?
I suspect that there is a legal plot-bunny there. . .




As I recall, the expression was "Rosbiffs" (from Roast Beef), and both of those authors did a great deal of research. See Alexander Kent's notes at the back of a Sharpe's book.

Yes! you are quite right, it is Rosbiffs, sorry about that, over the years since I've read them my memory must has shifted. However I think I'll still be reminded of Beefeaters gin for some odd twist of my mind - or senility.

I'll have to check out one from the library, as all of my Sharpe, Kent, O'Brian etc books were 'borrowed' by a family member who 'lost' them.

Sometimes families suck.

 

[49greg]

I think it comes from a late 18th Century account of a visit to England, after the French Revolution, by a French citizen diplomat during one of the rare periods when we weren't at war.

Being used to the sparse vegetarian fare of the French peasant, he was startled by the vast quantities of beef eaten by English yeomen. His account was more about the difference in economic status between the French and English rural workers. The English farm workers were not poor by French standards, were larger, fitter and very well fed. (The industrial revolution changed that!)

A typical English family ate more meat in a week than a similar French family would eat in a year.

I think that some time ago I read the same account, or a comment on it.

I wonder if poaching was as big a problem as some fiction would have it. I seem to remember something about enclosures - were there common fields enclosed? that might have led to people having to poach game?

 

[Areala-chan]

English is not the only language with silent letters in words or words which don't sound the way they are spelled.

Take the japanese word kawaii. I had always thought it was pronounced similar to kawhy. Instead, after listening to the Mutant Monster song, Kawaii Dekeja Irarenai, it is pronounced similar to Hawaii (ka wah ee) and Irarenai has an 'e' sound on the end of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdQcEl5Axmg

Japanese is one of the worst languages you could have picked for this example, since you literally say every letter you see in the romanized word with very, very few exceptions (like 'desu' where the 'u' is dropped so the word comes out as 'dess').

It has five very simple vowel sounds: a is 'ah', i is 'ee', u is 'ooh', e is 'eh', and o is 'oh'. The rest of their two basic alphabets are based on syllable sounds, not individual letters, and those characters are always pronounced as written. Kawaii is thus composed of four separate characters: 'ka', 'wa', 'i', and 'i', and you pronounce them all as you see them.

Sounds complex, but it's nowhere near as difficult as many other languages to learn how to speak, thanks to its lack of silent letters and other grammatical nightmares common to English. That said, if you want to be considered to have basic reading proficiency in Japanese, you'll need to be able to recognize about 1,500 different characters and the various ways of reading specific Kanji, most of which have at least 2 or 3 different ways to be understood depending on how they are used, so...

That sounds more complex than it actually is, since the proper 'readings' of those kanji become second nature after a short time, the same way you easily infer the meaning of 'orange' if I say, "We painted the house orange," versus, "I had an orange for a snack." Same word, different meaning. Kanji's the same.

And now I'm rambling...

 

[RejectReality]

The only way I managed to play Dragon Quest VI back in the day was having the manual for the SFC Dragon Quest III reprise, which had the Katakana superscripts for the Kanji. I had to pore through the manual, locate the Kanji, check the superscript, and then look it up from that. ( Unless it was something I remembered, which at the time was a few things here and there. )

Didn't get very far into the game, but once fan and official translations came out, I was rather happy with how well I understood the story through that incredibly slow and laborious translation process.

</threadjack>

 

[Areala-chan]

The only way I managed to play Dragon Quest VI back in the day was having the manual for the SFC Dragon Quest III reprise, which had the Katakana superscripts for the Kanji. I had to pore through the manual, locate the Kanji, check the superscript, and then look it up from that. ( Unless it was something I remembered, which at the time was a few things here and there. )

Didn't get very far into the game, but once fan and official translations came out, I was rather happy with how well I understood the story through that incredibly slow and laborious translation process.

</threadjack>

That is just...badass.

Sorry, major gaming geek here. LOVE stories like that.

*huggles*
Areala-chan