There was a time not so very long ago when books such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Tropic of Cancer could be banned for the language used in them more than the nature of their stories. Even Ian Fleming’s You Only Live Twice (1964) was obliged to spell out certain words phonetically, as in ‘Freddie, Uncle, Charlie, Katie.’ Absurdly enough, the latter example was specifically a conversation about expletives. Nowadays, it seems that swear words have entirely lost their taboo in most aspects of culture and society, but they still have the power to offend. Some readers dislike seeing them and may refuse to buy or finish a book containing expletives, while others have their own rating scale of what’s permissible in terms of severity or frequency. It’s a complex area for writers. Should we use these words or not? If so, when? And how?
Genre blending