Every week the public library sends out a list of the ebooks and audiobooks that have just been purchased, and I like to look at the titles to see if anything looks good -- maybe I can grab a loan right away, or at least get early on the waiting list for the popular books. Last week I was unhappy to find not one but two oh-so-clever titles that really grossed me out.
Oh, aren't we edgy and daring? We know a four-letter word! (But aren't we so tasteful, obscuring it behind a banana peel?) (And did you notice in the very small print, the author of the pink one has already written one book with the same clever title gimmick -- so original.) (And since one is an audiobook, don't you wonder how they're going to pronounce this clever word, since they're so tasteful and all?)
OK, you're edgy and daring. But why not choose a real four-letter word and use it in its correct grammatical context? News flash: unf-ck, even without the banana peel, is not a verb used by native English speakers, much as some rueful past participants might wish it were possible to do it.
thanks for the rant - I feel the same way!
ReplyDeleteYes I agree. Is age showing? I prefer to think it's my knowledge of what is tasteful and what is not. It's a sign of how "casual" the generations that follow mine have become. AND I happily admit I have no need of the author's "knowledge,".
ReplyDeleteXx, Carol
Those two covers look similar enough that it looks like the same person was behind both of them.
ReplyDeleteI've read the one about the habitat, or maybe it was one with a similar title with a different curse word about cleaning. The title was off-putting, but I think the point of the book was to shock you into cleaning. It used the word many times throughout the book, which was also off-putting. Maybe they felt the readers would feel like grownups reading a book with curse words in it. Like adulting is hard, let's use curse words to show we are actual adults.
The pink book looks like something the 'bad girls' would have passed around in the bus during a school field trip, hiding it from the chaperone. The banana peel book? might have been something a disgruntled college dorm room-mate might have handed off to said room=mate. I'd wonder about the quality of the library for spending public money on such items.
ReplyDelete