Sex, Gore and Foul Language

I know what I like

John and I attended a writer's workshop yesterday. The woman leading the class is old enough to be our grandmother. We were the youngest people in the room besides one other girl who appeared to be there against her will (or at least that's how it looked).

The point of the workshop is to bring your work to get critiqued so you can write better. However, when the subject came up of content, things went south.

There we were sitting in a room full of conservatives who were sensitive about politics and the word pussy. How am I supposed to read Chronicles of the Dead to these people? They're aren't going to be able to give me valuable feedback if they can't get over the word fuck. 

Excuse me for growing up in a house were vulgarities were the norm. I like to say fuck and shit. I like sex and nudity and lots of it - gratuitous or not. When I'm reading a book and the sex is hinted at, that's fine. It's like flirting. But you can only hint at something for so long! As Winston Porter says, "Give me the meat. Give me what I came for!" Yeah, no shit.

The opening monologue to COTD is filled with fucks. I counted. Before we even know the setting of the opening scene the main character says fuck, bullshit and cock two times each plus the word sex. 

Of course, there are tactful ways of omitting the raunch and if I were writing a YA novel, that's exactly what I would do. Writing for adults means you get to say whatever the fuck you want to say. I can describe blood and guts. I can talk about wet pussy and hard dicks. I'm free to describe the sensation a woman feels when her partner enters her from behind.

Is this too much for you? Does it bother you if you're reading a book and a character gets his eye gouged out and the author takes an entire paragraph to describe it in vivid detail? Yes, the world has become desensitized to violence and gore thanks to video games and the Saw movies, but that doesn't mean I need to sensor myself because the grandmas and grandpas of this world can't handle it. Everyone has stuck their hands in their pants and fondled their own genitals before so enough judgements!