Vulgarity -- The New Artistic Expression
WARNING: This posting contains vulgar language which may not be suitable for all readers, if, in fact, there are any readers.
I have had the opportunity this week to watch parts of the first two episodes of Deadwood, a television show which has apparently received great acclaim. This show was recommended to us, because Susan is a fan of westerns, and Deadwood bears a strong a resemblance to many of the westerns we have seen in the past. It takes place in a mining town which is inhabited by many enterprising settlers, thieves and gunfighters; it involves occasional fistfights, and gunfights; one of the featured characters is a strong, silent, former U.S. Marshal, and there is much drinking of whisky; more whisky is consumed per episode than food.
What distinguishes Deadwood are a couple modern embellishments. First off, the saloon, in which about three-fourths of the action takes place, doubles as a whorehouse. This gives many characters, both male and female, the opportunity to display themselves in a state of full frontal nudity, or as Susan would say, totally bare naked. These scenes are typically gratuitous and serve no part in the story line, except perhaps to keep the viewers glued to the edge of their seats. For example, last night in the middle of a fist fight which threatened to escalate into a homicide, a drunken male patron, who seemed to have gotten lost in his quest to locate a prostitute, stumbled into the room, totally bare naked. I’m not sure of the audience demographics for whom this scene was designed, as the naked patron was neither attractive nor particularly well groomed. And one other thing about these naked scenes: I have noticed that the women are especially slender, skinny as we would have once called them. Maybe they are just malnourished; after all they live in the west, and don’t seem to enjoy an opulent lifestyle. But at the same time, none of the men in Deadwood appear too malnourished. Some are downright fat. So I have concluded that the whores suffer from a form of anorexia, which happens to be contagious, as every one of them seems the same; I just can’t figure out why all the whores in this mining town would have come down with such a modern eating disorder.
The other feature of Deadwood that quickly stands out is the vocabulary of the residents. Almost everyone in Deadwood feels obliged to use the word, Cocksucker, at least once every 45 seconds. Hardly a sentence goes by without someone uttering that word. Now I am old enough to remember when Cocksucker was one of George Carlin’s seven dirty words. It was a word that could not be spoken on any broadcast medium. Carlin did a lengthy and hilarious stand-up routine about these words, eventually recording it on what we then called a long playing album. But in the first five minutes of Deadwood, various characters said Cocksucker more than George Carlin did in the entire routine, a part of which, after all, was specifically dedicated to that very word. In fact, one episode of Deadwood contains more Cocksuckers than any concert by Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, or any other famous dirty-word comedian. It’s also interesting that just about everyone in the show uses the word with great enthusiasm and frequency, including Calamity Jane, who can drink and swear with any of the men, but seems on occasion to burst into tears for no apparent reason. The only people who don’t say Cocksucker are the whores, which is a bit odd, as they logically would be the characters one would most expect to speak that way.
Now I am not a person without an occasional fondness for vulgarity. There are times when, out of anger, or perhaps for emphasis, I have used one or more of George Carlin’s seven dirty words. What I did not know, however, was that by doing so, I was engaging in a form of artistic expression. I figured I was just swearing. But apparently Deadwood has received much critical acclaim, and is recognized as a contemporary artistic success, in part because of its frequent use of that word, Cocksucker. Who would have known?
I have had the opportunity this week to watch parts of the first two episodes of Deadwood, a television show which has apparently received great acclaim. This show was recommended to us, because Susan is a fan of westerns, and Deadwood bears a strong a resemblance to many of the westerns we have seen in the past. It takes place in a mining town which is inhabited by many enterprising settlers, thieves and gunfighters; it involves occasional fistfights, and gunfights; one of the featured characters is a strong, silent, former U.S. Marshal, and there is much drinking of whisky; more whisky is consumed per episode than food.
What distinguishes Deadwood are a couple modern embellishments. First off, the saloon, in which about three-fourths of the action takes place, doubles as a whorehouse. This gives many characters, both male and female, the opportunity to display themselves in a state of full frontal nudity, or as Susan would say, totally bare naked. These scenes are typically gratuitous and serve no part in the story line, except perhaps to keep the viewers glued to the edge of their seats. For example, last night in the middle of a fist fight which threatened to escalate into a homicide, a drunken male patron, who seemed to have gotten lost in his quest to locate a prostitute, stumbled into the room, totally bare naked. I’m not sure of the audience demographics for whom this scene was designed, as the naked patron was neither attractive nor particularly well groomed. And one other thing about these naked scenes: I have noticed that the women are especially slender, skinny as we would have once called them. Maybe they are just malnourished; after all they live in the west, and don’t seem to enjoy an opulent lifestyle. But at the same time, none of the men in Deadwood appear too malnourished. Some are downright fat. So I have concluded that the whores suffer from a form of anorexia, which happens to be contagious, as every one of them seems the same; I just can’t figure out why all the whores in this mining town would have come down with such a modern eating disorder.
The other feature of Deadwood that quickly stands out is the vocabulary of the residents. Almost everyone in Deadwood feels obliged to use the word, Cocksucker, at least once every 45 seconds. Hardly a sentence goes by without someone uttering that word. Now I am old enough to remember when Cocksucker was one of George Carlin’s seven dirty words. It was a word that could not be spoken on any broadcast medium. Carlin did a lengthy and hilarious stand-up routine about these words, eventually recording it on what we then called a long playing album. But in the first five minutes of Deadwood, various characters said Cocksucker more than George Carlin did in the entire routine, a part of which, after all, was specifically dedicated to that very word. In fact, one episode of Deadwood contains more Cocksuckers than any concert by Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, or any other famous dirty-word comedian. It’s also interesting that just about everyone in the show uses the word with great enthusiasm and frequency, including Calamity Jane, who can drink and swear with any of the men, but seems on occasion to burst into tears for no apparent reason. The only people who don’t say Cocksucker are the whores, which is a bit odd, as they logically would be the characters one would most expect to speak that way.
Now I am not a person without an occasional fondness for vulgarity. There are times when, out of anger, or perhaps for emphasis, I have used one or more of George Carlin’s seven dirty words. What I did not know, however, was that by doing so, I was engaging in a form of artistic expression. I figured I was just swearing. But apparently Deadwood has received much critical acclaim, and is recognized as a contemporary artistic success, in part because of its frequent use of that word, Cocksucker. Who would have known?