Naughty boys in nasty schools

[venta]

Last night I finished reading Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. Or, as I consistently think of him, "no, not that David Mitchell". Black Swan Green was actually a birthday present from spindlemere last year, but a housemove got in the way and caused it to hide for a while.

The book is written from the point of view of a thirteen year old boy, in the early 80s. It's also written in the language of a kid of the early 80s which, despite my having been only six in the year the book was set, was still the language of the playground when I went to school.

Starting to read it is a bit of a culture shock. You can't, he writes, do this because it'll make you look gay. You shouldn't do that because it'll make you look a total spaz. For all I know, kids may still think that doing your homework is gay, but the world I live in mostly regards "gay" and "spaz" as words which aren't acceptable to fling about as generic insults. Reading it causes a series of minor mental flinches.

Remarkably soon, though, I found myself settling down into the world of thickos and duh-brains, and didn't bat an eyelid at the use of "skill" as an adjective. Being permitted to slither back to adolescent language is something of a guilty pleasure, actually. It's language appropriate to the era, which means it's somehow ok to laugh at the fact that wearing a woolly hat is gay.

Very occasionally - usually when I'm concentrating on something else - obsolete junior school phrases work their way into my sentences. The ones I regard as obsolete are usually either offensive or (as you might say) would make me look like a spacker in this day and age. Relaxing into that environment was surprisingly enjoyable; I have yet to decide whether I should regard this as a bad thing. If I unexpectedly start calling people gaylords or bumboys, you will let me know, won't you?

I'm curious, though, as to whether the author deliberately made the proprietor of the corner shop Welsh (well, his name is Rhydd, nationality unspecified) to avoid tackling what a bunch of teenagers in the 80s would have called an Asian. Possibly he just didn't want to pander to the cliché - fallen into by most things set in the 80s - that all corner shops are run by Asians.

One of the bits of blurb on the cover of the book says that the Times thought the book was "luminously beautiful". Which strikes me as total nonsense. The writing is fantastic, and the narrator does have flashes of really beautiful language. The book, on the whole, though, is grubby. Grubby and angry and awkward in the way that being a teenager is - Mr Mitchell is brilliantly convincing writing as a thirteen year old. He's caught the way social complexities in school life are way more involved, and important, and even life-threatening than an adult can possibly understand. The narrator's use of language changes subtly in different situations; it's very cleverly done. I'd defend the writing against all comers, but "luminously beautiful" it ain't.

Anyway, it's a book well worth reading. I commend it to you.

Comments

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

An online friend of mine from the US recently used 'spaz' on her blog,and then was really surprised when she got an email from an English person complaining. Apparently it's not offensive over there - they don't even know where it comes from. They also say handicapped instead of disabled. It's weird, they're hypersensitive about racial terms, but don't seem to be bothered by disability-related terms the way we are.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

I wasn't aware there was an issue with "handicapped" either. (Although I was with spaz.) Where do the USA stand on "brainstorming"?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was vaguely aware that "spaz" is OK if you're American, and had wondered if it might be parallel evolution from a different root. I have a vague idea you can buy "spazz sticks" in the US, which are some sort of lip balm.

I hadn't really noticed that "handicapped" specifically had fallen out of use here. To me that seems like a fairly non-offensive phrase (but I can believe that for various reasons beyond my awareness, it isn't).

The interesting thing is that the most common users of non-pc terms relating to disability tend to be... the disabled. "I'm not bloody vision-impaired, I'm blind", as my parents' next-door neighbour is fond of saying.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Its odd. Common usage words for something negative, seem to change as people percive the negative connotations of the word to be the bad thing.

Handicaped/Disable/Less Able Bodied

Heck, Spazz is a derivation of Spastic, which was once a medical definiton, both being non-pc words.

We almost seem to think that the words we use will make the condition less of a problem.

Alas the real problem is more deep seated in the human mind, in that we are designed to group items together as it is a way of reducing process overheads, thus it is in our nature. The name of the group will always end up offensive as people like to be treated as inderviduals.

We exasibate the problem when it comes to things we are scared, don't understand or don't like, thus racial banding. We percieve them as different from us.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I've always found it a bit mystifying that it's offensive to call someone a spastic (which, as you say, was once just the medical name for a condition), but it's not offensive to call someone a cretin (which is a medical name for a condition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretin), with free bonus religious slur).

At least, as far as I'm aware cretin isn't particularly offensive. I may have missed a memo.

Edit: obviously if you're calling someone a cretin, you're going to offend them. You know what I mean :)

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I definitely find cretin offensive, and will call people on it. But then I have juvenile onset hypothyroidism and may be a bit sensitive about it.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I had wondered if the general lack[*] of regard of it as offensive was down to people just not knowing the origin, so I might describe you as better informed rather than more sensitive!

[*] This general lack is still presumed on my part (due to lack of evidence). If you call someone on it, do they regard it as an oddity on your part, or are they surprised about the meaning?

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I think most people think I'm hypersensitive for calling them on it, and also tend to counter with the argument that 'idiot' and 'imbecile' also used to have technical medical usages, and nobody objects to those.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Well i just saw someone using fucktard on FB earlier, which derives back to retard, which isn't so pleasant.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

I'm always kinda torn on 'cretin'. In that it's a much more satisfying word than 'moron' in every way, but I know where it originally comes from. A couple of books I have use it accurately, and it's so jarring it hurts.

Of course, imbecile has similar problems, being the term (or ex-term, I'm not quite sure) for a specific degree of mental retardation.

I suspect that pretty much all our terms for 'offensively stupid' have less than stainess backgrounds. But I'm not quite sure that saying 'Aaargh, you total offensively-stupid-person!' to my various argument-partners will quite hit the spot...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Maybe we need a thread on good, PC, satisfying insults and phrases :)

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

It still is a medical term, but in contexts such as 'spastic colon'.

My cousin describes his hypertonic hand as spastic, but he has CP so I am not going to tell him not to do it. :)


My own contribution to this thread: eppy. As in, don't have an eppy. It took me a long time (i.e. I was nearly 18) to realise that it came from 'epileptic fit' and thus was not a good word to use.

[venta.livejournal.com]

eppy

Yes, ditto. Except by the time it reached us, it had mutated into "heppy", which further obfuscated its meaning.

I only really cottoned on when people occasionally lengthened it to "hepileptic".

See also: flid, contracted from "Thalidomide".

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Yup. Flid was used too. Is Hepileptic even a word ?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Not as far as I'm aware!

But then I'm not sure skillish or flid or ragger are technically words either :)

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

No....But usualy the extended word is correct, even if the abriviatory slur isn't. Ragger is that in reference to someone wearing a turban, if so certainly wasn't used as a youth, though i've heard it mid 20s.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ragger is that in reference to someone wearing a turban

Really? (via raghead?) That's news to me.

It was used when I was a kid to mean someone who wore raggy clothes - not actually ragged, but unfashionable, cheap, maybe secondhand. Activities such as shopping at jumble sales, or at Poundstretcher, or not having the money for something could get you called a ragger.

So it's entirely possible that this is an independent insult, devoid of turbanage.

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

I've definately heard it in that context. I did Uni at Wolverhampton and there was a large Muslem population. I did alas end up dealing with the police over a rather nasty case of Rock Soc Vs Bangra Soc that really went nasty as one of the guys got his turban knocked off and went mental. Was one of the more horific fights i've seen. Got sent down for it too. However in amongst this i was a witness and spoke to the police. Interesting views back then !

[ulfilias.livejournal.com]

Haha. Yeah i reacall that one. I knew where it came from too....didn't stop us using it though.

[bondagewoodelf.livejournal.com]

I can remember Willow (from Buffy) saying "I'm such a spaz" (or something similar) being cut out of even the post-watershed broadcast of the episode for this reason.

Being purely associative here, I can't remember if they cut Anya's "Why can't you just masturbate like the rest of us" out of the post-watershed one.