Profanity (features SPOILERS and PROFANITY)

[Geoduck]

Since it's been the hot topic on the tagboard lately, some notes about profanity (and thus religion) in the Mansionverse. I use some bad words in this posting, so turn back now if that really bothers you.

When I created the strip, I decided like many before me to invent my own profanity as well. It lets you maintain something resembling a PG-rating, while at the same time allowing your characters to use more naturalistic langauge. (I realize there's nothing holding me back from swearing like a sailor, but I don't do it in person, so I don't do it my strip either, to the point I censored Zay's more profane outbursts during his visit...) It also gives you a chance to highlight what is different and important about your culture. One of my influences in this area were Larry Niven's "Dream Park" novels, which are set in a post-megaquake California, a place where "drown" has replaced "fuck" as the common hard-core expletive of choice.

As for why the Mansion-folk use the words they do: Zark, Fratz, Phizz, Frizzlegarb.. OK, "phizz" just sounded like a good slang replacement for "shit", but with the others, there are plot-related reasons for their use, which hopefully will be revealed in time. One small clue: note who doesn't use these words as profanity. Out here in the so-called real world, "Zark" is one of my many homages to Douglas Adams, who used the word as profanity in his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books/radio shows/tv show/etc.

Then there's the references to The Brush, the Mansionverse diety. I honestly don't have all the fine details of Mansionverse religious life worked out, and some of what I do have is too spoilerish to post even here, but I will say this: "The Brush" is not viewed by Mansionites the same way as "God" is by Christans/Jews/Muslims, and saying that something is "unBrushed" is not literally the same thing as saying it is "Damned". (Although the general conversational intention is the same, which is why I use it.) If I stick to my current plot outline, a strip-reader will eventually be treated to The Origin Story, at least as it is told by Humans who live in the country where the Mansion is located, but that's a ways off yet.

And I now regret calling the character known in the strip as "God" by that name. If I were doing it all over (eep!), I would probably call him "The Lord".
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[Geoduck]