This is actually something we thought long and hard about with respect to Debris Dreams, as witnessed by this earlier post on the subject. The second draft we looked at was chock-full of some very vulgar language. But it was also very appropriate: It’s just inaccurate to have teens who never use bad language, especially when they’ve been drafted into a war and are expected to be Military Folk, in a bad and stressful situation. But at the same time, too much swearing results in a lot of readers – mostly parents and some librarians – bringing the hammer down on a book as inappropriate. Where’s the line?
In the case of Debris Dreams, we drew our own line, basically allowing some low-level English vulgarities and restricting the rampant cussing to Mandarin and a smattering of Swahili. It’s appropriate within the context of the book – the characters primarily speak Mandarin and a touch of Cantonese, with English and Swahili slang and technical terms thrown in – and it also makes it slightly less likely to trigger a “protect the children’s delicate ears!” impulse. Which we wanted to do, because, frankly, there’s a LOT of other points in this book that censorious individuals are not going to be terribly happy about. We’d rather have people focusing on the actual issues present than on swearing.
Thoughts? Do you think it’s inappropriate or inaccurate to have teens swearing in books ostensibly meant for teen audiences? Is there some good middle ground, where teen characters use natural language and some mild cusses, but rampant swearing and the “big offenders” are edited out?