Whatever the artistic merits or demerits of adding swearwords to a radio treatment of Wuthering Heights (Radio review, 27 March), it is only making concrete what is alluded to very clearly in the book itself ? as I explain in my book, Filthy English. Here is Heathcliff speaking. "'And you, you worthless ----' he broke out as I entered, turning to his daughter-in-law, and employing an epithet as harmless as duck, or sheep, but generally represented by a dash." It's not really at all ambiguous, is it? Duck = fuck. Sheep = shit. And again: "'You'd better open the door, you ----' he answered, addressing me by some elegant term that I don't care to repeat." What rhymes with "elegant"? The word that the Guardian prints more readily than any other newspaper in the world? And which induces slips of the tongue when James Naughtie et al introduce the culture secretary?
Peter Silverton
London
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/04/wuthering-heights-swearwords-radio
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