got-damn

[Paul Mackin]

On Dec 2, 2006, at 5:32 PM, Derek Milner wrote:

> Most of my relations in Arkansas use hot-damn instead of god-damn.  
> Stranger yet, my uncle Skeeter says something approaching "hot-toe- 
> mattie". I'm sure it puts a smile on god's face every time he does.
>
>
>> Both euphemistic and regional (in a space and time sense).  Any  
>> time and place the Bible rules, such euphemisms are employed.   
>> Back in the 1960's, even in the lefty, atheistic NYC circles I  
>> grew up in, the word "damn" was considered a little risque.  As it  
>> still is in Bible-thumping circles.
>>
>> Got-damn is kind of cute, in that you avoid saying "God" while  
>> letting the offensive "damn" slide.  A modern equivalent might be  
>> "fuckin' a."

Is WWII still thought of as modern? "Fucking a," short for "fucking  
ass,"  originated as far as I know during that war.  Later in the 60s  
when the word  "awesome" got to be  used as a synonym for "excellent"  
"fucking a" came to stand for "fucking awesome." In any case no  
euphemism is involved.



>> American English has lots of these euphemisms -- they definitely  
>> have a Western flavor (think Yosemite Sam):
>> "gol-darned," "drat," "dern," and "dag nab it" come to mind.  I  
>> read about some town, somewhere in the Bible Belt, that wanted to  
>> pass an ordinance making "Heaven-o" the official greeting.


Do you think "got-dam" in AtD is a euphemism?  Personally I can't   
imagine that hard-bitten frontier miners and their families of  a   
hundred years ago paid an once of attention to the second commandment  
against taking the name of  the Lord  in vain. Notwithstanding the  
fact that one town in AtD is said to  have more churches than  
saloons.  To me "got-damn" is merely the way their backwoods  
pronunciation of "god-damn" might sound to the literate types Pynchon  
is writing for.

In bye gone days euphemism sometimes played a part in publishing.  
Norman Mailer's 1947? The Naked and the Dead is an instructive  
example. Mailer  had his Pacific Theater infantrymen forever saying  
"fug  you" to  each other. The actual word was a no-no at the  time.  
However no reader assumed that 40s soldiers fighting it out in the  
South Pacific in 1944  pronounced "fuck" any differently from how  
their grandsons and granddaughters pronounce it in Iraq  in 2006.


>>
>> Laura
>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> >From: Ya Sam <takoitov@[omitted]>
>>> >Sent: Dec 2, 2006 12:29 PM
>>> >To: pynchon-l@[omitted]
>>> >Subject: got-damn
>>> >
>>> >One of the pet expressions of AtD characters. And again I don't  
>>> remember
>>> >reading it anywhere else. Is it some kind of euphimistic stuff  
>>> (not to say
>>> >'god-damn') or is it a more regional feature?
>>> >
>>> >_________________________________________________________________
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