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Ch. 7 - The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television

#43: Jan. - Mar. 2008 (Non-Fiction)
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Chris OConnor

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Ch. 7 - The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television

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Ch. 7 - The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television

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This was another good chapter. You know, had Pinker reordered the chapters, with the most dense chapters coming last, more people would have read a significant portion of the book.

I was impressed with how deftly Pinker discuss profanity without being excessively profane. It was a well written.

A few ideas stood out. As society has become less religious, curse words have switched from religious concepts to sex & filth. Swearing is connected to a deeper, more primitive, part of the brain than ordinary conversation.

Plus, there was a delightful discussion of one significant word.
The anthropologist Ashley Montagu referred to fuck as "a transitive verb for the most transitive of human activities," and therein lies a tale."
As Pinker explains, the transitive variations of that word are all rather nasty, while the intransitive versions, such as make love, are much more kind.
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