I have no idea why anyone thinks swearing betrays a lack of imagination

[very_improbable]

1) If it were 1929, and you were British, and you wanted to call someone a fuckup, what would you actually say?

2) If you were Harriet Vane, and you wanted to say "piss off", what would you actually say?

(Neither of these answers has to be DELICATE language, as though grown-up people who work in the liberal arts and live together in highly irregular fashion would never actually use a bad word in each other's presence whatever the era--they just have to belong to the proper, you know, idiom.)

Comments

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

1) Erm. May have to think about this. What _exactly_ is being implied by fuckup in the circs? (If it's HV to PB, then it's going to be quite different from PB to HV - in the latter case, I can imagine a variant on frigid, repressed, bourgeoise etc.)

2) Definitely "Go to Hell"!

::restrains intrigue and damn well goes to bed::

Basically, PB is an asshole.

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

1) Hm, this may be one of those things that are more of an Americanism than I realized. So by fuckup I mean, like, a loser, sort of? But with less slacker-like connotations. Like, a guy with issues who can't get his life together.

Like,

"You know what happens to girls like you?"

"I've been told in great detail, sometimes by total strangers."

"I mean the crime fans. Who find themselves a nice misunderstood little convict and resolve to take care of him."

"I'm not a crime fan, Phil, I'm a newspaper columnist. I'd like to hear you say that to a man."

"It's not that you're a woman, darling, it's just that you're you. You're awfully susceptible to clever men. It's your main weakness. Put you with a witty man who's a bit of a [fuckup] and you can be talked into anything."

"Do you think so."

"Look who you live with, kid."

Re: Basically, PB is an asshole.

[msbunburyist.livejournal.com]

He sure is an asshole! But that's canon, gotta love it :D

Re: Basically, PB is an asshole.

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

Writing Asshole!Boyes is like: Fill barrel with fish, commence target practice. The hard part is letting them have conversations that wouldn't end with Harriet saying "Go fuck yourself" if it were 2007. :)

Re: Basically, PB is an asshole.

[cesario.livejournal.com]

*loves the dialogue*

also, I'm suggesting "cock up" and "bugger off", although the latter might be less virulent than you want.

Re: Basically, PB is an asshole.

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

Ooh, would they say "bugger off"? I think I may like "Go to hell" better but it's nice to have the option.

(I'm still annoyed at the 1920s for not having invented the word "groupie" yet. --Oh, hell, maybe they didn't even say FAN. *checks* No, it's all right. Whew.)

Re: Basically, PB is an asshole.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I don't think there was a word for "loser" in that sense, back then. I mean, there was the expression "lame duck" but I'm not entirely sure even Boyes could apply it to Peter, who is, presumably, merely mentally fucked-up, not socially?

I suppose, if he wanted to be really horrible, he could say she was susceptible to "witty men who are NYDN" (which stood for "Not Yet Diagnosed Nervous" and was used on medial reports in the War to refer to soldiers who were suspected fo being shell-shocked).

Re: Basically, PB is an asshole.

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

I suppose, if he wanted to be really horrible, he could say she was susceptible to "witty men who are NYDN" (which stood for "Not Yet Diagnosed Nervous" and was used on medial reports in the War to refer to soldiers who were suspected fo being shell-shocked).

Whether I can make use of it in this context or not, I am absolutely delighted to learn that piece of vocabulary.

Re: Basically, PB is an asshole.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

It's lovely, isn't it? So redolent of WW1 "lions led by donkeys" stupidity.

By the way, I meant to say that I, too, really enjoyed the snippet and am delighted that the AU is continuing apace.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

A bit of a "pity case"? If I had Pat Barker's Regeneration Trilogy to hand, I bet there's be _loads_ of options.

"Cock up" suggested is period, but is applied only to events/things, and not to people, so doesn't really work.

[very-improbable.livejournal.com]

Also a wonderful term! Although it may not work if one is saying it of oneself by implication. Stupid 1920s London, not having direct equivalents for the slang of my people! (I actually have this problem constantly when I try to write historical fiction. It's a little embarrassing.)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

It's the also saying if of himself bit that makes it tricky. I can't think of a single phrase that works in the way fuckup would, but a more descriptive option might, the sort of "a witty man [doing a lost puppy act] and you can be talked into anything."