What are you reading? — Page 5

Ass is not considered a cuss word when it is used to refer to a donkey.  Just like bitch is not a cuss word when used to refer to a female dog.

Also, this seems like the appropriate time to pull out an old favorite...

^^Can I laugh at this?  What kind of a fight?  I'm not a swearer, and I'm not a fan of others swearing either, but for one who got so offended by a book using the term appropriately, especially in contemporary British, you didn't seem to mind using what is definitely a potty word in American English.

Of course, the whole thing may have been meant as a joke, in which case, I'll just laugh at your witty humor instead of the irony.

Edit: Oops...Frink beat me to being the first reply.  Two carrots (^^) to signify two posts up.

darth_ender said:

I'm not a swearer, and I'm not a fan of others swearing either, but for one who got so offended by a book using the term appropriately, especially in contemporary British, you didn't seem to mind using what is definitely a potty word in American English.

Ha-ha, I totally missed that.  I guess because I don't even blink an eye at all these damn curse words.

lol, I think you missed the fact that C3PX was telling you first.

You can also help differentiate it by pronouncing it with a shorter 'a' sound.

* also, an ass is not a donkey.

Really?  Never heard that before.  Might be an Australian thing...here it's all about context.

And the fact that it's almost never used to describe the animal...

When we studied A Midsummer Night's Dream in primary school, we used to laugh at not only the character name of Bottom but the choice of abbreviation for Titania. 

We don't run into the same problem because the proper spelling of the curse word is "arse" and it's pronounced completely differently :p

Pennsylvania Jones said:

CP3S said:

Pennsylvania Jones said:

I'm not the biggest fan of the prince calling him an ass EVERY SINGLE TIME HE REFERS TO HIM!!!

I know! The Prince is such as jerk, how dare he call the animal what it is...

I have a funny feeling that if Puzzle was a duck, and the prince constantly referred to him as "duck" every single time, it wouldn't bother you in the slightest, would it?

Ass is considered a cuss word.  Duck isn't.  And neither is donkey.

This isn't going to turn into a fight, is it?  I'm not in the mood to start a forum war. >:(

C-3PS edited:

In other words, I assume your problem doesn't stem from the prince not taking the time to learn Puzzle's name, or his lack of creativity apparent by failing to call him a wider variety of names, but from the fact that in American English "ass" also happens to be a dirty word and you are uncomfortable with reading it in a children's book.

Yes, that is the problem.  And I don't want to get into a damn fight!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! I'm not picking any fights here! You can remove your hand from your sword hilt!

I think you need to know that:

Ass: A donkey

Arse: What you sit with

To the writer and his original audience, he was not using a cuss word or trying to be "cute" by using a word with a double meaning. I have heard far too many Americans complain about Lewis being a bit too vulgar at times, or roll their eyes at his sense of humor in disguising this dirty word to make it seem legit so he could have a good chuckle. You'll find the word "ass" in the KJV Bible too. What were the translators thinking!?!

They were thinking that an ass is an animal, and not only that, but the more commonly used name for that particular animal. Same thing Lewis was thinking when he wrote The Last Battle.

You can't blame either of them for the Americans trying to simplify things by decided that the two words (with two separate etymologies at that!) should be spelled exactly the same way, which, unsurprisingly caused people to eventually shy away from calling an ass an ass to avoid confusion with the mildly vulgar arse they turned into ass. So now it is called a donkey.

So, C. S. Lewis and other British children's author who have used that word in their books cannot be blamed for the crimes of the language butchers across the ocean.

doubleKO said:

You can also help differentiate it by pronouncing it with a shorter 'a' sound.

* also, an ass is not a donkey.

 On our side of the equator, zoologist will tell us ass and donkey are synonyms. What is an ass in the land of Oz?

My bad. I was talking out of my ass.

Pennsylvania Jones said:

TV's Frink said:

Here it's all about context.

And the fact that it's almost never used to describe the animal...

THAT'S EXACTLY MY POINT!!!  THANK YOU!!!

I meant in the US.  But we've already covered that ground...

Mule! That's what I was thinking of :P

darth_ender said:

What do you think of the Anderson/Herbert prequels?

Well, what did you think of the Star Wars prequels?

Honestly, I think it's a pretty good analogy, especially if you pretend that post-1983 Lucas is a cash-whore relative of pre-1983 Lucas, since that's all Brian Herbert is - a cash-whore relative of Frank that doesn't care about pissing all over his father's legacy with books that get worse and worse (and started out pretty terrible to begin with).  The less said about Anderson, the better.

Though I have not read his/Anderson's two-part sequel to Chapterhouse, but I've not heard anything good about it...

Why are you talking about books?  This thread is about ASSES AND MULES.

And Arses and Bottoms.

This thread.

Pennsylvania Jones said:

I appreciate your intent, and I appreciate the explanation.  I will "Remove my hand from my sword hilt."

Phew! That is good. I was afraid I was going to have to shoot you. ;)