Why "Jesus" ... ? - "Oh my Flying Spaghetti Monster!" would do too 😉

As a Catholic Christian, and Collector at Sunday Mass, I think its safe to say that I know a thing or two about using "Jesus" as a swear word. Its conditioned into me at this stage. But I agree that Religion in the PC seems to be very different to what I see as the norm in my location.

Caius Takar was trying to make himself a "God King" type figure. It might actually make since for PC people to swear with "Caius!"

Or like Elm@r said "Natan"

In saying that, I'm cool with it if in EP.14 some PC character says "Jesus" and someone replies "Learn that from Nash?"

Its been said that the people of Earth have a great wealth of expression in the word "Fuck". We do say both swear words quite a lot, so I'm Ok with PC people picking them up and running with them.

This was a very difficult decision for me to make, to be honest. I agree that you can't help but wonder if such words would survive 1400 years into the future. I had to do a lot of research in order to make this decision.

First, I think we can all agree that any of the world's major religions that have been around for more than a thousand years will still be running strong. So it is doubtful that the word would lose any of it's meaning. However, when I use it, (personally) it has no religious context. It is simply a word, like "wow" or "man". In that sense, I don't see why it would go away, even if the religion that spawned it disappeared from the culture using the word.

Second, in the Frontiers Saga, English became the common language of the Sol sector. (It is currently the standard language for aviation communications, and it just spread from there.) Although many different languages were spoken as primary language from region to region, everyone learned English. (Just as they do in many countries today.) This serves to further the commonality of such expressions. Now, in regions were a distant, separated colony had no contact with others, and spoke a different language as their primary, it is unlikely that such expressions would survive. Hence you will notice that in the earlier episodes, only a few people, used such words freely.

Third, the PC members of the Alliance, having to learn English (in many cases already knowing Angla and simply having to brush up) would quickly pickup and begin to use such expressions after being around people from Earth.

However, none of the above mentioned reasons were enough. What it really boiled down to was that in order to tell a story that modern day English speakers can understand and 'get into', you have to use expressions that clearly convey the emotion and meanings intended. If I had substituted some other expression, most readers would have 'tripped' over the word, causing them to fall out of the story. Granted, they might have gotten used to the expression over time, but the 'made up' word would never carry the same impact with the reader. That is the real reason I chose to use such modern expressions in my dialog.

Of course, there has to be limits. The term has to be widely in use and must have been so for at least a hundred years so as not to be too 'trendy'. For example, if you ever read someone in the Saga saying "Word up, dude," please slap me... hard.

In any language, words that prevail across centuries quite often either lose the original meaning or are transformed or remain with the original use but it might happen that where, when or how it appeared in the common use vocabulary is lost forever.
I did not like "Jesus" as an expression but grant Ryk kudos for his approach. Why? In Star Wars (I know) there are not such expressions but that story happens where humans have no knowledge of Earth or Christianity. But the Frontiers Saga is based on Earth, Terrans, their colonies and their heritage. Cetian, for example, is a language similar to or derived from Spanish and French, and their current speakers are predominantly Catholic/Christian so it is quite likely that in the future the expresion "Jesus" lasted over a millenium. I have no idea if other languages in the Saga would derive from India or Tibet or China or the Pacific Islands and if those languages have similar references to their deities or profets or messiah or what they pray to.
Tannans seem to have kept reverence to Viking Gods (Loki)... Which have no living, official religion or cult nowadays. How could that have happened?
If we were so strict with these expressions, we should have complained as well that the battles in Takaran space should have been written in Takar, not Angla, let alone English.
Everything in the plot has to be in an understandable form as a convention for both the writer and the readers.

I understand translations but "Jesus" as a way of expressing shock is a little culture specific... I still hope for a scene in a movie where the big named star exclaims "Jesus" and the Brazilian nearby turns to him and says "Yes?"

I understand translations but “Jesus” as a way of expressing shock is a little culture specific… I still hope for a scene in a movie where the big named star exclaims “Jesus” and the Brazilian nearby turns to him and says “Yes?”

LOL!
Actually, no. In Spanish and Portuguese there is also such expression: "¡Jesús!" and guys with that name are used to it. They'd never reply...

Page 244, Casimir says: "Quiet as a dongarro"... What the heck is a dongarro?
Page 371, Erbe says: "You should have let me kill the little bezatte."... Traitor? Stupid? Motherf****r? Whatever it means, that word does not ring... yes, it does mean something disparaging, I get that, but it does not sound as strong as the word in English.
A Takaran officer saying "Whoa" (page 241)? I don't think so. That is a very culture-specific expression from English-speakers...

See? Ryk tried, but there is no perfect approach to this.

Glad this is all well planed through and not thoughtless overused.
The part of people from Pentaurus picking it up through language training makes sense. Did not consider that.

About the Page 244 and 371 moments Demian mentioned. I like those little foreign elements. They make it interesting to my point of view and for my part give it more room for imagination.

As well, ... as 'Four Islands' said “Caius!” as a swear word would be kind of funny. Like when a Corinarian pilot would be complaining that the CAG or Master of the Boat is being to much of a control freak in a certain situation. Although, they might have been to well trained and disciplined for that on the other hand.

I must admit that I, as a non-native speaker of English, stumbled over the use of "Jesus!", too. Of course, I *know* that it's an exclamation and not necessarily used by actual Christians. (Thou shalt not speak the name of God in vain" or something like this. Sorry, I suck at quoting scripture.)

Still, I'd have expected either a slight difference ("Geez!"), a remark about someone having it picked up from Jessica or another Terran, or even using Vlad's usual Russian expletives. I certainly enjoy the little comments along those lines.

"Nice shooting, Tex!" - "Who's Tex?" - "I don't know, probably a friend of Lt. Commander Nash. She always says that." (Josh and Loki; errors/misquotes by me)

It's dialoges like this that make the people from the PC feel more real because it shows that, despite them being humans, they're from a radically different cultural background

Since the Takarans are descendants of the Cetians, who speak a mixture of Spanish and French, I'd expect them to use something akin to "Madre de Dios" or "Mon Dieu" - maybe mix the languages a little? Or maybe use "Madre de Caius!" /shot

Page 371, Erbe says: “You should have let me kill the little bezatte.”… Traitor? Stupid? Motherf****r? Whatever it means, that word does not ring… yes, it does mean something disparaging, I get that, but it does not sound as strong as the word in English.

Things like these don't really bother me all that much. Sure, I went all "What the heck is a bezatte?" - but when no explanation was given, I made up my own mind about it. The bezatte reminded me of either a rat or a dung beetle - rather small and either nasty or, well, detestable.

To me the term "Great Maker" might be better.I was born in a catholic family and all the things followed to be a true catholic.Now i believe we are all connected we are all one and the universe gives itself to understand why it is here.Yes i'm thinking the universe is more then just a place,you can call it god or science.To me i'm living here in this plain.So when people say "Jesus or Oh my God."I take no offence,because in the end we all die alone and face another plain,be it heaven or energy and a collective of Knowledge of the universe.I am here to gather my life story for something greater,be it good or ill.

“Madre de Caius!”

That's so Funny.

Ryk, if you would start a threat like "Fan-Fiction collection of Futuristic swearing/cursing.", with an approximate guideline, like
a.) that it has to be a mix of two languages, or
b.) mix of Takaran/Corinan/ ... already used in the books

With one or two examples:
Spanish/Takaran: "Madre de Caius!"
/.../

... than I bet you get some cool stuff to use from native speakers around the world.

Battlestar Galactica did that with they word "FRAK". So it is possible to make up a word and make it not "trip" the reader over.

On other hand I'm not a native english speaker and I often exclaim "Jesus!" when shocked, it's just everywhere in movies/books and is very catchy- so there's that.