The Outlandish Companion - Diana Gabaldon [220]
It’s not, though. Human beings being what they are, an interest in sex is hardwired into the genetic machinery, and thus lies behind a great deal of human behavior, whether it’s explicitly recognized or not.2
Given that one level of the novels is devoted to an exploration of the nature of love and marriage, it seems to me that some reference to sex is likely desirable. That is, there may possibly have been devoted asexual marriages in history, but that isn’t how it usually works. And if one is interested in what does work between two people, I think that the sexual aspects of their relationship are certainly a legitimate concern.
While I’m happy to hear that these readers think so highly of my efforts otherwise, I really do think the scenes involving sex are a necessity to this particular story, whatever one feels the requirements of Great Literature to be.
To avoid giving a false impression, I should perhaps emphasize here that I get a very small number of controversial letters, overall. So far as I can recall, I’ve had perhaps three (out of ten thousand or so) objecting to the sexual content. On the other hand, I’ve had roughly three hundred letters asking for more sexual content—but not being either a television network or a politician, I’m afraid I don’t respond to preference polls.
FOUL LANGUAGE—“THE F-WORD”
After wife-beating (see p. 401), the most common objection I encounter among letter writers (roughly twenty letters, so far) is to “foul language,” or blasphemy—”taking the Lord’s name in vain,” as my correspondents put it, though in fact they are often concerned with language that is merely vulgar, rather than truly profane.3
A nice woman in her seventies (I know how old she was, because she announced that she had been born in 1925) came up to me at a signing once, and after the usual sort of conversation, in which she said how much she enjoyed all the books, confided that she had been just a little disappointed in Drums, because of my use of “the F-word.”
I didn’t point out that I had used the same word in Outlander, Dragonfly, and Voyager, where it evidently hadn’t troubled her in the least. I did, however, say that I felt the use of that particular word was appropriate in the spot where I used it—i.e., that a young man of Roger Wakefield’s age and background, in the late 1960s, would have been inclined to use that expression in the particularly stressful situation in which he found himself [Drums, chapter 18, “Unseemly Lust”].
The lady frowned and said that she had been born in 1925, and she never used such language. I bit the inside of my mouth and politely replied that I’d been born in 1952, and I didn’t use that sort of language, either—but Roger does.
In point of fact, as the result of a conservative upbringing, and an early education acquired in a Catholic elementary school, I am completely unable to swear. I might say “Damn!” under extreme provocation, but the F-word has never passed my lips in public hearing. It’s therefore quite a relief that Claire has no such inhibitions.
The F-word, however, was not (so far as I can ascertain) nearly so popular in the time in which Claire acquired her habitual colorful expressions as it is now. So while she is given to casual blasphemy “Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!”), she tends not to employ the F-word often (though she does use it now and then, under stress).
NB: The following is a representative sample of the sort of correspondence I sometimes get on this subject.4
From: Doug Toole
To: 76530.523@compuserve.com Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 18:22:41 EDT Subject: commendation & word question
Dear Diana
The Outlander series is great. I have listened to and read the series several times and find it difficult to