Further BBC downgrading
24 March 2011
It seems that swearing is the politically correct version of modern parlance – at least the BBC has introduced swearing into Emily Brontë’s classic novel Wuthering Heights.
It has been adapted by BBC Radio 3 to include foul language.
Playwright and theatre director Jonathan Holloway defended his adaptation of the 1847 classic: “The f-words are part of my attempt to shift the production to left of field, and to help capture the shock that was associated with the original book when it was published.” One problem is that f-words do not shock modern society anyway and swearing is par for the course.
However there is something unsavoury in putting such words into another author’s works. If our society turned muslim, would we re-write classic works to put islamic words and concepts into them? It is historically anachronistic, transplanting our standards, attitudes and language into a former age. This abuse of the original is simply an extension of current revisionist attitudes - revisionist history, revisionist religion, revisionist sanitising of islamic religion and homosexual practices.
The desensitising effect of religious swear words is not sufficiently recognised by our society, and it appears that few people in public life trouble themselves to correct it, far less general swearing. However there is a growing number of complaints to Ofcom, the communications regulator, about the use of foul language on TV and radio.
The Lord Jesus Christ taught that a person’s moral character is demonstrated by their words. “By your words you shalt be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.” Matthew 12:37.
