The Art of Verbal Warfare

Description

'If you want to know why you swear, what counts as a potty mouth in other cultures, and why words can hurt more than sticks and stones, then this rampage of a book is for you: it will amuse, embarrass, provoke, enlighten and annoy the hell out of you about all forms of dirty language – and dirty politics.' - Simon Goldhill, Professor of Greek, University of Cambridge, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge and Foreign Secretary of the British Academy We use salty or artful language to win arguments, slander, cheat and bully, as well as to express feelings of joy or frustration and blow off steam. Rik Smits delves into the magic of oaths and profanity, art and advertising, probes the lure of fake-news and propaganda, and explores invective and off-colour jokes the world over. The Art of Verbal Warfare shows why conversation dies in crowded lifts, what drives you to curse at your laptop and what makes some political bigshots fall, but not others. This is, when all is said and done, the story of how we get through life without coming to physical blows. Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Preface 1: Verbal Bloody Warfare 2: Fire and Brimstone 3: I Put a Spell on You 4: The Queen’s Cunt 5: Taking Them Down a Peg or Two 6: The Trouble with Twitter: Why Social Media Are Hard to Handle 7: Infuxation and Other Miracles of Language 8: Effective Invective 9: Song and Dance and Games People Play 10: The Politics of Swearing 11: The Names of the Lord, the State and the Insecure 12: The Fifteen Laws of Propaganda 13: How to Win a War Epilogue: The Trouble with Rationality References Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements General Index Index of Names Index of Languages