JB Pritzker says what the Sun-Times can't

 

     One of the countless anecdotes regarding my hero, Samuel Johnson, is about a lady complimenting him for leaving out "bad, low and despicable words" when compiling his great 1755 dictionary.
     "No, Madam, I hope I have not daubed my fingers," he replied, as if including dirty words would actually soil his hands. But being Johnson, he had to add, "I find, however, that you have been looking for them."
     No crime there. While most adults don't search for swears, we do notice them — that's one reason they're used, as intensifiers, to draw attention, language's yellow highlighter. Consider a headline in Monday's Sun-Times, "PRITZKER TELLS TRUMP TO 'F- - - ALL THE WAY OFF' IN VIRAL VIDEO."
     If only more people did that.
     This might be a good moment to register my personal objection to those dashes. Who are they supposed to protect? If you know the word — and pretty much anyone who can read knows this one — you automatically fill it in yourself. Perhaps some would swoon to see those last three letters in print. But they'd get over it.
     We could help them. Obscenity shocks, some folks, anyway, because it's rare. If we used such words more, they would become less objectionable, the way gay people rehabilitated the slur "queer." Gov. JB Pritzker can say the word, but the Sun-Times won't print it undisguised — don't blame me, I'd do so in a heartbeat. But as I sometimes tell readers: I follow our style; I don't set it.
     Not every institution is so inhibited. The University of Chicago has a stellar reputation, one not particularly associated with lewdness. Yet parents of prospective freshmen visiting the school were once treated to linguist Jason Riggle's class on obscenity. With projected charts tracking the frequency of specific obscenities. In Rockefeller Chapel. No one complained. Nor did Pritzker's word choice cause a stir.
     "We've gotten more used to politicians intentionally breaking these rules to convey extra strong feelings," Riggle said. "We totally expect that. It tends to convey authenticity because you're breaking politeness norms — you can't be held to them because you're so upset."
     Swearing is an expected transgression.
     "It's not that unusual, but it is unusual — that's kind of the whole point," Riggle said.
     The surprising part of this episode is how little "pearl clutching" there was afterward.
     "I had to go looking for it," Riggle said. "The fact that this didn't cause more of an uproar is fascinating. That he was talking to teachers adds an extra meta level."
     The University of Chicago has a long history of frankly studying obscenity — well, as frankly as they could. In 1934, U. of C. professor Allen Walker Read published a 15-page academic paper called "An Obscenity Symbol" without ever specifying the word he defends, arguing it is not the natural physical act that makes such words objectionable, but our reaction: "Thus it is the existence of a ban or taboo that creates the obscenity where none existed before."

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