About forty years ago, I read Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead. It’s a powerful novel about soldiers in WWII, but what I chiefly remember about it is that the characters repeatedly use the euphemism “fug,” which was as frank as you could get get in the late 1940’s when it was published.
Assuming that this classic novel is still in print, do recent editions still employ the silly substitute or has it been replaced with the word that was meant?
The version on Amazon.com which is searchable still says “fug.” I’ll defer to others on whether recent printings still have it.
Thank you, Earl! It’s good to know that the book is still in print, though I’m surprised that Mailer, who died only a few years ago, didn’t update the prose in later editions.
I recall an anecdote where Mailer was introduced to a society matron as the author of “The Naked and the Dead.” She is reported to have said “Oh, you’re the gentleman who doesn’t know how to spell ‘fuck.’”
It was Tallulah Bankhead. It’s unclear whether or not the anecdote is true; Cecil says Mailer denied ever meeting Bankhead, while Mailer told Paul Krassner that it was true–although he may have done so only to claim to have delivered the comeback “Yes, and you’re the young woman who doesn’t know how to.”
Why would they bother? It’s how the book was written.
Actually, I wrote that report in 2003, not Cecil. Krassner wrote his comment in 2007. I’d say it’s still unclear who the woman was.
Because, Chuck, the euphemism is jarring and silly. It’s nudge-nudge-wink-wink.
You’re just trying to avoid fixing that whole Oamer thing.
Hey, fug you if you don’t like how I talk. Fug you straight to heck! 
Could you make that a fug in a rug? It’s freezing here.
I don’t believe it ever happened. Mailer accused Bankhead’s press agent of spreading the rumor and Bankhead also denied it, according to the biography Tallulah, Darling. I can’t find any origin for the quote, probably because nobody could have printed it at the time. (Not to mention that others credit it to Dorothy Parker, the fallback for all unsourced quips of the era.) The comeback quip is even sillier. Bankhead was 22 years older than Mailer. If he wanted to make a point at her expense, calling her an old women who didn’t know how to fuck would have been much crueler.
Tante Dillie, the idea of reprinting the book to “update” the language is even sillier than that. How many other books would you also have to do that to because they used euphemisms? The very use of fug tells you something about the time the book was written. It’s also represents a huge victory for Mailer over the bluenoses of the era that would be ruined if modernized. You haven’t read the book for 40 years. Why should you care if stupid people today would react stupidly to the original text?
Good point, Exapno Mapcase.