Reasons & Realities 36

Unmentionable
     The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words doesn’t come close to saying something, but not actually saying something.

We’re not talking about subliminal messages and yet that term had to come from somewhere. We’re also not talking about MC Hammer’s “You Can’t Touch This,” but it does play a part and one of the reasons why it was and is so popular. Lest start with the word itself and some of its meanings. You can trust me when I say that these examples are only an extremely tiny scratch on a surface that extends as far and as wide as the imagination. Seriously, it is as far and wide as the imagination.
     According to merriam-webster.com; Unmentionable is one that is not to be mentioned or discussed. (Having a particular snake loving wizard flashbacks are we?) The site also mentioned (pun) that it is also; too offensive, shocking, or embarrassing to talk about or mention. Apparently as far as I am concerned, it means subjects that are to risqué according to the society in which you live. Take for instance the United Kingdom has what was commonly called (during my visit) the London Sun’s page three girl.
     Unfortunately, this would have a very hard time going over in the United States, but it’s very welcomed in Australia and several other countries. I know it’s hard to imagine, but it wasn’t so very long ago in the United States that showing a woman’s undergarment on television was considered soft pornography. However, today, (thank you very much and several marriages were saved) we have several world famous recording artists belting out some of their most beloved songs as lingerie models strut their stuff down the runway (Yes this is a shout out to Victoria’s Secrets so what!).But let us focus on mentioning unmentionables in our stories, or at lease playing around with the concept.
      This isn’t saying that genres like Adult Erotica or your favorite Steamy Romance Novel’s author isn’t giving you the good stuff and the band for your bucks (pun intended). However, I’m discussing a much tone down version and yet the lines in-between are extremely blurred. A great example of mentioning unmentionables is already explored in TV and in the movies. This is where everyone is being misled with one hand while the other is going buck wild (old term that simply mean getting out of hand). Let’s take for example the wizard of Oz (the original classic movie).
     There is a scene when Dorothy and friends are running through a field and the Wicked Witch is moving her hands over her crystal ball saying poppies over and over again. This is where education is important. The wicked witch is talking about Papaver somniferum (Poppy Plant) is where opium comes from. Opium is the source of many drugs, including morphine, thebaine, codeine, papaverine, noscapine, and heroin.  Oh, but let’s not forget how Dorothy was revised. SNOW! What’s a little cocaine reference between friends? It’s only a downer and upper joke. You can look up drug references in the cinema and shock yourself silly. Another example is Disney movies. Don’t worry, I’m not going to touch this one, but many people have and you can throw in Pixar, DreamWorks and (not surprisingly) Warner Brothers. Now let’s look at how we can mention the unmentionables when we enhance our story’s environment, characters, and the story itself. Environment is the easiest so let’s look at this one first.

Environment
     Environments such as the Red Light District, massage parlor, or some seedy strip club leaves very little to the imagination and is far from what you would consider unmentionables because the mere mention of each have direct association with adult entertainment. Words or ideas that can be considered along the lines of environmental unmentionables are references that are on the boarder like Joining the Mile High Club, Seeing a Man about a Horse, and going home for a little Afternoon Delight (or a Nooner). Others that are considered as having a dual meaning are steaming car windows, under the bleachers, and the nearest broom closet.
     Environmental unmentionables are not only some location or idea of what happens at a location directly or indirectly that some intimacy is or will take place, but also where things that happen that aren’t at all pleasant. Here are just a few that very little explanation is needed.  Locations like graveyard (cemetery), battlefield, slaughterhouse, death row, torcher chamber, chemical interrogation room, gas chamber, and a concentration camp. I know this isn’t clearly defined as a room full of adult entertainment devices, handing on the wall, but that is what this is about. Something that you know is there if you understand how to read between the lines. However when it comes to people, things get a bit more obvious.

Characters
     When it comes to referencing people to others of great note or infamy can explain much and hide a multiple of sins behind the curtain or deflect with a bit of sleight of hand (or word play). Calling someone a bit Malkavian or better still someone with Marquis de Sade tendencies can say much with very few words. i.e.;

     “Every Malkavian is in some fashion insane. Throughout history, the Malkavians have been the seers and oracles of the Kindred, bound by strange compulsions and insight. However in the case of Donatien Alphonse François (Marquis de Sade), he was a French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer, famous for his libertine sexuality. Basically, he was an extremely accomplished male whore.”

     In other words, the term about locking up your wives and daughters should’ve just said all females. Comparing a playboy to the Marquis de Sade is like comparing having a one inch piece of thread on one side of a room and a shipload of catnip on the other with a caged cat sitting in between. We both know what’s going to happen to anything between the cat and the catnip. The other end of the spectrum isn’t as interesting, but far from less than substantial. In this area, there are physical clues that help describe the unmentionable. i.e.;
     He always smells of blood and yet he’s not a doctor.
     Her best friends says he lights up a room and yet it is hard to remember what he looks likes after you look below his belt buckle.
     The old joke about feeding more than one baby at a time and ten more after was an understatement.
     She’s like a long tail cat in a glass shop. If she doesn’t get control of it very soon, she’s going to kill someone.
     From the first day she had come to town, there’s been a shortage of neck braces.
     Tell your friend to keep his shirt on. The last time he took it off… I’m telling you they were dropping like flies around an industrial strength bug zapper.
     I’ve seen less panties being thrown on stage at a rock concert, then the numbers that drops when he smiles. This can go on and on, but let’s move directly into storylines based on unmentionables.

The Story
     Expressions of emotion or characters’ behavior or character’s misbehavior, and physical descriptions are one thing, but basing an entire story about something that can’t be mentioned is a bit more trickery.  Actually it isn’t. Most thrillers, or crime mysteries are based on the premise of something that is not mentioned. Movie like “The Crying Game & The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” just to name a few. To me these were definitely topics that are not openly discussed and yet compellingly similar.  I don’t know how The Crying Game would’ve done in book form, but the author of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson is working on his fourth installment of the book series.  Story lines that are based on an unmentionable topic aren’t always on the darker side of the human equation. There are ones that are for younger audiences and those who are young at heart. Take for instance “The Polar Express by author Chris Van Allsburg & Twas The Night Before Christmas by author Clement Clarke Moore (originally pinned A Visit from St. Nicholas).” Both became wonderful film adaptations and had story lines that had a penalty of a lump of coal in your Christmas’ stocking for snitching.  And thanks to J.K. Rowling, we will forever more know exactly he who should not be named, name we should not mention.

     Mentioning the unmentionables is closely tied to what you wish to say clearly next to what you wish to have your audience use their imaginations to conjure up their own ideas or personal experiences of their own making.  Just try to remember that your readers don’t necessarily need complete clarity when they have minds of their own that are perfectly capable of drawing their own conclusions, so you can manipulate them to give them the experience they truly deserve and had earned. Trust your readers and they’ll trust you’re not wasting their time. SD Tracy Harper

Illustration; www.www.thecommunicationsstrategist.com.com

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