To Use Profanities On A Work Title Or Not?

There is a work to be published at some point in the near future. The title of the work includes a very common profanity (the "F word" to be more specific). It was conceived as such in 2004 and since then it grew and it still holds the same meaning for me...

So the question:

Should I go ahead and officially publish the work under the same name (My f***ing life) or should I abbreviate it as "MFL" instead?

Definitely use it. It wouldn't have the same effect without it.

Who are you expecting to perform/buy it?

If the word in question might be appropriate for them and their audiences, go for it.

Here's Louis CK's take on it.... even if you abbreviate or censor it, it's still there ;)

No. If I saw that, I'd shake my head and blacklist that composer from future purchases. That's how I roll.

Hearing that from Tokke, I can safely say that I will definitely do this in the future.

I would say "No" for various reasons.

I don't see why you shouldn't do it, if you feel it's the appropriate title. You're probably worried that it might offend people, but frankly if you look at the history of classical music the last 70 years, there's not really much left to do to offend people. Sure the audience who don't listen to new music would find it strange, but I don't think you'd run into problems at all with a contemporary-friendly audience.

The fact that a separated audience of "normal people" and "contemporary-music listeners" would limit the piece's scope by default if your theory was correct. Not a good idea.

The fact that a separated audience of "normal people" and "contemporary-music listeners" would limit the piece's scope by default if your theory was correct. Not a good idea.

I remember hearing some of his pieces, and from that I guessed this piece would be in a modernistic genre. It's not that normal people would dismiss the piece simply because the f word is in the title, I think prudish people would do that. My point was that, I find it very unlikely that people with an interest in contemporary art would dismiss it because of the title. And since I think they are also the most likely audience, I think he should base his decision on how they would receive it.

All everyone here being stupid, opinionated, and stupidly opinionated aside, can't you just leave it in and let the publisher censor it if (s)he wants to?

I'm sure you thought of putting it in for some specific reason, so it'll be lacking without it, obviously; and anyway, unless your goal is to get rich quick so you can make it rain in the strip clubs, I wouldn't be interested in the opinion of some snotty fool who's monocle falls off in shock at a common enough profanity, in the title of something, that's almost certainly not unprecedented.

It rather depends on how necessary it is. If the profanity is an integral part of the expression of the piece then it should be maintained. But with anything like this you run the risk of people simply rolling their eyes and dismissing you as being deliberately controversial just for the sake of it without first investigating the artefact.

Whith this title in mind it sound like you do not really care whether it offends people or not. As an artists expression I would keep it the way it is. BTW, MFL (which is close to #fml) is clear enough it contains the f-word, so. You can't hide it, then dont :)

I always felt that this particular kind of censorship has been a rather odd US fetish. Beeping over it only popularizes its use.

well, I would love to see an audience of snobby rich people sitting down, after hearing something like Mozart Symphony 41 and then hearing that title XD I think people would be more hesitant to perform it, I mean, imagine someone saying "and here's My F***ing life" to a live audience. it all depends on who your audience is. In this case, I think you make it very clear on who will listen to this

Well, rapers swear a lot in their texts but I would not really use such cursing in the title.

Be really different and publish it in transliterated Sanskrit or something equally exotic. Then when people realize what it's supposed to be, they will be all, "ooh, that was a clever way around censorship."

I don't know, it seems a little self-centered and whiny, don't you think? Most people would read your life into the weird sounds regardless of the title (I'm assuming it would have weird sounds) because that's what people tend to do.