As a youthful fan of WFB back in the 1970s, I used to revel in the witticisms and gibes he deployed in Notes & Asides (N&A) — a section of this magazine suspended shortly after his retirement in 2005. I was reminded of its sardonic tone when, passing through my library, I noticed the book Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription: Notes & Asides from National Review (2007), by a certain William F. Buckley Jr. What an unexpected title from a pious Catholic.
But then, in a 1969 N&A comment, WFB had defended his a-religious use of goddam: “I am not really blaspheming, or in any case, do not mean to be blaspheming, blaspheming being one of those things I am against.” He called goddam “a general exclamation used as an intensive.” When a Presbyterian minister pushed back, calling the usage a transgression, WFB stood firm: “The meaning of words is established by their usage, which would suggest that blasphemy is defined by that which is intended, rather than by that which is spoken, at least in such cases as permit of ambiguity. In such cases, one should invoke the transcendent virtue: Charity shall cover the multitude of sins.”
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