Beyond Reality discussion

Over the holidays, while visiting my mother, she mentioned that she's reading Fahrenheit 451 — she's on a classics kick and apparently the book qualifies because it's had a 50th anniversary edition published.

She also mentioned that apparently, over time, representatives of the publisher had removed the curse words and other sections, because there were so many purchases from schools. (You can read about this here.)

That reminded me of how, when I was just starting to get into reading SF (I was 10-12 - Star Trek was my gateway drug), I would come across stories where the text said "unprintable" where normally there would be a swear word. And being young and naïve, it was a long time before it dawned on me that the character wasn't actually saying "unprintable" but was in fact swearing.

A little googling has informed me that Hemingway did this in For Whom the Bell Tolls. But I doubt that's where I first came across it, because I'm fairly sure that I still haven't read that. TV Tropes (see endnote) has informed me that Asimov also did this.

My boyfriend reminded me that in at least the first volume of The Chronicles of Amber there are long dashes (—— ——) instead of swear words. Can anyone think of other similar examples?

I'm specifically not asking for examples of the Unusual Euphemism (e.g., frell and frack) that's used to get crap past the radar, which is very common in YA SF and fantasy.

I've stolen this thread title from TV Tropes, because that's what it's for, right? Giving us a common vocabulary? >.>

I can't think of one offhand, but I have to mention quickly that the Unusual Euphemism is one of my pet peeves. It actually ruins my enjoyment of a book when I encounter one of them.

%&$^%!!

What Jim said! I don't think I've ever seen 'unprintable' or dashes used, but lots of *&*$#%!

Sorry for the necro, and the necro with an old link to boot ... but I stumbled across this and thought it might be interesting.

The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife. And that the editors at Ballantine didn't see that irony (censoring Fahrenheit 451) is also disturbing.