Quote reblogged from novaya zemlya with 145 notes
The semicolon is the most human of punctuation marks, precisely because it’s inherently ambiguous and complicated: it can join two independent clauses that don’t relate, or two independent clauses that closely relate. Its very use is a signifier of the complexity of human thought, of our knack for making connections, right or wrong, between ideas and impressions. It’s messy but it’s democratic. (Probably why Cormac McCarthy hates it.) Sure, it interrupts the rhythm sometimes, but human consciousness doesn’t always unfold with flawless cadence; it’s a reminder that we’re not always as clever as we think we are. The semicolon also occupies a place of tremendous peril because it’s not as terminal as the period, which is the universal sign of THE END, nor is it the mere slight breath of a comma, a piece of punctuation that provides only the merest of interruptions, and almost seems to be saying, ‘carry on.’ In this respect, the semicolon occupies an area somewhere between the living and the dead; its suggestion of finality, like a brush with death, will get you to pay attention to what follows a little more closely than if a mere comma were standing in your way.
Jonathan Evans, in an email to Lisa Lutz (via davidmanque)
I blame the popular sentiment against semicolons, like I blame so many other contemporary literary ills, on Ernest Hemingway. Who would have thought that so many generations of writers would balk at any kind of stylistic evolution away from terse reportage? I wonder, had he lived to see it, if he would have had a similar reaction to Alan Moore, post-Watchmen, where he basically apologized for making comics gritty and miserable for a few decades (LOOKING AT YOU, FRANK MILLER). Like, “Hey guys, was I naive to think you would all kind of, you know, do your own thing, writing-wise?”* And then go back to being smug and beardy and eventually withdrawing into crotchety irrelevance/h8erizm/a cave, also like Alan Moore.**
I would add something further about the merits of semicolons, but the quotation really sums up their exquisite nuance better than I ever could. I will say, however, that strictures against their use are completely nonsensical. But then, I am from the school of thought that thinks, with regard to style, you can do whatever you want as long as you do it judiciously. I also have been known to wear black and navy blue together, but SO DID PATRICK MCGOOHAN ON THE PRISONER, AND HE LOOKED FLY AS HELL. It doesn’t take a genius to extrapolate that I also think What Not to Wear is a stupid show with a borderline-pernicious premise.***
*Of course it is telling of my own writing sensibilities that my Fauxmingway sounds like a mad casual, comma-lover, but you try growing up in the San Fernando Valley and majoring in Classics, and just see if it doesn’t rub off on you. COLLOQUIALISMS & SUBORDINATE CLAUSES 4 LYFE.
**I like some of Alan Moore’s work, but I think Watchmen is pretty dated and heavy-handed, and also Alan Moore says that nothing good or original is happening in comics right now, which means he obviously doesn’t have a clue about anything, because GRANT MORRISON, if nothing else (and there is a lot of else!).
***In general, I hate the lowest common denominator approach to style and creativity, which emphasizes rules over the more difficult, but infinitely more rewarding, method of seeking out the sometimes intangible “it” factor that makes things (books! outfits! music! etc.!) work even when it doesn’t seem like they should. It’s a sloppy learning curve, but at least it doesn’t produce armies of clones.
Source: davidmanque
Quote reblogged from Love & Radiation with 93 notes
My sense is that it has a lot more to do with the ways that someone is naturally charming. You know, so if you fall in love with somebody and they’re leaving town and you have two days to somehow change their mind, in that kind of life or death situation you bring forth certain traits of your personality. In my case, I would be telling jokes and I would be talking fast and I would be trying real hard to anticipate her reason for leaving and undercut them in a real energetic way. Those are all things that I would do in prose as well. I would definitely try to anticipate the reader’s objection to the story and build in a defense. I would try to be funny; I would try to be fast. So for me, the big breakthrough moment for me, was when I said to myself, ‘The reader is a person who you need to charm. You better bring your good shit. Because they don’t have time to wait around for you to work through your Hemingway phase.’
George Saunders on Bad Writing (the concept as well as the documentary). (via meaghano) (via love-and-radiation)
“Because they don’t have time to wait around for you to work through your Hemingway phase.” Truer words were ne’er spoken.
Source: meaghano
Now look here. I want to buy back my leg. How much will it cost?
Quote reblogged from 1001 rules for my unborn son with 231 notes
Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
Stephen King (via rulesformyunbornson)
This just in: Stephen King has no fucking clue how to use a thesaurus.
Really, Stephen King, because sometimes a word that I can’t recall is on the tip of my brain, but I can recall a related, albeit inferior and less accurate in the context I want to use it, word, and I turn to a thesaurus to find the exact word I’m looking for, confirm via the dictionary and my generally better-than-average knowledge of etymology to make sure it is the exact word I want to convey what I want to say, that means the word I chose is the wrong word? REALLY?!
That’s like saying that if you can’t walk somewhere, it’s too far away. A thesaurus, used properly is a treasure, Stephen King—-A GODDAMN TREASURE.
And don’t even get me started on “no exceptions.”
Jesus.
Source: rulesformyunbornson
