To punctuate or not ? What is in a style ?
I have read “The Road" by Cormac Mccarthy some time ago and I was blown away.
The man writes southern gothic novels, not my cup of tea, period. I make no secret of the fact that I started reading his work with a preset state of mind. I have a very square literary education and I thought I am too old to expand my horizon but I was wrong , his work took me by surprise .I read The Road with great delight from one end to the other and not only once. I was amazed at the effect the style he employed produced. Each word was emphasized throughout, receiving weight through no breathing pauses usually achieved by strategically placed commas and periods. Mccarthy uses an unexpected and surprisingly rough style of writing by often neglecting basic editing musts. The story lacks typical dialogue styles. Conversations, by missing the traditional quotation marks become a mixture of internal subliminal communication. And this is where you either accept it or reject the style as pretentious and somewhat condescending.
I happen to be sold on it but not everybody did. I read also Charlie Huston. Charlie Huston also ignores basic writing hygiene in his work and in a recent conversation with a friend I was puzzled when I realized that the style works somewhat discriminatory for certain writers, especially within the micro cosmos created within the reader-writer connection.
So what is the bottom line? What works and what doesn't ? Here is my take on it:
Literary style is a vehicle designed to carry the message from the writer to the reader. A writer with a misshapen soul is in constant search for the best outfit for his or her thoughts and feelings and he does that by making adjustments called literary innovations.
I look at it this way: a hunchback does not require removal of the hump in order for the clothes to fit; instead, the tailor creates a style accommodating the flaw.
The only punctuation problems I seem to see are mine.
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I'm all for certain styles utilized by various writers to tell their story. It adds a certain flavor to the writing.
I don't like to have to guess, is this conversation or inner dialog, though? I'm also not one that wants to work hard to figure out who, what, where, and how if it distracts me from the story.
While I have and do read literary lit, it not my first choice in reading any more. I'm more into being entertained with a good story I can connect with. Literary lit can fill that, but I find it more abstract at times. I do have some favorites
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I noticed also, Sia how the older I get the more I am attracted to main stream literature .Sometimes it feels good to just sit back and enjoy the ride
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I also agree that it makes sense to adapt the style to the story — or to the effect you are trying to create.
E.E. Cummings comes immediately to mind with:
Buffalo Bill's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
For the same reason I occasionally make up words because they convey my meaning best.
That said, like any other craft, you need to know the scales before you jump into the jazz. I'm OK with breaking the rules if you KNOW the rules you are breaking and why you are breaking them.
Good article, Adina. Thanks.
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John, what a great reminder ! It's been a while since I read E.E. Cummings , thanks for inspiring me to go look for his work in my library
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I'm surprised at what people will put up with, including myself. There are several things our Grammar Queen would complain about in this snip, but I like the vigorous energy and quick motion of Charlie's style. I'm a fan. I suppose there is insight into my personality that I threw The Road across the room.
I’m not sure where one should expect to find the bereaved daughter of a wealthy Malibu suicide in need of a trauma cleaner long after midnight, but safe to say a trucker motel down the 405 industrial corridor in Carson was not on my list of likely locales.
—Ouch. That looks painful
I touched the bandage on my forehead.
—And if that’s what it feels like to look at it, imagine how it feels to actually have it happen to you.
The half of her face that I could see in the chained gap at the edge of the door nodded.
—Yeah, I’d imagine that sucks.
Cars whipped past on the highway across the parking lot, taking full advantage of the few hours in any given Los Angeles county twenty-four-hour period when you might get the needle on the high side of sixty. I watched a couple of them attempting to set a new land speed record.
I looked back at Soledad’s face, bisected by the door.
—So?
—Uh-huh?
I hefted the plastic carrier full of cleaning supplies I’d brought from the van.
—Someone called for maid service?
—Yeah. That was me.
—I know.
She fingered the slack in the door chain, set it swinging back and forth.
—I didn’t think you’d come.
—Well, I like to surprise.
—Charlie Huston, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death
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For myself, I'm sure I have quirks of usage or format, but I think it's better to avoid the affectations and try to slip words into the readers mind as smoothly and transparently as possible.
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I actually wrote this entry with you in mind Ken knowing your dislike of Mccarthy and acceptance of Huston. Goes to show you, there's a hat for every head ..Or something like that, sometimes i mix and match sayings from one language to another ,,,,
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Ken, I didn't want to deflate the fan balloon that was hoisted but I did the same thing with The Road that you did.
However, no actual words were injured by that activity.
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Adina, another thought provoking post. I think a writer can create a style to fit a particular type of book or story, but it's a challenge for both the writer and the reader. It can work beautifully, but , paraphrasing John, it is best to know the rules before we choose to break them.
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I have read neither Huston nor McCarthy, and based on these snippets, I believe neither of them will ever make my reading list. I enjoy ee cummings in very small doses, but as a rule, I loathe lack of punctuation that gets in the way of a story (and why is it always *eliminating* punctuation? Why not just make up new punctuation? I'd rather an author surprise me with an interesting word choice, a character tic, an out-of-the-blue-I-didn't-see-that-coming twist. Disregarding puncuation rules is like disregarding traffic rules. We don't make up our our lanes and speed limits and run red lights because it creates a heck of a mess. So does disregarding punctuation standards. Semicolons and em dashes are as flashy as I care to be in my writing.
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Pat,
As usual, your input is so fresh, up front and chuckling funny ! I admire your straight shooter attitude
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Because I'm not very smart, I'm editing Alenadre Dumas' Black Tulip to my taste to see what it looks like. It's interesting to look at punctuation and word choice from 150 years ago in translated work. If I like the look of it when I'm done, I might publish it. Here's the bottom line: punctuation is something that evolves. Think of the Tweets, SMS slang and lingo and lack of grace notes of any kind in most e-mail you see. It's probably inefficient to get too attached to punctuation and grammar--the average reader will put up with a lot more than we will.
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