Friday, September 23, 2005

Oh no.

So I showed my father this blog. A mistake-
and what was the first thing he said?

"you're not using proper punctuation and capitalization, why?"

Because I’m lazy and I don’t feel like it. I get my point across, and I write casually, is that a sin against the language? are you offended by it? I suppose some are, some aren’t. But even
Shakespeare spelt things a little funny. I'm not as casual right now as i am, say, during an instant message chat. lol. Besides, im capable of writing a formal college essay, and boring the living daylights out of everyone, but i refuse to do that here, today i write for fun.

But back to my point- I may not be the best writer in the world, and i may not be a great grammarian, but language is about ideas, so everything else is secondary.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

m keiser said: "but language is about ideas, so everything else is secondary."

tell that to henry james or jame joyce (were they alive).

--Bryant

MikeZ said...

there are times when details like capitalization and punctuation are important. as in a resume you send out, looking for a good job. a bit like showing up for the interview in a coat and tie.

but informal wrting is different. e e cummings though that even poetry is different.

expression, however, is at the forefront. if those ideas are expressed well, the point is made, and to quarrel about capitalization is beside the point.

sometimes, however, you need a good capital letter now and again to avoid confusion - even though context often disambiguates. polish vs Polish,.....

M. Keiser said...

Bryantmanning- James Joyce i know was treating language like a modern poet might. His writing explores the possible shades of connotation a word can have, and so writing directly wasnt his thing, exploring language's possibilities was.

Mikez- Agreed. This isnt a resume, so i think its fine to be relaxed.

Anonymous said...

"...and so writing directly wasnt his thing, "

I see you've yet to read Dubliners.

M. Keiser said...

You are correct, Byrant Manning, I've only read Portrait of and Artist and only part of Ulysses.

I've heard Dubliners is good though. I like the Portrait of an Artists as a Young man, a conceptual novel. pretty cool, actually.

Anonymous said...

You can call me Bryant. It's great you've read Portrait, one of my favorite books of all time. 'The Dead,' the finest of the Dubliners tales, has some of the most beautiful language around. That's a great example of a text where "writing WAS directly his thing."

Joyce is rivaled by nobody. There was nothing he could not do with language.