Cato's Grammar Grumble

[John Copeland]

Many thanks for those life-saving commas!

I have mentioned (many moons ago) that I have a somewhat idiosyncratic view of punctuation, where I use it "musically," i.e. as a way to increase or decrease the reader's speed.

Example:

I have mentioned - many moons ago - that I have a (somewhat) idiosyncratic view of punctuation where I use it "musically," i.e. as a way to increase, or decrease, the reader's speed.

And:

I have mentioned many moons ago that I have a somewhat idiosyncratic view of...punctuation, where I use it musically, i.e. as a way to increase - or decrease - the reader's speed. 

I also use punctuation to imply a certain tone.   0:)

But then...don't we all?   

Jack Kerouac was very good at using punctuation as a tool to mimic music (and speech) - in his case, Jazz  .   I think it is a useful and worthwhile method of communicating on a general level.

[karlhenning]

I need to revisit Kerouac.

[John Copeland]

Well Karl, Jack used to get around a bit as you know, so perhaps you should visit him before he visits you (even if he is dead, he's still on the road).

[Spotswood]

I also use punctuation to imply a certain tone.   0:)

But then...don't we all?   

Not. All. Of. Us.

[DavidRoss]

I need to revisit Kerouac.

Hmmm...it's been awhile for me as well (though I revisited On the Road back in the '80s).  Still, I'm very aware of how much he influenced my adolescence.  That vagabond hipster dharma bum lifestyle sounds more glamorous in print than it is in real life, but it is VERY addictive.  Desolation Angels was my favorite of his books.  It might be interesting to see how well it holds up. 

[Franco]

Hmmm...it's been awhile for me as well (though I revisited On the Road back in the '80s).  Still, I'm very aware of how much he influenced my adolescence.  That vagabond hipster dharma bum lifestyle sounds more glamorous in print than it is in real life, but it is VERY addictive.  Desolation Angels was my favorite of his books.  It might be interesting to see how well it holds up.

Not very well, at least IMO.  A few years ago I went back and reread most of the books and while parts of them are fun, in general they seemed less compelling than I remembered them.   

[karlhenning]

. . . That vagabond hipster dharma bum lifestyle sounds more glamorous in print than it is in real life, but it is VERY addictive.

QFT ; )

[DavidRoss]

Not very well, at least IMO.  A few years ago I went back and reread most of the books and while parts of them are fun, in general they seemed less compelling than I remembered them.

So I suspect.  The things we find appealing in adolescence seldom retain that appeal after we've matured. 

[Scarpia]

So I suspect.  The things we find appealing in adolescence seldom retain that appeal after we've matured.

You mean Star Wars isn't the greatest film ever made?

[karlhenning]

Well, to hear Poju tell it . . . .

[Florestan]

The things we find appealing in adolescence seldom retain that appeal after we've matured.

Classical music excepted.

[karlhenning]

The things we find appealing in adolescence seldom retain that appeal after we've matured.

Classical music excepted.

Yes, my years of adolescence were when Real Music got its hooks in me but good.

[MN Dave]

I have fond memories of the stuff I read as a kid but, yeah, it doesn't hold up.

[DavidRoss]

Well, to hear Poju tell it . . . .

I rest my case. 

[MN Dave]

You guys are mean. 

[DavidRoss]

You guys are mean. 

Well, yes, it feels uncomfortable at times, almost like picking on the Down Syndrome kid, but he's so adamant about his intellectual and aesthetic superiority and so impervious to helpful criticism that poking gentle fun at him might actually be a kindness.

[secondwind]

     I didn't know what to say; he was right; but all I wanted to do was sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere, and go and find out what everybody was doing all over the country. --Jack Kerouac, On the Road, page 67, paragraph 3 of my September 1957 Second Printing (which I will consider selling when I am much older and grayer and need money to pay the electricity bill, assuming I have finished reading it by then).

Example of musical punctuation?

[Cato]

     I didn't know what to say; he was right; but all I wanted to do was sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere, and go and find out what everybody was doing all over the country. --Jack Kerouac, On the Road, page 67, paragraph 3 of my September 1957 Second Printing (which I will consider selling when I am much older and grayer and need money to pay the electricity bill, assuming I have finished reading it by then).

Example of musical punctuation?

Apparently.  The second semicolon, according to the purists, is an error, because of the use of the conjunction "but."

But in a book about slacker, edge-of-society rule-breakers, you expect things like that!   

[Scarpia]

Apparently.  The second semicolon, according to the purists, is an error, because of the use of the conjunction "but."

But in a book about slacker, edge-of-society rule-breakers, you expect things like that!   

I read somewhere that for an anniversary of the publication of On The Road the original, unedited typescript was published.  The one Kerouac prepared by taping a ream of paper together into a continuous scroll, so he could type without interruption while in a drug-addled state.  If I remember correctly, there are no paragraph breaks, I don't know if he used punctuation.

[karlhenning]

I read somewhere that for an anniversary of the publication of On The Road the original, unedited typescript was published.  The one Kerouac prepared by taping a ream of paper together into a continuous scroll, so he could type without interruption while in a drug-addled state.  If I remember correctly, there are no paragraph breaks, I don't know if he used punctuation.

We've got that anniversary edition at the Museum shop; I'll have a look at it tonight.