Subject: RE: Words, words, words
From: Aaron Brager (colombo@toad.net)
Date: Mon Jan 24 2000 - 13:59:18 EST
Flowers For Algernon ignored punctuation and it's a great story.
On Mon, 24 Jan 2000, Paul Kennedy wrote:
> Well, I was going to chide Tim for choosing Fowler over Strunk & White....
> and then Cecilia chipped in with her paean of praise. They're BOTH great
> books. Desert Island books. Books that belong in ANY English-language library.
>
> It seems that every six months or so, we "oldies" engage in an old-fashioned
> celebration of spelling and grammar. (I'm a bit concerned that Becky's AP
> teacher doesn't do the same.... Perhaps she's a product of that "whole
> language" bullshit that so threatens the very foundation of western
> civilization....) To me, it's almost self-evident. If you love words (and
> what the hell are you doing in a literary listserve if you don't?) you
> respect words. The first paragraph of CATCHER is a masterful example of a
> literary genius stretching the language to incorporate the diction of a
> mid-20th century teenager. But it's literate from top to tail. If it had
> ignored punctuation (as seems to be sadly becoming the norm) nobody would be
> reading the novel today.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Paul
>
> PS--But if ANYBODY can explain Fowler's convoluted explication of "which"
> and "that", I'd be grateful....
>
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