writing with Capital Letters

Rebecca McCallum (remc@uhura.cc.rochester.edu)
Sun, 01 Mar 1998 14:01:50 -0500 (EST) 

> Date: Sun, 01 Mar 1998 01:22:01 -0500
> From: Tim O'Connor <tim@roughdraft.org>
> To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
> Subject: Re: Buddy's house style
> Message-ID: <v03130300b11eaa3b4ffb@roughdraft.org>

> Yes, another way of emphasizing words without using italics (which
> generally mean a stress in a sentence) or bold (which is used in word
> processing and textbooks but not often in fiction), but with a different
> shading.  It's a verbal tic that -- I think -- one gets used to.  It's
> partly ironic, partly sardonic, partly emphatic, and very
> self-conscious.
> The closest literary device I can think of -- and I want to emphasize
> that
> I don't think they are related, except to the extent that they are
> extreme
> and attention-grabbing -- is Eugene O'Neill's use (in "Strange
> Interlude")
> of a character speaking his or her thoughts out loud, which are not
> heard
> by the other characters.  But again, I'm not comparing them; it's just
> that at the moment, "Strange Interlude" comes to mind."


As I was reading posts about Salinger's habit of capitalizing certain
important words, I had the feeling that I had seen the same habit
elsewhere - he's definitely not the only one to do this.  And sure enough,
I've just found another example:  A.A. Milne's "House at Pooh Corner."  My
take on the use of capital letters (to write about things such as those
who are Friendly to Bears and about Piglet doing a Noble Thing even though
he is a Very Small Animal ...) is that it lends the word or phrase a
certain "thing-ness,"  makes that particular word more of the epitome of
what it represents.  So that Piglet is now not just any old small animal,
but rather a Small Animal to represent all Small Animals.  And when Buddy
writes about Composing Hours, they are not just the hours that he happens
to be writing, but they represent all Hours during which he must Write.
I'm sure there are more possible interpretations of the habit - this is
just one of many.

- Rebecca