Category: words

Classical Greek and Latin writing didn’t use punctuation at all, or even spaces between words; that sort of thing was left to the person who’d be speaking the text. St. Isidore of Seville systematized punctuation in the seventh century, but there were only three marks. “Over the following centuries, the existing punctuation marks became increasingly differentiated in order to prevent confusion. At the same time, new marks such as the question mark … arise when a lack of clarity needs to be redressed, communication controlled and sense disambiguated, an emergency perhaps stemming from greater reliance on written diplomacy as well as the newly fashionable art of letter writing.” – History Today

A consumerist vision of reading . . . presented as a form of anti-elitism” is emanating from the centers of publishing and media power, and that it is embodied by some of these trends. But I also found myself wondering: What fiction about music did they recommend?  – The Baffler

“American Dirt”won’t have much political impact, because Americans who have the capacity to be outraged about children in cages on the border already are; it’s arriving too late and isn’t compelling enough to change many minds. In the best-case scenario, it will be like “This Is Us” — popular, gratifying to some, not capable of moving any needles. As a novel, it’s a profoundly missed opportunity, a displacement of attention and resources that should have gone to more worthwhile books and more informed writers. But as a subject for conversation and controversy, even outrage, I hope “American Dirt” reminds American readers that a vibrant literature of the border already exists and deserves their attention. – Los Angeles Times

“The font you use is a form of non-verbal communication. If you meet in person, tone of voice, clothes and body language carry a huge amount of information. If you write someone a letter you have all these tools available in your handwriting. But as soon as you sit down at a computer, especially if you’re working in a program that defaults to Times New Roman, we suddenly become identical and we don’t like that.” – The Guardian

“Jeanine Cummins spent five years of her life writing this book with the intent to shine a spotlight on tragedies facing immigrants,” said the president of Flatiron Books. “We are saddened that a work of fiction that was well-intentioned has led to such vitriolic rancor. Unfortunately, our concerns about safety have led us to the difficult decision to cancel the book tour.” – The Guardian

It is no secret that in contemporary America there are many people who hardly read at all, and then another sizable group who, though they keep up with news, sports and the latest fads in self-care or technology, have little interest in serious fiction, poetry or literary commentary. It would be wrong to say such people hate literature, for one has to care about something to truly hate it. – The Point

The warning against treating characters as if they were real stands as a gatekeeper to the academic discipline of literary criticism. Students who can’t abide by the rule will get bad grades. The professor will sigh and conclude that they just don’t have what it takes to become decent literary critics. Yet the same students may love reading, really get into the novels we assign, and be both confused and depressed to learn that to discuss the problems of Elizabeth Bennet as if she were their friend is to fail in some fundamental way. – The Point

The controversy has spurred long-standing debates about where stories come from, who is responsible for them and what it means as a writer to bear witness to truth — and also, which persons or institutions have the authority to do so. These events unfolded at a time of rising ethnonationalism across Europe. – The Conversation

GPT-2’s writing is grammatically correct. It all more or less sounds true to its source, if all you heard was the tone. But what those sequences mean, therein lies the rub. GPT-2’s poetry prizes style over substance. Which is understandable, because it doesn’t know what substance is. – LitHub

The heart of the problem is the industry — the critics, agents, publicists, book dealers who were responsible for this project. They’ve shown just how little they know about the immigrant experience beyond the headlines. So we are left with this flawed book as our model, these damaging depictions at a time when there’s already so much demonizing of immigrants. – Los Angeles Times