Minor interlude in the web fiction festivities here. I’ve just been in a very serious debate. About semi colons.
I think you need to be a member to view the forums at Litopia, so linking there would be pretty pointless. I meant to screen shot the convo and pasted it here, which I’m sure is in violation of someone’s copyright. But I got too scared. Oh wait. No, that’s lazy, not scared. Gotta learn to tell the difference…
But, yeah. Semi colons.
I mean no disrespect to those who bring up these topics. But are they important enough for people who could be writing to be reading them? I mean, damn! I feel like I just waster 15 minutes of my life that could have been spent writing chapter 11, polishing short story #23, doing laundry, munching on celery, scratching my ass or… I don’t know, ANYTHING. Anything other than talking about semi colons.
Semi colons.
Shit, semi colons!
I just got into a debate about semi colons. And some people wonder why the literary world is falling to pieces….
I can see the point in discussing technicalities in literary circles. But if hair-splitting is so commonplace in the literary community, is that all we’re good for?
Are we even talking about stories anymore?
dribblingpensioner
I agree, i have been told twice in 2 forum’s that i use to many, also comas etc, so i have cut down. I don’t see what the problem is.
aeliusblythe
Like mathematicians, I think writers make up problems when they get bored. Mountains out of molehills, you know. The discussions over little details often get in the way of discussions on the stories themselves.
It’s one of the reasons I like web fiction. People are more concerned about writing a good story than putting some dots in the right place. (Not that dots in the right places aren’t appreciated, and the good web-fic-ers know that. But they don’t usually dominate a conversation.)
dmmaster42
I agree. It’s completely insane that people freak out when you use semi-colons instead of making separate sentences. It’s a personal choice so everyone should just stop arguing about it. It’s all aesthetics.
aeliusblythe
For some reason, people tend to forget that writing is an art and it is about aesthetics, personal preference, and, you know… a story. Literary folk often seem to see writing less as an art and more as a scholarly, academic pursuit–even non-scholarly/academic writing. Even when talking about romance or sparkly vampire YA fiction, people seem to have a more scientific approach to writing than to, say, painting. Perhaps this is the case in all arts and I only see it in writing because that’s what I do.
But writing IS an art and it is about aesthetics and it is about creating something that doesn’t exist yet. Semi-colons and colons and periods and commas… they exist. Not that interesting.
dmmaster42
Exactly. There’s no one right way to write a story just like there’s no one right way to paint a painting. There are ways to make your writing more aesthetically pleasing though. Like by using paragraphs, indents, and periods between all your sentences, but technically none of these are actually necessary. They just make the piece easier to understand for the reader. It’s the difference between Picasso and some less abstract painters who are perhaps a little easier for most people to “get”.
aeliusblythe
” Like by using paragraphs, indents, and periods between all your sentences, but technically none of these are actually necessary. ”
Yeah, tell me about it. Look at any Old English manuscript (Middle English was pretty bad too) There’s literally none of that. Yet obviously, people (who could read anyway) could understand them. Of course, that being said, it makes me appreciate modern punctuation!
It is interesting, isn’t it, how we have abstract art and realistic art and both are considered appropriate pursuits for artists, but with few exceptions (like Joyce or ee cumings) writers don’t enjoy that same freedom.
I hope that the internet may allow for the diversification of literature. Maybe by being exposed to so many different methods and styles we’ll eventually realize that there’s not one right way.
Sergio
Is there a reason a DNS lokuop for a literal does not return a AAAA record containing the corresponding IPv6 address? This why no special translation would be needed on a system that supports DNS but is not aware of IPv6 literals.For example a DNS lokuop for the name 2001-0db8-85a3-0000-0000-8a2e-0370-7334.ipv6-literal.net would give a AAAA record for the address 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334.
sami116
I don’t like the look of the semi colons. Its a personal choice really so in the end it comes down to whether the author wants to use them or not, doesn’t make much of a difference.
aeliusblythe
Yeah, I’m actually not a huge fan either. I don’t use too many of them. But have gone with the trend of shorter sentences lately. Sometimes, semi-colons are useful, that middle ground between a comm-pause and a full stop of a period.
But yeah, it doesn’t make much of a difference. In a well written book, the punctuation is usually invisible.
live60
Semi-colons went out of fashion when I was a kid. Mark Twain used them like they came from a pepper shaker. He did pretty well. In fact, it’s the semi-colons in his works that allowed me to purchase a rare book of 13 of his works that are in no other books. I have the sole copy from around 1865-1870 vintage. The book is worth a bundle.
R.D….
aeliusblythe
Woah, yeah I bet that’s worth a lot. I haven’t read any Mark Twain in a long time, and I can’t say it’s the semi-colons that stick in my mind (probably because, like I said above, if a book is good it’s not the punctuation I remember!) I think they are more of an old style, but then again, a modern writer could very well find a way to pull off an old fashioned style.
Anna
I remember being at school and a teacher telling me I used too many dashes, so I changed it and started over-using semi-colons instead, which she also had a problem with. You just can’t please some people!
aeliusblythe
Yeah, really. The sticklers will poke holes in whatever you do.
I’ve come to like dashes, actually. I don’t know why. They break up the flow of a sentence, and speech in real life isn’t usually very smooth. People pause, jump to different tracks, get confused…
“You told me not to use dashes; I used semi-colons instead.”
“I took out the–wait, what’s the problem now? I took out the fucking dashes–what do you want?”
In a way, they do a similar thing to semi-colons, that is, break up a sentence somewhere between a slight pause and a full stop. But they’re “bigger” punctuation, more noticeable.
Ah, look at me going on about dashes…