A preemptive comment/question from me: what do you guys think of my recent efforts to throw normal punctuation under the (tour) bus? My honest desire is to completely ban periods and commas and capital letters as a means of writing something "you read with your eyes," not with your mouth. I mean, most English punctuation was created for the town crier of ancient times don't you think? The way we read nowadays is usually on a device and in a hurry. We read with our eyes and all those .,?!:; are like bumps in the smooth flow of words. I also want to simulate a stream of consciousness sort of feeling though I probably haven't succeeded in that. I've been writing these recent stories quickly without punctuation and then later when I read them back I'm adding in a few commas for fear that without any pauses, people will rebel against me and stop reading entirely. So I'm curious to know how people feel about this.
I have no idea. Such conceits bug me personally. I had to stop reading your thing halfway through -- I found the lack of punctuation completely dismantling of narrative.
I'm glad you made it half way and, though I'm sorry about the unpleasantness, I trust with a good night's rest, you won't remember the discomfort it caused you.
I think punctuation gives a sense of the rhythm with which you would speak the words. No punctuation is like having no rests between the notes in music.
I programmed a ring tone on a cell phone about 20 years ago. It was “Footprints” by Wayne Shorter. It took 4 hours of meticulously entering each note into the archaic little phone. Unfortunately the phone’s program didn’t have any rests so my final composition was a blur of sound that kind of, sort of resembled the original song.
You could experiment with punctuation but I would suggest maintaining a rhythmic concept in your writing.
I'll take 60% intelligibility any day! Also, in an attempt to be clear: I'm not Ivy League material sadly, being, as it were, 100% plebeian, bona fide, from a long line of very proud plebeians. (Hope I got all the commas in the right spot!)
The lack of punctuation is like those memes where the words are all spelled wrong but most people can read them anyway because we automatically pick out patterns and our brain makes sense of them. IMO you definitely have achieved a stream of consciousness flow which really works to get across the feeling of a dream. There's so much stuffed into this piece I'll have to reread it several times while wondering if it's really a description of a dream you had or completely made up or someplace in between. Also, as a hyphenated word lover, I really appreciate the inclusion of so many great words!
Thanks for the up vote! It's funny. An old friend from Oregon came through a couple of days ago and I was telling him about my Substack tribulations and I said, I mainly wish I could get more comments, I don't care if they hate it, any kind of comments will do, if I could only get more of them... Well, as they say, be careful what you wish for. The answer to what you asked above is, something in between.
Another punctuation analogy might be like driving a tour bus or any vehicle for that matter—punctuation being the stop signs, traffic lights and the rest. You might get away with not using any in an Asian country but here, not so much. Fatalities as a result of rude and poor driving and mostly road rage would be the order of the day. I doubt anyone would reach their destination. Parts of me died several times as I was reading these chapters but were reborn to carry on.
I for one am grateful that Mr. Bix has chosen to retain at least the spacing between words and continued use of English syntax, nor embraced the full panoply of ligatures and typographic markings as so commonly seen these days, nor yet resorted to actually making up vocabulary. It is however a slippery declension.
A preemptive comment/question from me: what do you guys think of my recent efforts to throw normal punctuation under the (tour) bus? My honest desire is to completely ban periods and commas and capital letters as a means of writing something "you read with your eyes," not with your mouth. I mean, most English punctuation was created for the town crier of ancient times don't you think? The way we read nowadays is usually on a device and in a hurry. We read with our eyes and all those .,?!:; are like bumps in the smooth flow of words. I also want to simulate a stream of consciousness sort of feeling though I probably haven't succeeded in that. I've been writing these recent stories quickly without punctuation and then later when I read them back I'm adding in a few commas for fear that without any pauses, people will rebel against me and stop reading entirely. So I'm curious to know how people feel about this.
I hate it. You lose intelligibility by about 40%. As a friend's professor at Columbia once said, "It is better to be plebeian than unclear."
Cute affects that flout conventional language, while bohemian- ish, do not have the same range of effects as conventional language.
So I take it the professor wouldn’t approve…
I have no idea. Such conceits bug me personally. I had to stop reading your thing halfway through -- I found the lack of punctuation completely dismantling of narrative.
I haven't been blown away by the style of someone flouting the English language since Ken Kesey, and he mostly didn't.
Maybe that's why I'm getting a Nurse Ratched vibe here.
I'm glad you made it half way and, though I'm sorry about the unpleasantness, I trust with a good night's rest, you won't remember the discomfort it caused you.
Nah don't see it that way. I'm a professional editor. I can't help but throw my two cents in. Write on brother.
I think punctuation gives a sense of the rhythm with which you would speak the words. No punctuation is like having no rests between the notes in music.
I programmed a ring tone on a cell phone about 20 years ago. It was “Footprints” by Wayne Shorter. It took 4 hours of meticulously entering each note into the archaic little phone. Unfortunately the phone’s program didn’t have any rests so my final composition was a blur of sound that kind of, sort of resembled the original song.
You could experiment with punctuation but I would suggest maintaining a rhythmic concept in your writing.
I know. Sometimes I feel like I'm meticulously inserting commas into my archaic little sentences.
I'll take 60% intelligibility any day! Also, in an attempt to be clear: I'm not Ivy League material sadly, being, as it were, 100% plebeian, bona fide, from a long line of very proud plebeians. (Hope I got all the commas in the right spot!)
Use a fuckin period sometimes
sure when i fuckin feel like it
The lack of punctuation is like those memes where the words are all spelled wrong but most people can read them anyway because we automatically pick out patterns and our brain makes sense of them. IMO you definitely have achieved a stream of consciousness flow which really works to get across the feeling of a dream. There's so much stuffed into this piece I'll have to reread it several times while wondering if it's really a description of a dream you had or completely made up or someplace in between. Also, as a hyphenated word lover, I really appreciate the inclusion of so many great words!
Thanks for the up vote! It's funny. An old friend from Oregon came through a couple of days ago and I was telling him about my Substack tribulations and I said, I mainly wish I could get more comments, I don't care if they hate it, any kind of comments will do, if I could only get more of them... Well, as they say, be careful what you wish for. The answer to what you asked above is, something in between.
Another punctuation analogy might be like driving a tour bus or any vehicle for that matter—punctuation being the stop signs, traffic lights and the rest. You might get away with not using any in an Asian country but here, not so much. Fatalities as a result of rude and poor driving and mostly road rage would be the order of the day. I doubt anyone would reach their destination. Parts of me died several times as I was reading these chapters but were reborn to carry on.
There's way too much punctuation on the streets of San Francisco!!!
Yeah, it's time to take out some of the non-essential full-stop signage and lights!
Punctuation aside, I found the story hilarious!
The word "hilarious" is balm to my soul. Thanks!
I for one am grateful that Mr. Bix has chosen to retain at least the spacing between words and continued use of English syntax, nor embraced the full panoply of ligatures and typographic markings as so commonly seen these days, nor yet resorted to actually making up vocabulary. It is however a slippery declension.
There are some punctuations that are interesting and there are some punctuations that are not. —Gertrude Stein