Comments on: To quote or not to quote?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 10:15:34 +0000

Rules are for beginners, like training wheels on bicycles.

By: Katrina Stonoff

Katrina Stonoff — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 08:59:15 +0000

Unless there's a specific reason that applies to that specific story (and frankly, I've never heard a convincing reason), it's just pretentious baloney. Even if you're Cormac McCarthy.

I'm reading José Saramago's Death With Interruptions. A fabulous concept (people stop dying one New Year's Day), but dialogue is presented in long paragraphs with no punctuation other than commas. Something like this: Hello, how are you, I am fine, and the gout, it's getting better, I have a new grandbaby, congratulations, boy or girl, girl, mom is doing fine, let's have lunch sometime, okay, goodbye, goodbye."

Seriously. What's up with that?! I know it's literary, but if I have to reread a conversation five times to figure out who said what, it's ridiculous.

If you want to impress me with your true genius, show me you can write within the standard grammatical rules. Write clearly and in a compelling way. Skip the gimmicks.

By: eihlin

eihlin — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 17:02:37 +0000

Angela's Ashes has no quotation marks as I recall.

By: Jami G.

Jami G. — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:19:26 +0000

To me, this seems like why literary fiction is having trouble finding an audience. Is literary fiction trying to "find itself" like some surly teenager who rebels just for the sake of rebelling? What makes literary fiction – literary fiction? Too many authors (and the disgusted target audience) seem to think that literary fiction means that it should be challenging. Fair enough. But shouldn't that mean challenging in context, not challenging in deciphering??? If I have to pay that close of attention to the prose to parse it, it draws attention away from the story. It's a cheap Las Vegas neon sign blinking "Look at me. I'm special."

Sorry, but I don't have patience for pretentiousness.
Jami G.

By: Carla Swafford

Carla Swafford — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 22:36:56 +0000

Give me punctuation. Otherwise, I put the book back on the shelf and buy another one.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:30:40 +0000

Unless you're Cormac McCarthy I would suggest a writer stick with the rules.

By: Christina

Christina — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:23:17 +0000

Hate it, hate it, hate it.

But I'm a little OCD about things like that, too.

Seriously, I have found it's difficult for me when reading to transition from action/description to conversation and back if I don't have them there.

By: Joanne

Joanne — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:06:20 +0000

Forgoing quotation marks has been done so often, it's almost gimmicky now. There's nothing really new and fresh about it, so it seems the "artistic" value is negligible.