Who Said That?: Why Some Books Forgo Quotation Marks

2 years ago 112

If you’re acquainted with Sally Rooney’s books (or apt if you’ve conscionable heard of her), you astir apt besides cognize she doesn’t usage quotation marks successful her work. It’s a seemingly polarizing prime with some five-star and one-star reviews citing the deficiency of dialog punctuation arsenic their reason. Other reviewers state it took immoderate getting utilized to, it made it intolerable to read, it sucked them close in. But wherefore take to get escaped of the established punctuation protocol we expect erstwhile picking up a novel?

A Brief History of Quotation Marks

The quotation people developed from what was known arsenic a diple, carrot-looking people utilized successful Greek texts. Back then, the relation was much of an attraction grabber, placed successful the margins of a portion astatine moments of accent whether it beryllium dialog oregon statement oregon adjacent further commentary. It was named “diple”, meaning double, aft the fig of pen strokes it took to create. Writers’ usage of the people varied idiosyncratic to person, sometimes dotted oregon curved, sometimes vertical, sometimes reversed. They functioned arsenic indicators of however to accidental something, erstwhile to pause, oregon adjacent wherever to instrumentality a breath. Funnily enough, Ruth Finnegan successful Why Do We Quote? The Culture and History of Punctuation wrote these variations were seen arsenic “corrupt” and indicated scribes had forgotten “how their elders and betters had indicated citations” which conscionable goes to amusement these adaptations of punctuation, and the societal pushback (or niche acceptance) are par for the course.

Later, the diple was replaced by a treble comma with the invention of the printing press and, with it, a request to standardize the format of citations. According to Finnegan, they were dubbed “inverted commas” for their signifier and their function, and portion it took a while, they moved from being an indicator from the margins to being portion of the enactment of the substance itself done the 17th century. At this time, the meaning of the connection punctuation took connected the mode we spot them, arsenic a grammatical instrumentality for the speechmaking eye. They indicated passages were from different root or, later, they marked dialogue, which is the mode they much oregon little relation today.

Why Write Without Quotation Marks?

So, wherefore get escaped of these small marks that person go truthful ingrained successful the mode we work literature? Well, it’s not needfully a caller concept. Writers similar Virginia Wolf, Gertrude Stein, and Cormac McCarthy chose astatine immoderate constituent oregon different to bash distant with quotation marks successful their works. McCarthy discussed his deficiency of punctuation successful an interrogation with Oprah, saying there’s nary crushed to artifact a leafage up with marks if your penning is clear. And that makes a definite benignant of sense. The writing, then, becomes much immediate, more stream-of-consciousness.

If you’re, for example, speechmaking Boys of Alabama by Genevive Hudson, a caller astir a lad who moves from Germany to Alabama and has to navigate the brutal adaptation to a caller language, a caller culture, a caller life, it makes consciousness that the penning benignant would bespeak that difficulty, that needing to spell backmost and find if thing truly was dialog aft all, overmuch similar the quality needs radical to repetition themselves, to clarify, passim his transition.

At different times, this forgoing of the marks tin marque a scholar consciousness “part of the travel of conversation” alternatively than extracurricular of it looking in, arsenic 1 scholar said of Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You? in The School Librarian‘s Spring 2022 issue. This is seemingly successful the vein of McCarthy’s protests against them, successful that the little punctuation connected the leafage the little ocular interruption to the oculus and, by extension, to the narrative.

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In different novels, similar Where Reasons End by Yiyun Li oregon The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, the characters woody with grief and loss, suggesting a definite benignant of distancing and alienation by not speaking to the scholar successful the mode we expect to beryllium spoken to.

There are galore ways removing quotation marks tin adhd to a story. But determination are consequences to this prime to bypass accepted punctuation too.

Why Keep Quotation Marks Right Where They Are?

This tin sometimes, intentionally, adhd a furniture of trouble to the speechmaking experience. Dorothy Richardson, contempt forgoing quotation marks successful her works, told Bryher successful The Heart to Artemis: A Writer’s Memoirs that it was a mistake and that it created “unnecessary difficulties” for her readers.

Laura Miller successful her nonfiction “All I privation for Christmas is quotation marks” published successful Salon backmost successful 2009 made a rebuttal against the practice. Apparently E.L. Doctorow erstwhile said quotation marks aren’t indispensable since “you tin archer erstwhile it’s dialogue,” but Miller argues that doesn’t mean you should get escaped of it.

It’s a valid point. Just due to the fact that you can recognize the substance without them doesn’t mean the small marks don’t person a function. You person to enactment harder to get the meaning, to recognize the text, oregon adjacent to recognize connected the aboveground level what’s really going connected if thoughts and dialog intermingle. It’s an added trouble to an enactment often sought retired to get radical distant from the trouble of life: of enactment and schoolhouse and household mayhem. Some readers, understandably so, don’t privation to past person to instrumentality the added clip to treble back, implicit and implicit again, to find retired if a enactment was dialog oregon not, erstwhile a perfectly functional punctuation people could person told them that with ease.

In the end, I deliberation its wholly babelike connected whether you similar an experimental facet to a novel. Which is not a astonishing conclusion. For me, I cognize that depends connected my mood, the conception and themes, oregon adjacent however overmuch I similar an writer and americium consenting to adapt. For others, this could beryllium a implicit no-go. Writing, astatine the extremity of the day, is subjective, and choosing to prime up oregon not prime up a quotation escaped caller is the aforesaid arsenic a genre penchant oregon a inclination to similar novels with funky formatting.

If you are idiosyncratic who enjoys a small spot of messing astir with punctuation, there’s a whole database of books without quotation marks connected Goodreads for you to peruse. Also, for a spot of formatting fun, effort these seven books with antithetic and unconventional formats!

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