Re: Where have all the speech marks gone?
- From: Nick <3-nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 06 May 2009 19:03:38 +0100
Mike Mooney <mikmooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
On 6 May, 09:28, billri...@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Does anyone have any idea why, in modern novels, the practice of using
inverted commas (aka "quotes" or "speech marks") to denote direct
speech is dying out? I'm currently reading "God's Own Country" by
Ross Raisin, and jolly good it is too, but it's not the first
contemporary novel that I'm struggling with on account of having to
decode the text to work out when the speaking ends and the narrative
begins. Is it cost-cutting, or are inverted commas now inexplicably
uncool?
I blame Cormac McCarthy.
It pre-dates him:
--start quotation--
Tell me this, did you press my Sunday trousers?
I forgot, I said.
What?
I forgot, I shouted.
Well that is very nice, he called, very nice indeed. Oh trust you to
forget. God look down on us and pity us this night and day. Will you
forget again today?
No, I answered.
--end quotation--
that was published in 1939.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At_Swim_Two_Birds
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