[ 3 / biz / cgl / ck / diy / fa / ic / jp / lit / sci / vr / vt ] [ index / top / reports ] [ become a patron ] [ status ]
2023-11: Warosu is now out of extended maintenance.

/lit/ - Literature

View post   
File: 3 KB, 225x225, semicolon.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12634512 No.12634512 [Reply] [Original]

Semicolons are amazing, yet, one cannot use them in casual text-based conversations without seeming pretentious. Why is this?

The ambiguity and suttle nuance they can bring to a piece of literature is unmatched by any other grammatical tool; any piece of text is improved by a semicolon.

>> No.12634524

>>12634512
>suttle
Are you a modernist by chance?

>> No.12634536

>>12634524
*subtle, sorry.
English is not my first language.

>> No.12634548
File: 52 KB, 781x413, out15268763.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12634548

fuck em

>> No.12634557

FUCK semicolons.

t. kurt vonnegut

>> No.12634568

Cormac McCarthy says they shouldn't exist.

>> No.12634590

>>12634512
Fuck off, Leopold: I've already explained the greater glory of colons to you.

>> No.12634591

>>12634548
>>12634568
I wondered why I found him so hard to like.

>> No.12634610

>>12634548
fuck quotation marks too

>> No.12634616

>>12634512
A lot of 18th century novelists basically use them as periods. Periods are only placed at the end of a paragraph.

>> No.12635318

>>12634568
who cares?

>> No.12635390

>>12634512
tl;dr

>> No.12635534

>>12634512
this guy knows

>> No.12635546

>>12634548
Does Cormac even use commas? I can’t remember many but it seems like that would be a drastic style choice.

>> No.12635742

I use hyphens when I would use a semicolon in formal writing- it's not right at all but it serves the same purpose without making me look like a twat.

>> No.12635975

>>12635742
Why would one care about seeming pretentious in a formal setting? Is formality not inherently pretentious?

>> No.12635997

C'est la volonté qui est la chose en soi; la volonté de Dieu, c'est la volonté.

>> No.12636001

>>12635975
No, I'm saying that in informal writing I use a hyphen in the place that I would use a semicolon in formal writing.

>> No.12636004

I use it in my German writing, where it's inappropriate. It makes my writing feel cosmopolitan.

>> No.12636013

>>12635742
still better than the boomer practice..... of putting ellipses everywhere....

>> No.12636031
File: 747 KB, 1512x2339, 9781847494009.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12636031

Does any other book have as high a semi colon density?

>> No.12636035

>>12636001
Sorry. English can be confusing at times, especially on no sleep.
If I bequeath upon you a plot of land in my chocolate factory, will you forgive me?

>> No.12636049

>>12635546
I remember reading No Country for Old Men and about three quarters of the way through there's a comma, and it's the only comma I remember seeing in the entire book, and when I read it, I thought to myself, yes, that comma absolutely has to be there.

>> No.12636123

>>12634568
yikes

>> No.12636226

Semicolons are great; I can't say I ever got into trouble using them.
Just don't go ;) and you should be fine.

>> No.12636783

>>12634512
>he's such a onions chugger that he's afraid of what people will think if he uses a certain punctuation mark
I use whatever I want; if someone doesn't like it they can fuck off. Oh nooooo the feelings of the poor little braaaaaainlets might get hurt.

>> No.12637335

>>12636783
>onions chugger
That's a new one

>> No.12637351
File: 126 KB, 1920x1541, fad.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
12637351

>>12636226
I cant into semicolons. Would it not have been grammatically correct to just use a comma there instead?

>> No.12637381

>>12637335
>what is a filter

>> No.12637409

>>12637351
Semicolons can be used to connect two different independent clauses that follow a similar topic in a sentence; they are useful for developing complicated ideas that cannot be easily explained with one statement.

Of course you can just as easily end the sentences and use periods. But this kind of breaks up the flow of reading. Which makes it more difficult to connect ideas together.

>> No.12637592

>>12637351
It has been proven that frogposting can significantly lower your I.Q.
So, no wonder.

>> No.12637660

>>12634616
That makes a lot more sense.

>> No.12637668

I use semicolons all the time; I have no idea if I use them correctly but I'm going to start a new literature movement anyway so I don't care.

>> No.12637672

punctuation is a neoliberal psyop to make instruction manuals for forklifts easier to write

>> No.12637785

>>12636049
>the author's use of punctuation broke my immersion in the story
now that's good writing

>> No.12638061

they’re supposed to be used interchangeably with just the period. if you overuse it in a story it doesn’t bring abiguity and nuance, it looks retarded