Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: The Stuff People Skip

From: Kerry J. Schooley ( gsp.schoo@murderoutthere.com)
Date: 15 Jan 2006


At 08:57 AM 15/01/2006 -0800, you wrote:
>Kerry,
>
>Re your question below:
>
>"Is there any rule in writing that can be laid down
>hard and fast that all must follow?"
>
>Sentences that make some minimal grammatical sense,
>and words that have some minimal definitional meaning.
>A whole book that went something like this:
>
>aovoib*^y482qlf;k08210948ug.,><hjnb'wq948-cv.bn1&30087043-0)(8
>
>probably wouldn't get published.

Well, yes, but there are exceptions to this too. Language for one. There are books published in other parts of the world that, to me, look pretty much like your sentence above. Grammar and rules change, and sometimes authors make them their own. E-mail and text-messaging on other, smaller devices are known for the use of symbols and abbreviations that could, might have, and probably will be adapted to a narrative sometime. I also remember when I first started reading White Jazz that I couldn't make sense of the thing until I read enough to get into Ellroy's cadence and slang. I had to learn his grammar as I went, to some extent.

And of course, there are different definitions of "published" too.

Anyway, I digress, and I'm not going anywhere with this except that sometimes it is the exceptions from normal practice that make a publication unique and interesting.

Kerry

>However, I take your point. Most rules CAN be broken
>to good effect by a writer who knows what he's doing.
>
>Nevertheless, there have been writers (S.S. Van Dine
>and Father Ronald Knox both come to mind in the
>mystery genre) who have attempted to set down hard and
>fast rules for other writers to follow. Leonard, at
>least as far as I understood, was not trying to do
>that. He was describing what worked for him.
>
>JIM DOHERTY
>
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