4 ms·
Eats Shoots and Leaves is riddled with punctuation errors. What it is is a canonical example of why the British, who long ago abandoned consistent punctuation,
by SeanLuke 4y ago
Eats Shoots and Leaves is riddled with punctuation errors. What it is is a canonical example of why the British, who long ago abandoned consistent punctuation, should not write books lecturing others about punctuation.
I think the best takedown of this hilariously bad screed is here:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/06/28/bad-comma https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/06/28/bad-comma
- denton-scratch 4y agoI don't treat it as a lecture; I treat it as a pretty funny rant. I agree that it's snobby; but I still enjoy her poke at "Carrot's £1" - the "grocer's apostrophe". It's a book of satirical humour, you're not supposed to take it too seriously. Oh, the inconsistency of English is by design. Was it Doctor Higgins in My Fair Lady who claimed to be able to locate the origin of any English accent? The perverse grammar of English (and I suppose any other language) is a xenophobic shibboleth[0]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibboleth