3 ms·

Cormac McCarthy on James Joyce and Punctuation

1 points by keiferski 4y ago

50 4y ago
On the contrary, see Adorno's "Punctuation Marks" (1956)[1][2], e.g.: > There is no element in which language resembles music more than in the punctuation marks. The comma and the period correspond to the half-cadence and the authentic cadence. Exclamation points are like silent cymbal clashes, question marks like musical upbeats, colons dominant seventh chords; and only a person who can perceive the different weights of strong and weak phrasings in musical form can really feel the distinction between the comma and the semi colon. > [...] The historical character of punctuation marks can be seen in the fact that what becomes outdated in them is precisely what was once modern in them. Exclamation points, gestures of authority with which the writer tries to impose an emphasis external to the matter itself, have become intolerable, while the sforzato, the musical counterpart of the exclamation point, is as indispensable today as it was in Beethoven's time, when it marked the incursion of the subjective will into the musical fabric. Exclamation points, however, have degenerated into usurpers of authority, assertions of importance. 1. https://www.ubu.com/papers/Adorno-Theodor-W-Punctuation-Marks.pdf https://www.ubu.com/papers/Adorno-Theodor-W-Punctuation-Mark... 2. https://www.ubu.com/papers/ https://www.ubu.com/papers/
jfengel 4y ago
McCarthy's lack of punctuation was the thing that stopped me a few pages into The Road. It seemed pretentious -- and comparing himself to Joyce seems to affirm that pretension. I'm not going to read Finnegan's Wake, either. From what I know about it, it's a brilliant linguistic feat of cross-linguistic puns and intricate poetry. But my limited reading time is not going to be spent climbing that mountain. I doubt McCarthy has accomplished even that much. I'm not interested if he has, and if he hasn't, I'm even less interested in hearing that it's what he had in mind.

1 points by keiferski 4y ago

50 4y ago

On the contrary, see Adorno's "Punctuation Marks" (1956)[1][2], e.g.: > There is no element in which language resembles music more than in the punctuation marks. The comma and the period correspond to the half-cadence and the authentic cadence. Exclamation points are like silent cymbal clashes, question marks like musical upbeats, colons dominant seventh chords; and only a person who can perceive the different weights of strong and weak phrasings in musical form can really feel the distinction between the comma and the semi colon. > [...] The historical character of punctuation marks can be seen in the fact that what becomes outdated in them is precisely what was once modern in them. Exclamation points, gestures of authority with which the writer tries to impose an emphasis external to the matter itself, have become intolerable, while the sforzato, the musical counterpart of the exclamation point, is as indispensable today as it was in Beethoven's time, when it marked the incursion of the subjective will into the musical fabric. Exclamation points, however, have degenerated into usurpers of authority, assertions of importance. 1. https://www.ubu.com/papers/Adorno-Theodor-W-Punctuation-Marks.pdf https://www.ubu.com/papers/Adorno-Theodor-W-Punctuation-Mark... 2. https://www.ubu.com/papers/ https://www.ubu.com/papers/

jfengel 4y ago

McCarthy's lack of punctuation was the thing that stopped me a few pages into The Road. It seemed pretentious -- and comparing himself to Joyce seems to affirm that pretension. I'm not going to read Finnegan's Wake, either. From what I know about it, it's a brilliant linguistic feat of cross-linguistic puns and intricate poetry. But my limited reading time is not going to be spent climbing that mountain. I doubt McCarthy has accomplished even that much. I'm not interested if he has, and if he hasn't, I'm even less interested in hearing that it's what he had in mind.