As I began reading The Road, I was taken
aback by the lack of punctuation. I've never read a book that had a blatant
disregard for basic grammatical rules. It must be a contemporary
thing, I thought. Because every bizarre thing must be a contemporary
thing. So I decided to research it.
The first thing I typed into my browser was
"lack of punctuation in contemporary literature." What I learned is
that this technique has been going on for quite a while. I came across a list
of the top authors who didn't use punctuation. Cormac McCarthy sat at spot
number three, alongside contemporary authors, such as Junot Diaz, and classic
authors such as James Joyce.
So it's not exclusively a contemporary style of
writing. But why would anyone ever write without commas, or semicolons, or
QUOTATION MARKS. Personally, I think that they are a helpful tool.
Cormac McCarthy thinks differently. In an interview with Oprah, he called quotation marks, "weird little marks," (sorry had to use them there, Cormac), “I believe in periods, in capitals, in the occasional comma, and that’s it,” McCarthy told Oprah. “I mean, if you write properly you shouldn’t have to punctuate.”
Although I do appreciate McCarthy's minimalistic
views, I can't help but yearn for some quotation marks every now and then.
Conversations are like a puzzle; the reader is forced piece together who's
talking based on character traits, and then pray that the characters are just
trading off lines.
Occasionally, however, I appreciate his lack of
quotation marks. Cormac has huge masses of conversation in The Road and
if there was punctuation, the page would be clumped, crowded, and frustrating
to read. He frees the page from the repetitive "he said,"
"and then he said," "one he said this, he said this." On
page 10 of The Road the man and his son are talking:
Can I ask you something? He said.
Yes. Of course.
Are we going to die?
Sometime. Not now.
And we're still going south?
Yes. So we'll be warm?
Yes.
Okay.
Okay what?
Nothing. Just okay.
Go to sleep.
Okay.
To everyone reading a novel without
punctuation-- what do you think that the story gains by leaving out these,
"weird little marks?" Does it make the page look cleaner,
prettier, more enjoyable?
I'm reading No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy and I don't see the lack of punctuation less enjoyable at all. It's actually refreshing for me because it reads a lot more like a story. The lack of punctuation almost gives the dialogue rhythm.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I hardly even noticed it until I did my research on Cormac McCarthy that there wasn't punctuation present.
I found McCarthy's lack of using punctuation interesting as well, and I wonder if I would have noticed it if I had not already done the research on the novel before I started reading it. I am also reading The Road, and I have to agree with Ted L, the lack of punctuation has not affected me at all. In fact, I think it has made reading the text more interesting, only because I have never read something with this type of minimalist punctuation use. I agree with you when you say that the conversations between the father and son are less crowded and therefore easier to read. This may have been McCarthy's intention, to make reading his work less laborious to the reader. You also included something that he said with Oprah, "If you write properly, you shouldn't have to punctuate." This is very true, especially considering the credibility of the author and the many awards that his works have won. This is why, although some may find McCarthy's lack of punctuation irritating, I find it fresh and reader-friendly.
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ReplyDeleteI read The Road last year and found the lack of punctuation interesting as well. I got the impression that McCarthy really cares a lot about the syntax of his writing and how he conveys the story through his words. I get the sense that McCarthy loves dialogue a lot through The Road,where dialogue dominates the novel since there's only two characters aside from a few run-ins with others. I'm not sure about No Country for Old Men, but it seems like he does the same in all of his novels. It seems like McCarthy wants the page to look as clean as possible so he can highlight his writing style and his ridiculously vast vocabulary. This seems a bit different from my author, Richard Russo. In his novel Empire Falls, Russo puts flashbacks (a common occurrence in this novel) in italics and there are definitely many more words on the page than McCarthy, giving me the sense that he wants it to look a lot more elegant than McCarthy (although they both write very elegantly).
ReplyDeleteI am also reading the Road and have found this type of writing to be creative, but also very confusing. I find myself getting lost and trying to figure out who's saying what, especially when a character talks twice in a row on a separate line. I like the idea of innovating the punctuation, but like all new things it'll take a while to get accustomed to.
ReplyDeleteI have not read The Road and am reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. In my book there is also a lack of punctuation which is interesting that it is not just McCarthy doing this. In my experience reading so far, I have found that the lack of punctuation helps me read with less interruption because of how it allows me to create the scene in my head. Without the punctuation I don't have to stop and imagine the dialogue as a separate piece of the story. Instead, the dialogue becomes a part of the scene and it's liberating to me as a reader. This is coming from some one who has typically not enjoyed reading in the past, but this book is written in such a way that it is easy and enjoyable. The book is written in a casual tone as well which I think the lack of punctuation adds to, however, it is interesting to hear that it doesn't take away from a more serious novel like The Road.
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