More on Grammar

[Dave White]

Because I just can't let it go. I kid, I kid. Anyway, I start this thread against my better judgement.

Actually, my question is now on the other side of the fence. The last time I took it from a teaching perspective, where I thought meaning was more important than perfect grammar.

Now I have another question. I'm abouut 85 pages into Cormac McCarthy's NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. I'm intrigued by the premise and love that fact that it's the Coen Brother's next project. However, while I'm reading the book, I've noticed that McCarthy doesn't like putting his dialogue in quotes. (For the record, dialogue and quotation marks are probably the part of grammar I worked hardest on this year with my students.)

My question is, why doesn't McCarthy use quote marks? I'm sure he knows how to use them, but I'm curious why he made this stylistic choice. In my mind it makes the book very dreamlike. At the same time, I'm not as into the book as I usually would be. And I'm reading it a lot slower, I'm not drawn to it.

What do you guys think?

[Anne Frasier]

It pisses me off.

Really. I love McCarthy, but stuff like that just makes me mad. But I also get mad when people do the pinky/thumb/phone thing.

[Patricia Abbott]

If he did use quotes, you wouldn't be mentioning his name. Maybe it's about that. To make him stand out.

[Gerald So]

I don't know McCarthy's reasons, but I understand your reading more slowly. At its best, dialog helps move the plot and get exposition out of the way as well as reveal character. Readers have been conditioned to pay more attention when characters speak, and without quotes it's harder to know when to tune in.

[Jude Hardin]

Why does a dog lick himself between the legs?

Because he can.

Personally, I prefer standard punctuation in fiction. It's what we're use to, and it's easier to read. My goal as a writer is to evoke what John Gardner calls the fictional dream. Writing that calls attention to itself--with unusual punctuation, or by any other "artsy" posturing means--yanks the reader out of the story and leaves him/her stuck smack dab in the middle of Uneasy Street.

[Christa M. Miller]

I disagree. Charles Frazier didn't use it in Cold Mountain (I haven't read any of his other work) and I stayed rooted in that story just fine, once I got used to the -- to denote dialog. The Road made me slow down, but only to savor the language and the way it got its point across.

The thing that confused me about The Road was the inconsistent use/lack thereof of apostrophes....

[Bethany K. Warner]

Likely it is a bit of the prestige factor for McCarthy.

Kudos to you though for working with your students on dialogue and quotation mark grammar. In my former writer's group, there were quite a few folks who had no idea how to use quote marks and it got irritating always trying to fix it.

[Dave White]

It could be to make him stand out. I'm trying to guess what this stylistic choice does. Is it to make me read slower? Or is it something about the story. I like the idea regarding oral story telling, but I'm not completely sure that's it.

I think Cormac is trying to make his story less real somehow.

[Jude Hardin]

In The Road, I thought it was to echo the bleak and stark world he created.

Whatever, dude. ;)

[Charles Kelly]

I used to see this style every once in a while in novels I read years ago, British novels, if I remember correctly. Not sure why a writer makes this choice. It always strikes me as a bit affected.

[I. J. Parker]

Not all nations use quotation marks for dialogue. The British do use them, but use single quotes where we use double. Quotation marks are a convention, that's all.
Poets and great authors may take liberties with conventions. Note that fragments are serious grammar errors in Freshman English but very common and useful in fiction.