|
|
Angst and Apostrophes
December 07, 2004, 9:15 p.m. I think there must be something wrong with me. I am, by my own admission, anally retentive about orthography. I joke that I have great orthography-fu, but this is to make something that’s really dull and boring – and most of all an annoyance to a vast majority of people – seem vaguely interesting. I joke about it to apologise for my strange obsession with it. You don’t understand me, and I don’t understand you. I offer to edit my friends’ manuscripts – to fix the spelling, to put the commas in their right place, to make sure they haven’t left out words or double typed them. I say I do it because it means I get to read whatever they’ve written first, before anyone else gets to see it. Really, I do it because I can’t stand to see their words lying so mangled amidst commas and hyphens and apostrophes and misspellings. I don’t know how they can look at their work, and not see those imperfections glaring at them. Those who use Word I understand even less, because most of their flaws have been helpfully underlined in red or green squiggles. And then I despair, because is this all there is to me? A nit-picking obsession with what are, quite rightly, called by even those who are interested in them, incidentals? These things – do they really matter? I mean, of course, spelling, yes, but commas, apostrophes, whether you write your numbers as numerals or words, how you indicate something’s titular status – does it really matter? No one ever edits my writing. No one ever points out misplaced full-stops and commas and such. I don’t know whether this is because they don’t care, or because these problems aren’t there. Most likely a mix of both – I am not perfect. But I do try. And I worry. Is this all my writing is? Careful spelling, proper punctuation, stylistic choices? My writing may have the clarity of an undisturbed pool of water, but is there anything at the bottom of that pool to be seen?
|