By MARY CALDWELL
Voice-Tribune
June 9, 2004
A new book by Lynne Truss is the greatest thing to blow in from England since the gin and tonic.
It is "Eats, Shoots & Leaves." Look funny? Well, that's about what the Mother Tongue has come down to since someone, somewhere, decided that teaching proper punctuation was a waste of time.Truss has the grandest old time imaginable with what one might presume to be a dull subject. She's been a journalist, sports columnist and book reviewer for London's Sunday Times and is heard on BBC Radio 4.
Did you notice the lack of a comma between "Times" and "and?" That would be the infamous Oxford comma, troublemaker to the world. Truss and her fellow Brits say fie upon it. The colonies give it mixed reviews.
After reading a page or two, readers will understand why the book has gone off the charts in England and is gaining popularity by the minute in America. It is a totally unexpected development: "My book was aimed at a tiny minority of British people who love punctuation and don't like to see it mucked with,' " writes Truss. Surprise, surprise. Both muckers and non-muckers have taken it to heart.
Punctuation is intended to be a courtesy to the reader; it's that simple. Unfortunately, along with far too many other courtesies, it is rapidly falling into disrepute, if not disappearing altogether.
Signs advertising such things as "cosmetics' " or "puppy's for sale" are in abundance. Those of us who have been schooled (cruelly, at times) in English, just flat go crazy, only to tune into the television and hear something like, "Hearing that the weather would be bad, the picnic was canceled."
Truss calls the sorely afflicted wordsmiths so offended by these misconstructions "sticklers." You may call us grammar Nazis. We don't care. We are nervous wrecks anyway, and you can't hurt us any more than we have already been hurt.
Truss wants to rally the troops. Among the weapons she suggests are "big pens, correction fluid, guerrilla-style clothing, strong medication for personality disorder,
gun."
The author seems to be, like this reviewer, fond of the semi-colon, which can untangle an over-comma-ed sentence in a jiffy if done properly, which isn't all that difficult. Trouble is, writers can become addicted to the semi-colon and "become an embarrassment to their families and friends."
Further, she has heard of a clinic offering "semi-colonic irrigation - but for many it may be too late."Hyphens cause no /files/storyimages/of trouble in the world of print. Winston Churchill said they were a "blemish, to be avoided whenever possible." Woodrow Wilson said the hyphen was "the most un-American thing in the world." Truss adds, "note the hyphen required in “un-American.' "
Truss does not claim that proper punctuation is a walk on the beach, and she would never use that phrase, certainly.
But with wry humor, some of it deliciously naughty, she gives punctuation its (not it's) due, as a tool for clarifying the printed page.
There are culprits enough to go around in the dumbing-down of the English language, but she seems to reserve her most bitter feelings for the carelessness with which we e-mail. It is a "who cares?" attitude much like that which spawned the backward baseball cap and rear-baring pants of young men, as well as the belly button displays from their girlfriends. At least that appears to be the case in the United States.
Go on, have a great time, a couple of dozen good laughs and some straightforward advice. It is an especially terrific book for teachers, media and students, as well as everybody else. I for one say "Huzzah!" (Gotham Books; $17.50)
