August 19, 2008
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From the ridiculously named article, Sex and the semicolon:
Ben McIntyre, writing in the Times of London a couple of months later, added to the collection of semicolon snubbers: Kurt Vonnegut called the marks “transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing.” Hemingway and Chandler and Stephen King, said McIntyre, “wouldn’t be seen dead in a ditch with a semi-colon (though Truman Capote might). Real men, goes the unwritten rule of American punctuation, don’t use semi-colons.”
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I think the semicolon is very useful and is generally underused by American writers–but this is a silly thing to say, since it’s broad perceptions that make usage acceptable or less so. Americans tend to favor shorter sentences that are more terse in a logical sense. And Truman Capote was indeed not averse to using semicolons, as he did in this splendid opening of “Children On Their Birthdays”:
“Yesterday afternoon the six-o’clock bus ran over Miss Bobbit. I’m not sure what there is to be said about it; after all, she was only ten years old, still I know no one of us in this town will forget her.”
I love the way the semicolon here augments the “posture” of the narrator, as does the rush forward that occurs when he says “she was only ten years old, still I know….” And it’s delightful that he’s not sure “what there is to be said about it”–just before delivering 30 pages on the matter.
Good god, Daryl, you need to get back in the classroom pronto.
True;
Semicolons are just another commonly misapplied tool, like using a big pair of pliers to pound on a screwdriver handle.