Then came movies, which initially were
plays without the proscenium stage. They morphed gradually, over the
span of 100+ years, into what we recognize today. Next came TV.
Writing for TV was originally called "teleplay writing."
Now we have tweets and blogging,
podcasts, eBooks, and, of recent invention, multi-media eBooks as
apps. There is a huge spectrum of available fiction media to be had,
far more than our grandmothers could have imagined.
With all that quantity, we may have
given up quality along the way. Anyone can write an eBook these days.
All you need is a computer and an active imagination. You don't need
grammar, punctuation, and even spelling seems to have gone by the
wayside. How important are these things in reality? Isn't the
conveyance of ideas, dreams, emotion, the important part?
Grammar and spelling are constructs.
Consider cuneiform. Early discoverers of that ancient writing
couldn't wrap their minds around it and interpret it because it had
no rules. The same can be said for all the ancient languages. Rules
in English were pretty haphazard, too, clear through the history of
the language, until the rise of the large publishing houses around
the middle of the nineteenth century. Once these publishing houses
got going, and newspapers were accessible to the average guy, more
standardization came about. It was a minor conspiracy with major
consequences.
In some ways, we've returned to the
early nineteenth century, where the story was more important than the
way you wrote it down. Any particular reader has her choice of
writing styles to suit her budget and finickiness. Those who want a
quick read with particular actions or emotions can get it for free or
99 cents from a variety of places. For free or 99 cents, maybe the
reader can overlook a misplaced homonym or inconsistent editing. As
with any market, you often get what you pay for. Those books are
sometimes real gems, too. They surprise, titillate, touch, even
without all the foofaraw and etiquette of academic grammar, spelling
and punctuation. People eat them up. Even some really expensive books
with "egregious" errors are enormously popular. Look at the
Fifty Shades trilogy. Those books were huge on the market
despite their poor editing. People love them for the story, and
overlook the problems because they are transported while reading.
Just like the market can support books
that don't follow the standard rules, it holds a place for those of
us who find the rules important. I don't like reading books that
ignore the language and editing customs. Do I read them anyway?
Sometimes--if I think my fascination with the story is going to allow
me to ignore the errors and make mental fixes automatically without
pulling me out of the book entirely. My preference, however, is for
following the rules English has had for the last hundred years or so.
I like the discipline it shows. I prefer the nuanced use of homonyms
and spelling to make the ideas clearer and crisper. Punctuation, for
me, has to follow guidelines in order for the sentences to reach
their fullest potential. Editing, too, really counts. For me, I'm
willing to spend those extra dollars to get a product that makes me
comfortable.
It is wonderful that we readers have so
many choices. We can have tweeted fiction (Arjun Basu does some
fabulous work in this area). Our fiction can be multi-media, as in
World of Warcraft. We can read eBooks of every quality and price
(peruse Amazon for five minutes and you're sure to find something
you'll enjoy). And the world of blogs offers the widest possible
range of writing, from poetry to political thrillers, short, long,
and everything in-between.
We all have personal preferences, but
isn't it nice to have a choice? We can be whimsical, as readers and
writers, not unlike people in centuries past. The world of ideas is
the important part.
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