Saturday, March 21, 2009

!?

I have recently become disenchanted with the exclamation mark. I'm not sure where this feeling has come from, but every time I use one I feel a little bit cheap.

I came across a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald recently that perhaps sums up my feelings: "An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke."

I think it has to do with my minimalist self - always paring down to the essentials.

That said, if you are one of my favourite people who happens to use a great number of exclamation marks (of which there are a few), I find them charming when used by you. I mean it.

Punctuation marks I do like: ; & ?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

and what of the interrobang? i've been meaning to ask you for some time now, and the title of this post begs the question.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang

Ange Friesen said...

Aesthetically I don't much like the interrobang...

Nope, don't love it. Although it does seem like it serves a function.

Saf said...

Phew, thank goodness. I started reading this and was like, "Oh no! I use exclamation marks all the time!!!!" I also laugh at my own jokes...

Ha.

evanfrederickmacquarrie said...

although i think some people can pull it off,
i generally believe that exclamation marks are boring.
i generally reserve them for moments of great emotion, and even then
i generally edit them out of a final draft.

but then i generally attempt to be dry as fuck.


except when i'm laughing at my own jokes.

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