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"Can grammar be hip? Is proper comma use cool?" Oh, it is indeed!
This is slightly old news, since the release of the new illustrated Elements of Style was a few months ago, but the delirious joy it brought me back in October has yet to dissipate, so I wanted to bring it to the attention of all. I only wish I could have attended the gala to hear the operatic song cycle performed by the Omit Needless Words Orchestra.
As one reviewer commented:
"A new generation of English students will soon walk the hallowed halls of education, quite oblivious to their good fortune in having The Elements of Style Illustrated, in all its synergistic glory, bouncing around in their backpacks."
It's been a year since I left Venice, so I thought I'd post a picture to commemorate my brief but beautiful amphibious former-life.
I'm finally nearing the end of an intense 2-month pre-publication period. I've spent the past couple of months sequestered in my office, surviving on copious amounts of tea, and giving Salinger and Pynchon some serious hermit competition. I've been so reclusive lately that people have been asking me if I've been away on holiday. Not quite...unless you count the exotic orange cover of my constant companion, the Chicago Manual of Style. Hopefully the book will go to press soon and I can stop fussing over semi-colons and index markers.
People have been inquiring about the origins of my blogspot name, so here it is: I love this excerpt from The Tempest because it reminds me of the vibrancy and interconnectedness of literary allusions. Originally penned by a brilliant 16th-century playwright, these lines have inspired countless writers such as the master of obscure and esoteric references himself, T.S. Eliot, and the fierce activist and gifted writer, Arundhati Roy.
Full fathom five thy father lies,
Of his bones are coral made:
Those are pearls that were his eyes,
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
-The Tempest
