 Eats, Shoots & Leaves (2003)
If you still persist in writing, "Good food at it's best", you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave. The SCUM Manifesto of punctuation books takes no prisoners in its crusade to rescue proper punctuation from the anarchic morass into which it seems to be degenerating, thanks to text messaging and the internet. Lynne Truss is so uncompromising and righteously principled about correct punctuation that it is indeed daunting to attempt a review of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, if only because were she to stumble across it while Googling herself (not likely), she would certainly catch many examples of inappropriate or plain annoying punctuation usage here. Like Ms. Truss, I'm a stickler for grammar and punctuation, though unlike her I have no problem dispensing with either or both if it suits my nefarious purposes (which include "simply fucking with people"). I'm nowhere near as hardline as she is – in the photo on Shoots's dustcover, she is pictured taking a marker to a bus-stop advert of Two Weeks Notice to supply the missing apostrophe – but that's my failing, not hers. After taking in Eats, Shoots & Leaves in a couple of quick sittings, I regret my lack of activism on the topic. What ought to have been a ridiculous rant by someone who needs to get out more turns out to be a completely delightful read, hilariously melodramatic yet perfectly lucid (it's not, then, Gene Ray's book on punctuation … though I'd very much like to see that). Truss's cheekily histrionic language would seem more appropriate for a hardcore animal-rights dissertation than a book about commas and apostrophes, yet it's peppered with such incredibly funny examples and asides that there's no way to avoid being converted. The books I've read which have made me laugh out loud are few, but this one had me at a solid chuckle throughout, periodically nudging me up to a full-on roar. The amazing feat is how accessible she manages to keep the subject, by continually outwitting any potential argument or jaded resistance you might put forth. It's not a style-book per se, but rather a passionate apologia decrying the unnecessary apathy toward punctuation that endangers our language. It's not that you ought to fully punctuate your text messages, but rather that you need not take it sitting down when you encounter a Two Weeks Notice (sic). Truss mixes some history with anecdotal reportage and outright propaganda in her quest to wake us up to the perils of poor punctuation. It comes across like a wonderfully wicked conversation, to the point that it's easy to lose all perspective – swept up in the passionate emotion you'd more likely attribute to a slavery abolitionist, you forget that this is all about, like, semicolons. But bravo for Lynne Truss's unreasonable and unforgiving spirit! For what she says is right, comrades. Dismiss not her book into the "Oddly Enough" category: "Ha, ha, that lady's in a tizzy about bad punct-i-atin' (sic)!" For punctuation truly is your ticket to heaven, far more than abstinence, purity of heart, or not murdering people. The coolest thing about this book is that it will inevitably have the effect of improving the punctuation skillz (sic) of all who absorb its wisdom. Already, I've become more stringent about the way I punctuate my emails. As it should be! The book sold something like 500,000 copies in the UK, and surely will be a best-seller here (though the rules for punctuation in the States differ in some ways). All the better if all the MBAs I end up working with/for start to wake up to just how fucking awful their writing is, and it all starts with being able to choose correctly: its, it's? If even one latte-swilling MBA can acquire this awareness, Lynne Truss has already outclassed Mssrs. Strunk and White. On a few points, I have to respectfully disagree with Ms. Truss (I'm a staunch advocate of the serial, or Oxford, comma), but forgiving these small issues (which really are the ones that boil down to personal taste rather than pure logic), I can say that Eats, Shoots & Leaves is a much-needed book which will, with any luck, find itself preaching well beyond the choir. My hope is that it will take root so deeply that Lynne Truss will be established as some kind of Punctuation Laureate, her decrees becoming law punishable by fines and imprisonment. How fun will it be for all those MBAs to land in jail for comma abuse?! I can't wait for the eventual sequel, wherein Ms. Truss might set the record straight on the moronic non-existent words invented by corporations to make communication "easier" (i.e. "impactful," "incentivize" … *shiver*). Also, perhaps I can insinuate myself, Wormtongue-like, once Lynne Truss is in power, and finally convince the world that what we really need is a punctuation symbol indicating emphasis somewhere between that of a full stop (.) and an exclamation mark (!) – the "semibang" (.')! You know, for cases when a full-stop seems underwhelmed, yet an exclamation mark seems sarcastic. Hm, maybe I am more of a radical punctuation activist than I thought.
Review by La Fée |