The semicolon. Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell detest it. Herman Melville, Henry James, and Rebecca Solnit love it. But why? When is it effective? Have we been misusing it? Should we even care?
In Semicolon, Cecelia Watson charts the rise and fall of this infamous punctuation mark, which for years was the trendiest one in the world of letters. But in the nineteenth century, as grammar books became all the rage, the rules of how we use language became both stricter and more confusing, with the semicolon a prime victim. Taking us on a breezy journey through a range of examples—from Milton's manuscripts to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letters from Birmingham Jail" to Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep—Watson reveals how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we'd think. Even the most die-hard grammar fanatics would be better served by tossing the rule books and learning a better way to engage with language.
Through her rollicking biography of the semicolon, Watson writes a guide to grammar that explains why we don't need guides at all, and refocuses our attention on the deepest, most primary value of language: true communication.
"What? Sit on the beach reading about punctuation? Yes, when it's as fun, rangy, and witty as this." —The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Big Summer Books"
"A scholarly treatise on a sophisticated device that has contributed eloquence and mystery to Western civilization . . . Delightful." —The New Yorker
The semicolon. Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell detest it. Herman Melville, Henry James, and Rebecca Solnit love it. But why? When is it effective? Have we been misusing it? Should we even care?
In Semicolon, Cecelia Watson charts the rise and fall of this infamous punctuation mark, which for years was the trendiest one in the world of letters. But in the nineteenth century, as grammar books became all the rage, the rules of how we use language became both stricter and more confusing, with the semicolon a prime victim. Taking us on a breezy journey through a range of examples—from Milton's manuscripts to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letters from Birmingham Jail" to Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep—Watson reveals how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we'd think. Even the most die-hard grammar fanatics would be better served by tossing the rule books and learning a better way to engage with language.
Through her rollicking biography of the semicolon, Watson writes a guide to grammar that explains why we don't need guides at all, and refocuses our attention on the deepest, most primary value of language: true communication.
"What? Sit on the beach reading about punctuation? Yes, when it's as fun, rangy, and witty as this." —The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Big Summer Books"
"A scholarly treatise on a sophisticated device that has contributed eloquence and mystery to Western civilization . . . Delightful." —The New Yorker
Reviews-
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February 25, 2019
In this impressive debut, Watson, a historian and philosopher of science, takes readers through a lively and varied “biography” of the semicolon. She covers the punctuation mark’s history (which began in 1494 Venice, in a travel narrative about scaling Mount Etna) and changing grammatical function, from creating rhythm to separating two independent clauses, along with the love/hate relationship writers have long had with it. Watson argues, with growing passion as the book progresses, that the semicolon, and punctuation in general, must be deployed with flexibility, not rigid adherence to precedent, and even finds court cases to prove her point, including a controversy in 1900 Massachusetts over whether the semicolon in an onerously restrictive state liquor statute was meant to be read as a comma instead, thus making the law far more liberal. Watson lands an especially strong point with her takedown of the inflexibility and “rule mongering of the David Foster Wallace types” and especially of Wallace himself, for a “speech he liked to give to black students whose writing he perceived to be... ‘non-standard.’ ” The stress on compassionate punctuation lifts this work from an entertaining romp to a volume worth serious consideration. (July)Correction: An earlier version of this review misspelled the author's first name. -
May 1, 2019
A brisk study of the history and meaning of an especially contentious punctuation mark. What is a semicolon for? What rules guide its usage? Consensus is hard to come by. Indeed, as Watson (Language and Thinking Program/Bard Coll.) explains in this informed and witty book, efforts to pin the semicolon down have only made it slipperier. A 15th-century Venetian publisher introduced the mark at a time when punctuation was employed more loosely, to signal pauses and underscore rhythms rather than serve grammatical correctness. Since then, despite diktats from the Chicago Manual of Style and elsewhere, satisfying guidance remains fleeting. Fittingly but also a bit frustratingly, the author structures her book in a semicolon-ish way; the chapters are loosely related but not always closely connected. A history of the semicolon gives way to an extended digression on squabbles among 19th-century grammar gurus; a discussion of how semicolons impacted Boston drinking laws and a death sentence gives way to an op-ed riff on the messiness of legal interpretations; close analyses of passages by Raymond Chandler, Irvine Welsh, and Herman Melville flow into Watson's own usage advice and critiques of the perceived snobbery of high style in general. If the author isn't padding, she sometimes seems determined to stretch the scope of the book beyond its stated subject. Yet from chapter to chapter, she brings a gadfly's spirit to the proceedings, thoughtfully lobbying for written English that resists restrictions and recognizes that "rules will be, just as they always have been, inadequate to form a protective fence around English." The value of the semicolon may be no clearer by the end. But then, it's a form of punctuation defined by ambiguity. Sprightly and scholarly, this will appeal to grammar geeks who are patient with Watson's free-range sensibility.COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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June 1, 2019
Given her enigmatic, esoteric subject, historian Watson has crafted an impeccably readable meditation on the semicolon. Watson travels back in time to the punctuation mark's birth and rise in popularity, and to moments in history when the placement of a semicolon has literally meant the difference between life and death. For all the literary gobbledygook associated with proper punctuation, there is even more fuss over phrasing when it comes to the law. After reviewing the annals of the colon's spunky cousin, Watson employs authors from Herman Melville to Rebecca Solnit to see it in action. Unlike a manual of style, however, this book's examples portion isn't long. Watson instead enforces a thesis stating that devoted adhesion to the rules of Standard Written English is a privilege afforded to very few. She reminds readers that there is an entire world of storytelling and communication that has nothing to do with how a sentence is spliced. It puts punctuation in perspective, which will be of particular significance to grammar sticklers, the readers most likely to pull this one from the shelf.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.) -
Mary Norris, The New Yorker
"A deceptively playful-looking book that turns out to be a scholarly treatise on a sophisticated device that has contributed eloquence and mystery to Western civilization . . . Delightful." — Mary Norris, The New Yorker
"Lively . . . Watson covers impressive ground in this short book, skittering back and forth like a sandpiper at the shores of language's Great Debates. . . fascinating." — New York Times
"What? Sit on the beach reading about punctuation? Yes, when it's as fun, rangy, and witty as this." — Philadelphia Inquirer, "Big Summer Books"
"Pity the poor semicolon, punctuation's wallflower, wrongfully maligned and too seldom asked to dance. Fortunately, this modest little powerhouse has found its defender. [Watson] is a witty, elegant writer with no nonsense about her." — New York Times Book Review
"Delightful, enlightening . . . The twisty history of the hybrid divider perfectly embodies the transience of language, the ways it can be shaped by cultural shifts that have nothing to do with correctness or clarity." — Vulture
"A delightful rabbit hole that I think even those who are not punctuation-obsessed will find eye-opening and strangely reassuring. If you enjoyed Between You & Me, Woe Is I, or Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Semicolon . . . is for you." — The Amazon Book Review, "Weekend Reading"
"Look, some people just enjoy arguing about punctuation. It's in their nature. But if your enthusiasm for this polarizing little mark stems from adoration and inquisitiveness (and only occasionally the haughty knowledge that you're right), Cecelia Watson's "biography" of the semicolon will be a delightful companion." — Elle, "Thirty Best Books to Read This Summer"
"Charming . . . an argument for deep knowledge and style awareness, moving beyond strictures to something educated, intuitive, and graceful." — New York Journal of Books
"Buoyant . . . thought-provoking . . . this little book is something of a page-turner." — Santa Fe New Mexican
"[A] witty, wily account." — Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Essential reading . . . Watson asks us to look hard at rules that pretend to be objective and consider their origins and implications; and in doing so, she advocates a skeptical, searching attitude that could usefully be taken toward many aspects of American life beyond grammar." — Boston Globe
"Winsome." — Harper's Magazine
"Your inner word nerd will love it." — Hello Giggles, "11 Best New Books to Read in July"
"All unloved things have their defenders . . . and the semicolon could not have asked for a better one than historian Cecelia Watson. . . . If anything will convince you of its artistic beauty and historic importance, it will be Semicolon." — Babbel
"Charts the rise and fall of the punctuation mark while examining how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we might think." — PureWow, "8 Books We Can't Wait to Read in July"
"Brisk, lively, witty, and provocative." — Audiophilie, D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award
"An impeccably readable meditation." — Booklist
"In this impressive debut, Watson . . . takes readers through a lively and varied 'biography' of the semicolon. . . . The stress on compassionate punctuation lifts this work from...
