An abstract, book review by Literary Magic (
www.LiteraryMagic.com) on the book Eats, Shoots, and Leaves: The zero tolerance approach to punctuation, by Lynne Truss.
Children Drive Slowly.
To many of us who see this road sign on the highway we think absolutely nothing of it, but now try looking at it a different way. Try looking it at from a view of someone who considers proper punctuation and of grammar vital, from Lynne Truss' view (Lynne Truss discusses in her book whether when you have a word ending in s, should the possessive be just an apostrophe after the s, or an apostrophe followed by an additional s). In the book, Lynne Truss mentions this sign, and how the lack of punctuation despairs her. Now, after reading this, can you decipher what the problem is with the above sign?
Is there really anything wrong with it? Why does it need punctuation? What's wrong with saying Children Drive Slowly?
Actually, (after reading Lynne Truss' book-I hope I used the possessive correctly here-and gleaning as much information on punctuation as possible from it,) I myself discovered not merely the mistake with this road sign, but also the way to properly identify itself in order to explain it to others. Children Drive Slowly; really? Wow, that's news to me. I didn't even know children could drive at all.
It's a good thing the road sign didn't remain like this. Lynne Truss had the comma inserted in the proper place, (Children, Drive Slowly), which raised hers, as well as many others' hearts. Anyway, getting back to what Eats, Shoots and Leaves is intrinsically about: grammar and punctuation. The book is about the problems associated with proper grammar usage and punctuation in our present day.
But Lynne Truss isn't just rebuking the reader; she doesn't only want to chastise those who misuse grammar in our age. True, she does remonstrate those who don't use proper punctuation, but she also aides them. She lists all the rules of grammar and punctuation in a brief, yet fun-to-read (I hope I hyphenated this right!) chapters, her sole goal to improve punctuation for not only a select few, but everyone. Also, she lists a few of the differences in punctuation between America and (her country of) England. She says, You say parenthesis while we (the British) say brackets...American Usage interestingly places all terminal punctuation inside closing quotation marks, while British usage sometimes `picks and chooses'...the American `period' is equivalent to the British `full stop', or that `exclamation point' is the US way of saying 'exclamation mark.'
Next, Lynne Truss says and mentions Shakespeare as calling the full stop a period in A Midsummer's Night Dream when he described `nervous players making periods in the midst of sentences. Lynne Truss then shows us just how this happens, when she quotes from Shakespeare:
We do not come as minding to content you,
Our true intent is. All for your delight
We are not here.
William Shakespeare,
A Midsummer's Night dream, Act V, scene i
Another important fact she mentions that I find fascinating is when she writes, In Shakespeare's time, an apostrophe indicated omitted letters, which meant Hamlet could say with supreme apostrophic confidence: Fie on't! O fie!
Lastly, I would just like to comment on one small aspect of Lynne Truss' book. First, let's read the passage ourselves:
Lynne Truss writes, Of course, if Hebrew or any of the other ancient languages had included punctuation (in the case of Hebrew, a few vowels might have been nice as well), two thousand years of scriptural exegesis need never had occurred, and a lot of clever, dandruffy people could definitely have spent more time in the fresh air.
Now, I will admit that from Lynne Truss' point of view-or any grammarian's point of view, whether American or British-it's alright to be disheartened that Hebrew (the Old Testament, to them) has no punctuatioe frankly, it has both. It has punctuation. It has vowels. They are not written on the page, although they are clearly seen. True, it seems they are invisible to grammarians, but truthfully, they are there for those who want to see it. By this, I mean that those who study Hebrew know and understand where a clause or sentence stops or where there is a question. Those who devote all the time they can to studying it can understand everything. By having to spend time understanding it, this is how people learn the true linguistics of the language. Therefore, while Lynne Truss is not at all incorrect, in the future no one should wish that Hebrew (scripture; the "Old Testament" if you will) had punctuation or vowels: it did, it just was waiting to be seen.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves is a wonderful book that I would recommend to all, especially those who love grammar and hate when it is misused. Even for those who don't love grammar, but just want to brush up on the rules, Lynne Truss' book is great for them. However, if you can't stand reading books about grammar, then perhaps it would be best for you to stay clear of this book. On the bright side though, Eats, Shoots and Leaves is a marvelous book for everyone. For those who hate when grammar is misused, it is most highly recommended.
