Cormac McCarthy said that semi-colons “have no place in literature.” But he was also a child molester, so not all his ideas were good. - ThreadSky

colsonwhitehead.com • 92 days ago

Cormac McCarthy said that semi-colons “have no place in literature.” But he was also a child molester, so not all his ideas were good.

Reposted from Colson Whitehead

Semi-colon party all night long!
Say what?
Semi-colon party all night long!!

Comments

bronxriverdigital.com•92 days ago

I remembered Kurt Vonnegut saying not-nice things about semicolons as well.

And then I looked up the quote and it's not so nice to certain people, which is disappointing.

jennytulls.bsky.social•92 days ago

Oh noooo

spectreserf.bsky.social•91 days ago

one uses semicolons BECAUSE they're non-binary and hermaphroditic Kurt you dumb dumb

andydashiell.bsky.social•92 days ago

🔥whoa!🔥

timlieder.bsky.social•91 days ago

He fucked a teenager who stated that he saved her from being murdered by foster parents.
Have a little perspective
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0B18YNNVQ/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=

bradleyksherman.bsky.social•91 days ago

Hyphens have no place in semicolon.

darkloom52.bsky.social•92 days ago

Or you might have written: Cormac McCarthy said that semi-colons “have no place in literature;” but he was also a child molester, so not all his ideas were good.

stephen-fine.bsky.social•92 days ago

If I ever see a semicolon tucked inside a quotation mark again I might stroke out. What unholy madness!!

msapocalypse.bsky.social•91 days ago

Also the "but" after the semi-colon! 🙃

harrisoncklee.bsky.social•92 days ago

Alice Munro loved them, so it's a mixed bag

berkprotocols.bsky.social•91 days ago

Not as much as she loved the husband who molested & made life hell for her own daughter; I guess she & Cormac can argue punctuation in hell

khowaga.bsky.social•92 days ago

And Gabriel Garcia Marquez just went for the run on sentence from Hell.

tochitruestory.bsky.social•91 days ago

BRO

russbengtson.bsky.social•92 days ago

and I mean he also didn't seem to like capital letters or most other punctuation

esskaye.bsky.social•92 days ago

John Irving taught me to love the semi-colon. Also a problematic person, I suppose, but definitely an early influence.

edwoodk.bsky.social•92 days ago

Heeeeyyyyy!!! They were in love! 💞

lynne808.bsky.social•92 days ago

As a paralegal, I can't get through the day without many, many semi-colons. Are these idiots going after punctuation now?
Save the semi-colon! 🤣

badideas.bsky.social•91 days ago

I love this post so much

wendymadarling.bsky.social•91 days ago

Mwah 😘

butterinthis.bsky.social•91 days ago

Oh man just a haymaker across the chin😂

aphid.org•91 days ago

I had already been thinking about getting a ; inked because of how much I (over?)use them in writing, but now that it also describes my organs...

cheeseenthusiast.bsky.social•88 days ago

It's often used as a symbol for people who have attempted suicide or have dealt with suicidal ideation

So heads up about that if you do decide to get one

aphid.org•86 days ago

Well, I've survived that too. Thx for the heads up, I'd mostly seen it in ostomate and colorectal cancer circles.

cheeseenthusiast.bsky.social•86 days ago

You are welcome! I hope you enjoy your tattoo /genuine

stevewhy.bsky.social•91 days ago

More importantly, how does he feel about the Oxford comma?

sifill.bsky.social•92 days ago

Dayum.

pinkoscare.bsky.social•91 days ago

I've never once used a semicolon correctly but that doesn't stop me from using them anyway.

magneticsara.bsky.social•91 days ago

that's the spirit

pinkoscare.bsky.social•91 days ago

Thanks for your encouragement;

falkorfriend.bsky.social•91 days ago

kemilew.bsky.social•91 days ago

People who aren’t journalists that don’t use Oxford commas should have to register as sex offenders and be on a list.

thedenature.bsky.social•91 days ago

I helped to organize an academic conference with the subtitle “after the colon.”

rachelvardeman.bsky.social•92 days ago

Well, this is some devastating news. The latter, not the former, to be clear.

janetclare.bsky.social•91 days ago

🤣

jakewolford.com•92 days ago

As the kids would say: based.

charliemas.bsky.social•91 days ago

Semi-colons absolutely have a place in literature; that place is between two independent clauses.

markoleksiw.bsky.social•91 days ago

Oxford commas. Who gives an f?

julieblattberg.bsky.social•91 days ago

I do.

falkorfriend.bsky.social•91 days ago

James Joyce

I'll just list people's names for three pages in random "paragraphs"

njdarkish.bsky.social•91 days ago

He also seemed to hate quotation marks, so what the hell did he know about the value of punctuation?

thelionmachine.bsky.social•91 days ago

Given he was plagiarizing the teenager he trafficked and hiding her influence on his work, of course he hated attributing spoken words to the speaker.

davsmith4156.bsky.social•92 days ago

I know a guy who had his semi colon removed. Now he has to punctuate into a bag.

falkorfriend.bsky.social•91 days ago

Wow. This is so bad, I think it circled back to good?

vealllc.bsky.social•90 days ago

It's doubleplus good

nebulouswonder.bsky.social•92 days ago

Every semi-colon I place is used to spite him.

ianford.bsky.social•92 days ago

Semi-colon party; all night long.

madmacs.bsky.social•92 days ago

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet;

madmacs.bsky.social•92 days ago

and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off--then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

isometrichams.bsky.social•92 days ago

Wait what, what have I missed about McCarthy?

helicon.bsky.social•92 days ago

Vanity Fair wrote an article on his muse. He was 42 yrs old. She was 16.

jaredlipof.bsky.social•92 days ago

The truth about semi-colons lies somewhere between McCarthy and Irving.

toxicorange.bsky.social•92 days ago

I wasn’t surprised that he was a groomer (he kinda was telling us all along that men are awful), but his distaste for punctuation works for his intended goals.

bigworker.bsky.social•92 days ago

Plus he was notorious for leaving out not just semicolons but most punctuation, not exactly someone in the mainstream on that issue

lyricycle.bsky.social•91 days ago

God grant me the serenity to respect semicolons,
The courage to use colons when I need them,
And the wisdom to know the difference.

dykelanes.bsky.social•21 days ago

jesus that changes i how i feel about that one bit in all the pretty horses

jim61773.bsky.social•91 days ago

Hemingway also disliked semi-colons.
I don't think he was a molester.
But, he did like to be called "Papa."

radlein.bsky.social•91 days ago

tbf, none of his sentences ever went on long enough for internal punctuation

cariluna.bsky.social•92 days ago

In hindsight, his lack of respect for the semicolon was a red flag.

toxicorange.bsky.social•92 days ago

The baby-tree was so many red flags it was a circus.

blueknuckle.bsky.social•91 days ago

This hurts me so very badly; Kurt Vonnegut also despised semicolons.

gyrogeerloose.bsky.social•91 days ago

True, but he just used an em dash ( — ) instead.

piperfuriosa.bsky.social•91 days ago

I'm such a nerd that I use both; it depends on what I'm trying to say—or do!

gyrogeerloose.bsky.social•91 days ago

I’m a sucker for a good em dash.

cariluna.bsky.social•91 days ago

SAME

cariluna.bsky.social•91 days ago

In his case it was surely just a misunderstanding by an otherwise good person.

blueknuckle.bsky.social•91 days ago

Let's hope, and thank you for saying so, although he famously expressed his dislike for semicolons in a way that would get muh man Vonnegut good-and-properly-canceled in 2024. 😬

aveteresa.bsky.social•91 days ago

I always felt his writing was consciously readable - easy sentences for sometimes challenging ideas. But I love a well-placed semi-colon myself.

truman90210.bsky.social•92 days ago

He was a child molester?

lizespeaks.bsky.social•91 days ago

Rapist. He raped a 16 year old.

truman90210.bsky.social•91 days ago

I see now. I Googled it. Had not heard this before.

lizespeaks.bsky.social•91 days ago

She just told her story a few weeks ago which is how I knew. Gag.

onthewildroad.bsky.social•91 days ago

That Vanity Fair piece was disgusting. The romanticization of a 42 year old man grooming an abused child in the system is not romantic, what the hell?

shafthepoet.bsky.social•91 days ago

The man infamous for his lack of punctuation hates punctuation?

hotboredom.bsky.social•92 days ago

I ignore most dude literature rules because it's so annoying when people think their personal preference should be universal law.

drblatto.bsky.social•92 days ago

Wait is this the actual Colson Whitehead lmaooo

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