I…I have ADHD. You can’t take one of English’s bare handful of universally-recognized typographical digression-signals from me. I will physically die. - ThreadSky

catvalente.bsky.social • 31 days ago

I…I have ADHD.

You can’t take one of English’s bare handful of universally-recognized typographical digression-signals from me.

I will physically die.

Reposted from Catherynne M. Valente

I resent so thoroughly how much ChatGPT has made people recoil from the em dash EMILY DICKINSON AND ALSO ME HAVE NOT LIVED AND FOUGHT IN VAIN THE ARTROOMBA ROBOTS WILL
NOT TAKE THIS FROM US

Comments

boggo2300.bsky.social•31 days ago

I have despised the EM-Dash since before LLC's were a thing, it's punctuation that ISN'T punctuation!!!!

marvelish.me•31 days ago

I've fallen even more deeply in love with using—and maybe overusing—the em-dash after the software I installed to more easily type Czech diacritics turned out to make them much easier to type.

I never want to go back!

nesler.org•31 days ago

Emdashes: When you won't settle for a mere sentence—you want to take your readers on a nonconsensual journey through whatever the hell is occupying the dank corners of your brain.

mockwriting.bsky.social•31 days ago

It's a solid 10% of my punctuation!

charliecousins.bsky.social•31 days ago

I'll give up my em-dash and Oxford comma--when ChatGPT gives up being a binary boob and grows a heart that is empathetic, creative, and capable of injury via a lover's scorn.

rrvirdi.bsky.social•31 days ago

Wait...are people with ADHD more prone to liking/using the em dash...totally not asking for my ADHD ass that uses (and loves them) a lot...and will literally fight any and everyone who comes for the em dash.

evildolly.bsky.social•31 days ago

(standing up from my folding chair) "My name is Erika Moak, and I use the em-dash!"

neilbanas.bsky.social•31 days ago

There's also been a wave of incendiary anti-semicolon rhetoric recently. If we have to chop the turbulent unity of our six-line sentences into little regularised bits separated by full stops, the robots will have already won.

On the other hand, the 19th c terminal _double_ em-dash——

cstross.bsky.social•31 days ago

I am going to repopulate my prose; with semicolons!

catvalente.bsky.social•31 days ago

Oh my god I’ve started to switch to that too! Even though it sucks and isn’t as good, I fucking love my G I A N T D A S H Y B O I S

zakjarvis.bsky.social•31 days ago

If they take my em dashes, I will start using ð and ſ.

foxfirefey.bsky.social•31 days ago

Time for oodles of nested asides in parentheses I guess

pixelfish.bsky.social•31 days ago

Cat, I made a post on LinkedIn about this not an hour past. The em dash, the parentheticals, the ellipses, my need to subtly or not-so-subtly pastiche Victorian writers—what would I do without them??

paigeakinavera.bsky.social•31 days ago

Emdashes have been the arrows in my linguistic quiver since I was in middle school. They're everywhere in my writing whether it's personal or professional. I will fire arrows into the heart of each and every server before I let those theft machines take my emdashes away from me.

caeliniscreepy.bsky.social•31 days ago

Em-dash forever! I'll be out here using it!

jnork.bsky.social•30 days ago

I still use words like "paradigm" and "synergy" unironically.

Because they're perfectly good words with useful meanings that existed long before '80s corporate jargon. I refuse to let those losers dictate to my vocabulary.

zyllable.bsky.social•31 days ago

hear, hear!

mithriltabby.bsky.social•31 days ago

I know how to create one using the Compose key on my laptop and the onscreen keyboard on my phone— and I’ll continue doing so. And using en dashes for numerical ranges, too.

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