On Mon, 17 Feb 2003, Steven Brust wrote: > At 05:58 PM 2/17/2003 -0800, Philip Hart wrote: > >I don't in fact use exclamation points. > > I do, occasionally. I'd miss them if they were gone. Outside of dialogue? Here's another example of why I'd like to have your works accessible by search engine. > But you're right, > they're used way too much. I had a huge argument with Ace because they > would add exclamation marks to my cover quotes, and that would infuriate me. > > > > >In any case, I've seen too many sentences on the net which couldn't be > >spoken in the tone indicated by the attached emoticon to find them > >tolerable. Your mileage may vary, to quote the net. > > This argument, however, is specious. Misuse of a tool by some does not > show that the tool is useless. I hesitate to argue with you about writing, and we're likely to veer into the Saturday-night-special debate (or the somewhat different why-does-the-US-have-chemical-weapons-if-Iraq-can't debate), but I think you're wrong, at least in the case of style. If enough illiterate people misuse a device, it taints the proper use of the device for the literate. I'll call it the AOL-effect if you don't mind me overgeneralizing. A simple example is the conversion of many Shakespeare quotes into cliches. - Philip