Eats,
Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. Published 2003 by Profile Books, London, 209
pages, UK�9.99, ISBN 1 861 97612 7.
Outraged disbelief is not commonly associated with punctuation, but it was what a student of mine expressed in a recent lesson. He was convinced that as a non-native speaker no one would mind whether he remembered the commas or not in the following sentence:
'The human arm, which is superior to that of robots, is light and strong.'
Since the student was a
published scientist and there seemed quite a difference between the general idea
of the human arm (with commas) and that of a selection of arms, one of which is
superior to those of robots (without commas), I pressed the point.
It is just this kind of nonsensical poor punctuation that induced Lynn Truss to write Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Examples from here, there and everywhere are copiously supplied:
�CD�s, VIDEO�s, DVD�s and BOOK�s�, seen in a shop window, and �Potato�s� or �Potato,s� known as the greengrocer�s apostrophe, are but two. Truss humorously describes the punctuation stickler�s reaction to these errors: �shock, disbelief, pain and anger followed by an urge to correct with a marker pen�. She has even stood outside a West End cinema with a cut out apostrophe on a stick, to make it �Two Weeks� Notice�.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves developed from a 2002 Radio 4 series on punctuation, presented by Truss. The first chapter is �The Seventh Sense�, referring to the stickler�s innate radar for tracking punctuation errors. Here Truss describes her reasons for the book: plummeting punctuation standards and a belief that everyone is capable of understanding where an apostrophe goes. She discusses aspects of punctuation and her wish for awareness and clarity. It is a pity this desire for clarity doesn�t always extend to the content of the book.
Subsequent chapters about the punctuation marks themselves contain, in no particular order: a description of correct current usage and how far we can safely veer off this path, a brief historical background, eminent people�s punctuation opinions and Truss�s reflections on these opinions. It can all be quite exhausting for the reader. On the question mark we are buffeted about the centuries, from the 1745 upside down question mark and Bill Gates�/ Microsoft�s obvious support of the idea, to Who Framed Roger Rabbit and more besides. So much for teaching text prediction skills in English lessons, and pity the poor coherence stickler.
Part of the chat and fun is personifying the punctuation marks. Full stops are �stolid little chaps or lumpen males to the apostrophe�s multi-tasking female�. The comma is �a grammatical sheepdog, tearing about the hillside of language, unstoppably enthusiastic at his job�. Who would have thought that subliminal images from One Man and his Dog would help round up our punctuation?
Metaphors abound. Punctuation is amongst other things, the stitching to stop the buttons falling off language and the traffic signals to prevent words from banging into each other. Even the history is jocular. Deciphering 5th century classical Latin texts, where there are no spaces between words let alone punctuation, is compared to meditating on a modern word-search puzzle, with the same staggered grasp of meaning. Isn�t this just clutching at metaphorical straws? There are times when the humour becomes sloppy, such as when Truss kicks herself for not volunteering to have the babies of the 16th century punctuation innovator Mauritius, or when �an Inner Stickler that, having been unleashed, is now roaring, salivating, and clawing the air in quite an alarming manner�. I do hope not. Truss�s proposals for direct action involve sending back badly-punctuated emails, picketing Harrods and employing weapons ranging from correction fluid to guns. Anything goes in the attempt to keep our attention.
But keep our attention she does, and by the end of the book our nagging doubts about punctuation have indeed been cleared up, and we know a lot of amusing punctuation trivia. Do you know the difference between a splice comma, an intrusive comma and an Oxford comma? Were you aware of the Apostrophe Protection Society, whose members do in fact write letters pointing out errors? Perhaps Truss�s direct action is not so far-fetched after all.
The burning question is why, what is ostensibly a grammar book has become so popular. In a society where it is cool to be vacuous and people happily profess to enjoy ignorance, could Eats, Shoots and Leaves be the trendy way to find things out on the sly? It is the perfect blend of bite-sized chunks of information coated in plenty of sugary froth and is absolutely not for boffins. The issue is complicated by recent trends away from any punctuation at all, seen at an extreme on the internet. In this sphere it is quite acceptable to rely on the dash � for almost anything � and to do this !!! whenever you like!!! How convenient but how woolly (to maintain the sheep theme).
People do care about language and deep down they are not satisfied with the ubiquitous � and ! Native speakers make the same error as my student with the robot, but know that they are fudging, that there is something amiss. It is not time to picket Harrods but it is time to raise punctuation awareness and Eats, Shoots and Leaves certainly does the job.
Judith Gorham studied Fine Art at Newcastle University and then at Camberwell College of Art in London. She has been living in Italy since 1998 and teaches English Language at the University of Brescia and at the Bocconi University in Milan.
Note: This review was first published on August 23 2004 by JUST Book Reviews.
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