Signal to Noise Ratio A meditation on Punctuation
Signal to Noise Ratio: A Meditation on Punctuation "All art constantly aspires toward the condition of music. ... All sense of punctuation is being degraded and eroded then leached out of existence. ... Punctuation, as a conceptual construct or grammatical icon, is diminished in an increasingly non-literate populace. "Punctuation is used merely to help the reader understand what is meant." -World Book Encyclopedia The examination of punctuation, as part of the language of literature, is not only a study in interruption; it is also an analysis of separation, cessation, of vacuums and noises, of contextual boundaries. In this piece, we will hold our exploration of punctuation to its specific use and design in literary works. We will look at punctuation in its idiographic functionality as well as consider its metaphorics. Punctuation, in one form or other, has existed as long as there’s been writing. ... By the Renaissance, the acclaimed Italian printer and scholar, Aldus Manutius, had begun to codify and systematize the various marks of punctuation and incorporate them into his printed works. Punctuation became a civilizing force as it shaped and contextualized language in a literary frame. ... Yet, in the polysemous, deconstructed view of any narrative form, Derrida says- "In its syntax, and its lexicon, in its spacing, by its punctuation, its lacunae, its margins, the historical appurtenance of a text is never a straight line. ... Pynchon adds his own idiosyncratic punctuation in the form of words and phrases and their peculiar geography in the sentence. ... "You don’t understand", is itself a punctuation mark. ... Punctuation disrupts the line. ... It would seem, on one hand, that punctuation is a graphic attempt to incorporate the organic rests and hesitations of speech. The punctuation of speech is a more complex and dynamic system of pauses and emphatic indicators. ... ) Punctuation is also an attempt to designate emphasis, emotionality and intention. ... Yet, the musical composer has a vast array of punctuation possibilities compared to the literary composer. ... Ironically, it is the author, the writer, with his/her limited punctuation tools who can be the most expansive, the most interpretively dimensional with the perceived linearity of literary design. ... Words are delineated in specific arrangements that are shaped by the punctuation. Authors constantly wrestle with punctuation’s conventions and attempt inventive configurations. ... We can take an illustration from Don DeLillo’s novel "White Noise". While most of the writing utilizes standard punctuation, DeLillo creates more emphatic punctuation by ending particular chapters with short, mostly single sentence paragraphs that resonate, end with the traditional period and are then followed by an expanse of white, blank space. ... Authors have always been inventive with narrative form, they’ve neologized, they’ve plagiarized but rarely do they wander far from the grammatical norms of punctuation. ... , isolating those words with the punctuation of space. ... What each author of narrative fiction accomplishes with pause, space, punctuation is to make reading a uniquely personal experience. Readers are presented with a semblance of orchestration with an author’s punctuation and graphic design but they move through it at their own pace and evolve their own significances. ... Stories need punctuation; they need time and space to be contemplated, savored, understood. ... Punctuation has become a luxury.