Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
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Loved it! Really I did!!!
I also like the serious explanation behind it. In forum and text messages we (well, some of us, myself not so much) try to be brief, and we have all run into the problem of people not understanding our humour or sarcasm or whatever, so we litter our texts with emphasis so that no one could possibly misunderstand us (but, of course, some still manage it).
The mistake is to think that narrative text needs the same thing. It shouldn't. The urgency or surprise or whatever should be apparent in the narrative itself. (If we're not writing flash-fiction,) We have room to move and develop the reader's state of excitement, so if we've done our job properly, any additional emphasis provided by punctuation need only be subtle ... or that's the theory.
Still, in another 20 years maybe the latest bestsellers will abound with emoticons and interrobangs and links to the Wikipedia page showing that the author researched the facts in great detail. (Do I need to put a smiley here?)