Jus' back from an "Xtreem Punqtu8" cage-match in Saskatchewan, as part of the build-up for Punctuathon 2012 (and yeah, it WAS lit'rally in a cage: the R.C.S.P.P.P.E.* is tryin' -- mistakenly, IMO -- to draw in the "kidz" and "da yoot"). Anyway, in the melée section, each contestant was able to introduce a personally chosen, unpunctuated text for his compunctators to work on. I'd gone with an obscure Hawthorne extract myself and my thoughts were far from CAS, I must confess, as I threw myself into the fray... So imagine my surprise and pleasure to discover that someone ELSE had chosen four paragraphs from
"The Maker of Gargoyles" as HIS punctu-text. (Earnt m'self max-marx there, I'm happy to report.)
Got talkin' to th' individual in question later over a glass-a carrot-juice and we discovered not just a mutually shared passion for CAS'n'commas in common, but also a dedication to confronting issues around Islamophobia (too). I've promised to try'n'wrangle him a place on my next fact-finding mission to Pakistan/Afghanistan, tho' he was dubious about being taken up the Khyber. Understandably so, given the sensitivity of the region.
*R.C.S.P.P.P.E. = Royal Canadian Society for the Promotion and Preservation of Pure English, who oversee Punctuathons an' similar.
P.S. Just to be clear: despite the title of this posting, I despise Morrissey, Marr, and (in particular) their severed alliance. In fact, if Morrissey, Marr, and Cormac McCarthy were lined up, blindfolded, against a wall and I were handed a rifle and two bullets, I'd have to think LONG and HARD -- VERY hard -- b4 shootin' McCarthy twice.
“The true independent is he who dwells detached and remote from the little herds as well as from the big herd. Affiliating with no group or cabal of mice or monkeys, he is of course universally suspect.†—
The Black Book of Gore Vidal.