Death to Commas!

"Curse, of, the, Common, Comma"
"David W. Boles' Urban Semiotic / Where Blood and Bone Render Meaning in the City Core" (June 13, 2006)

Here's writing advice from a writer who deplores commas. That's because, he explains, "I was taught -- by the great poet, editor, friend and Pulitzer Prize winner Karl Shapiro -- to only use minimal punctuation and only when it was urgently required for clarification."

Here's a sample of this sort of comma-free writing: "Karl's writing was about brevity and clarity and condensation of belief all while churning up deep and complicated emotional and intellectual reactions in his readers."

He also said "Karl would also tell me. 'Commas are bonnets and if your sentence is wearing more than one you risk looking silly.' " I have to admit: That's funny.

I present this op ed piece not so much as useful advice but as an example of how people who are very talented can come up with rules that don't necessarily apply to the sort or writing that you and I do on a routine basis.

Still with me?

Notice that there wasn't a single c-word in that whole paragraph that starts with "I present" and ends with "routine basis." Although the sentence does have a capitol letter and a period at the end.

i know that there are very talented people just ask them who don't use capitol letters or periods or other punctuation but I am not so talented and so I dont as a rule

Seriously? This is an engagingly-written piece. But I wouldn't take the man's advice. Unless you're an excessively creative person, who wants to write a novel without the letter "p," or sans comma, or something of that sort.

Interestingly, the writer cites the genius of James Joyce: whose "Ulysses" put stream-of-consciousness writing on the map, and whose works will be read as long as there are English teachers to assign them.