So, I just finished reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I need a laugh. If you've ever heard of The Road or anything else by Cormac McCarthy you would understand why I need a laugh. It's a well-written book, just grim and very heavy. So here's my less-than-publishable take on a very well-respected but sad-faced book.
The story takes place years after some great fallout. We know that everything's post-apocalyptic, as everything is a wasteland and covered in ash, and most of the sparse people left are thieves or worse.
Whatever happened, it took a good deal of punctuation with it as well. All of the world's quotation marks and commas were laid waste long before the story takes place. And some apostrophes. Some make it, some don't. There almost seemed to be a rule to it, and I thought I figured it out, then I'd turn the page and see my rule broken. I guess that's why Mr. McCarthy is Mr. McCarthy, and I'm not. He alone holds the mystery of the apostrophes.
Spacing in quotes must have been nuked as well.
I wish I could talk to the author about this rule to see if I could sneak away with some of his secret. I can picture the conversation going as follows.
Tell me how to write quotes the way you do. No. Please? Since you asked nicely let me think about it. No.
I guess some secrets are best left undiscovered. I stopped quoting, by the way. Man, writing like that is tough.
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