Quote Unquote

This morning, talk radio host Mark Simone revealed what Washington insiders call Dr. Fauci behind his back: Tony Baloney. He didn’t mention a brand.

From an article at foxbusiness.com, edited by yours truly: “U.S. imports of handguns and long guns surged by 60% in 2020 compared to the previous year and supplied more than a quarter of the nation’s demand for firearms… Most came from Turkey, Austria and Brazil… Other top countries include Croatia, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic and China… It’s estimated there were more than 8.4 million legal first-time gun buyers in 2020.”

It finally occurred to me to Google a matter I find irritating — the lack of quotation marks in fiction. In an article at novelvisits.com, a site run by Susie — no last name given — she cites five reasons an author would eschew the grammatical device:
Some say that writing without quotation marks is more elegant and claim it actually makes it easier for the reader. (I beg to differ)
Others claim that it’s the writer’s intent to blur the lines between dialogue and description, allowing the reader to develop their own meaning from the text. (Huh?)
E. L. Doctorow once claimed that if a writer knows what he is doing, quotation marks aren’t really necessary. “You can tell when it’s dialogue.” (Not always)
To some it has a more natural feel and looks cleaner on the page. (Poppycock)
Eliminating quotation marks forces the reader to consider the writer’s prose with greater care. (Baloney, Boar’s Head)
Other writers who have done this include James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Cormac McCarthy and Charles Frazier. If I find such a work interesting, I keep reading, but it diminishes the enjoyment. Some authors blend dialogue and prose in the same paragraph.

Not much action at the floating book shop on this crisp, beautiful late winter day. My thanks to the young woman who bought Sounder by William H. Armstrong. There was a Covid testing station nearby, separated from the display by a tree. It was amusing to see those who don’t speak English question the crew about what was available by pantomiming getting a shot.

My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts

Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza