Monday, May 4, 2009

A Post (In Which) I Anal(yze) Pare(nth)etical Usage

I read many blogs, mostly authored by women who I admire, laugh with, get emo over the same things, and all around adore.  They are mothers, wives, artists, sisters, teachers, editors, single occupancy gals, comediennes, cat lovers, book snobs, politicos, lovers, designers, total strangers... A pretty wide slice of the human experience is represented.  What do they all have in common?  Near obsessive use of parenthetical statements.  We all seem to go GAGA over parentheses (and not Lady Gaga, but like Camilla the Chicken from the Muppets (Gonzo's girlfriend) who's only vocalization other than clucking to express her love of Gonzo is to chant "GAGAGAGA!  That is the kind of GAGA I am talking about).  See?  It is the written way of going off topic, but not really.  We are making a point, just in a rather round about, esoteric manner.  Which is exactly how many of us talk.  My speech is full of digressions from the main theme, illustrative examples, and all other manner of vaguely connected tidbits and puns.  

However, I came to a moment in time where I questioned whether or not some people know how to use parenthetical statements correctly (myself included) (and yes, all of the ones in this post are purposeful).  For example what I just did with the set of parentheses back to back?  Is that allowed?  Does it work?  Initially I felt a low grade gammer fever over this.  I even looked it up (here's a link), but not much came from the research.  Least of all guilt about my blatant and excessive reliance on parentheses as a tone modifier in text.  Further, I go back to writing the way I talk.  And I talk totally rad (clearly).

(click photo for Flickr page)

I try not to abuse my blogging rights too much (they start to whimper, all whiney, bastard-like and it gets tiresome) all the while letting the stream of consciousness mumbo-jumbo rigamarole just be.  So, parenthetical statement I am gonna run with you like scissors.  (It could be dangerous, but it feels so right.)

No comments: