“The semicolon is the most human of punctuation marks, precisely because it’s inherently ambiguous and complicated: it can join two independent clauses that don’t relate, or two independent clauses that closely relate. Its very use is a signifier of the complexity of human thought, of our knack for making connections, right or wrong, between ideas and impressions. It’s messy but it’s democratic. (Probably why Cormac McCarthy hates it.) Sure, it interrupts the rhythm sometimes, but human consciousness doesn’t always unfold with flawless cadence; it’s a reminder that we’re not always as clever as we think we are. The semicolon also occupies a place of tremendous peril because it’s not as terminal as the period, which is the universal sign of THE END, nor is it the mere slight breath of a comma, a piece of punctuation that provides only the merest of interruptions, and almost seems to be saying, “carry on.” In this respect, the semicolon occupies an area somewhere between the living and the dead; its suggestion of finality, like a brush with death, will get you to pay attention to what follows a little more closely than if a mere comma were standing in your way.”
Jonathan Evans, in an email to Lisa Lutz
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