My high school baseball coach and math teacher (one and the same) was a big fan of e.e. cummings (1894-1962). I gave him a read but must admit, he never appealed to me.

Now after reading many posts on the other forums, I realize e.e. has had a great influence on the current younger generation. Sometimes I feel like I am reading a poem of e.e.'s, no punctuation, run on sentences, no upper case, and quite often it makes no sense to me.

I wonder if e.e. would be proud?

For those not familiar with e.e., here is one of his poems.

a total stranger one black day
knocked living the hell out of me--


who found forgiveness hard because
my(as it happened)self he was


-but now that fiend and i are such
immortal friends the other's each

Want more e.e. poems?

e.e. cummings poems

 

dbw is pretty cool, too

 

I doubt he wanted to have that kind of influence on the younger generation! I like his poems.

 

I find the lack of punctuation much more tolerable in e. e. cummings poems than in the the general usage of language. I don't think that was cummings intention.

I think his structure, or lack of it, was part of the image or picture he was trying to paint. I think in general the lack of structure makes communication much more difficult. When I read something written in that form, I find myself having to spend time "translating" it and wondering if I am getting the meaning that the writer was trying to state. Oftentimes, I simply give up.

I doubt that cummings was trying to create this "monster".

 

Personally, whenever I open a post written in the style you all are talking about, I immediately close it; I often add the author to my "ignore list."

 

wellshitwhataboutthejamesjoyseschoolofwritingiwoul dbeastoundediftheaverageteenagerpostingthesedaysev erhadtowadethruthedublinerslikeididandpalmateertha nksforthememoriesandredy2ks2kyoumightbemissingsome ratherneatstuffwithsuchanelitistattitudebythewayif youthinkidontknowofwhatiwriteididsitthrufonnulafla nnigansonewomanproductionofjamesjoyceswomenwithane speciallymovinginterpitationofmollybrownsbitontheb eadbuthhenagainimsurenoonewillreadthisanyway:hello :

 

Nope, not good enough. No abbreviations, and you used the word "you" when you should have used u, "to" where you should have used 2, and "be" where you should have used b. I didn't have anywhere near the necessary difficulty reading this as I should have. Try again.

 

sorry bro but you're confusing james joyce with snoop doggy-dog.

 

Ha ha. I really didn't start the thread to bash on the new style of writing although I know it could be seen that way. I was just reading a post with a very, very, long run on, unpunctuated, no upper case sentence and realized I'd seen quite a few similar posts. Then good old e.e. sprang to mind.

Time marches on and the young ones will continue to come up with ways to annoy the old ones and differentiate their generation from the previous one. In a short time our young posters will have grown older and be complaining about whatever their offspring have come up with.

 

I was hoping you'd see this!