Poeslaw
Oh, dear … people can be very literal minded, it seems — Poe’s Law rules, O.K.
Remember, kids …
(No, really, you need to actually click on the link above and read the post behind it, not just look at the image ‘thumbnail’ and keep going ¹ )
I’m not suggesting we eliminate those on the Autistic Spectrum (including those who were formerly Aspergic) from the genepool. I’ve known a not altogether inconsiderable number of very lovely people who are and count one or two of them amongst my best friends. And I do kinda fancy Saga Norén more than I do Sofia Helin herself, so …
But there’s a limit to how many smilies and emojis I think I should be obliged to include in my writing, you know.
Literature, great or otherwise, doesn’t come with emoticons. When you watch a performance of A Comedy Of Errors, or listen to an audiobook version of a novel, you don’t get a laughter-track. If you want to read a book and it has words, turns of phrase and idioms in it that you don’t understand, you can’t complain to the author/publisher about the lack of spoonfeeding … you get a dictionary and look them up.
So, I dunno … maybe some people shouldn’t engage with others in writing and there should be a licence requirement to use the Interwebz or something — a minimum level of reading comprehension skills </just a thought>.
Whilst we’re here though … do you notice a similarity between this
… and this?
He does look guilty, doesn’t he? Caught in the act, you might say.
It’s the kind of expression you imagine crossing Stephen M. Tomic’s face multiple times a day — as well it no doubt might ⁴.
—
¹ I’ll come around and scroll your browser for you as well, shall I? ²
² Note: there’s a difference between sarcasm and withering scorn — guess which one I specialise in ³.
³ I dare you!
⁴ What a shame he’s not Canadian (that’d be even more fun).
