Sunday, November 18, 2007

Literary Invention

A few days ago the world received news of the death of Norman Mailer--a writer widely regarded as one of the great American literary giants. Most of Mailer's more acclaimed work was written earlier in his life, but his voice has had long-standing clout in literary circles for the past sixty years. There was also a bit of debate as to whether he, or Truman Capote (author of In Cold Blood) had "invented" the non-fiction novel. Capote liked to claim this distinction, but many of Mailer's novels dealt with historical events and verbatim accounts.

Writers, no matter their distinction, like to claim that they invented something of impact, and that's why I'm claiming that I was the one who invented the "lucky seven exclamation point". For example, here are some sentences I have written as case in point.

Get that dog off the couch!!!!!!!
Honey, I'm Home!!!!!!!
Who ate my sandwich?!!!!!!!
You did what to the car?!!!!!!!
Get that dog out of my soup!!!!!!!
I'll be upstairs for some sweet love as soon as I finish my sermon!!!!!!!
Get the dog off my pillow!!!!!!!

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