Friday, September 21, 2007

Capitalism

IN WHICH I PREDICT THAT SHOUTING WILL SHORTLY BECOME FASHIONABLE AGAIN.

4 comments:

Jun Okumura said...

WHAAATTTICAAAANNTTHEEEEaAAaa...ARRRYYOOUUUUUU!!!

Rimshot said...

From Wikipedia (not the most highly regarded source, but hey, I'm at work and short of time):

"E. E. Cummings' publishers and others have sometimes echoed the unconventional capitalization in his poetry by writing his name in lower case and without periods. Cummings himself used both the lowercase and capitalized versions, but according to his widow did not, as reported in the preface of one book, have his name legally changed to "e. e. cummings". He did, however, write to his French translator that he preferred the capitalized version ("may it not be tricksy"). Today, one Cummings scholar considers that for the poet to have signed his name all-lowercase may have been a gesture of humility, but for others to do so would be an act of condescension"

Tim F said...

Don't worry Jun... I'll be round in the morning to give you your bed bath...

Many thanks for that, Rimshot. But I don't buy the humility thing - humble people don't choose a style that makes them stand out from everyone else on a book shelf. bell hooks apparently dropped the caps because she wanted to focus on the "substance of books, not who I am." In which case, why not just publish anonymously? Duh.

Valerie said...

tEE hEE. sHOUTING iNDEED. oR, yA kNOW, wORSE...

Man, it is really hard to type like that deliberately.