I Want To See The Zoo, She Said, I Want To See The Zoo.

[rionaleonhart]

WHILST I'M BEING INSECURE ABOUT MY WRITING: for as long as I can remember, I have used "double quotation marks" for speech in fiction and 'single quotation marks' for all other purposes. No style guide will recommend this: in British publishing convention, single quotes are used for all purposes, including speech, with speech within speech the only context in which double quotes are used; in American publishing convention, the situation is reversed. Does this inconsistency bother you? (Alternative question: do you have similar stylistic quirks?) I just think there's something quite nice about drawing a visual distinction between speaking and 'setting a phrase aside'. If there are two different types of quotation mark, why not put them to use?


Regarding Supernatural: I rewatched 'Fresh Blood' a little while ago, and it reminded me of how awesome Bela can be. I love that she actually seems surprised and a little upset that Dean is so angry with her for telling a murderous madman where to find them. HONESTLY, DEAN, YOU'RE SO OVERSENSITIVE. And then she helps them track him down, because, hey, she didn't know Dean was going to be so unreasonable about the whole thing. I love her.

HERE IS SOMETHING I WOULD LOVE TO SEE: a rewritten Twilight, with Bela in the role of Bella. Edward may be ridiculously strong and fast, but if he can't hear Bela's thoughts he's doomed. She will seduce him, use him shamelessly and then run off with his sister to form an amazing con artist duo. It would be pretty great. And at least Bela's unsympathetic aspects are intentional, unlike those of Bella 'Stupid Unattractive Humans With Their Stupid Being Nice To Me' Swan.

(Jo is welcome to join Bela and Alice in their con-artistry.)

(Also, Ruby can flit between the three of them, although I have not yet decided whether she would assist with the cons or whether she would ruin them for her own amusement by possessing the team members at inopportune moments.)

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

I am glad that others fly in the face of publishing convention!

Investigation time! I just looked at some novels published by Penguin, Bloomsbury, Vintage, Jonathan Cape, Picador, Headline, Oxford University Press and ATOM. The ATOM book was the only one that used double quotation marks (and it used them for both speech and setting-aside), but that's probably because the book in question was (ahem) New Moon and therefore originally American. I don't have any ATOM books by British authors, so I don't know how they compare. (The Picador book was also American; presumably Picador's style guide recommends single quotes no matter what a book's origin.)

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

I've got a copy of Northanger Abbey from Penguin books that does double quotations for speech. The copy is from 1982, so maybe they changed styles at some point?

[rionaleonhart]

Interesting! There are single quotes in my 1952 edition of A Passage to India, but I do think double quotes were the style when Jane Austen was actually writing, so perhaps Penguin preserved that.

[dracothelizard.livejournal.com]

I could see why double quotations were handy in a time when it was all handwriting, it is easier to distinguish dialogue in handwriting if it's with two marks rather than just one, since a single quotation mark could easily be mistaken for an apostrophe.

Or maybe Jane Austen was just ahead of her time.