How anybody can compose a story by word of mouth face to face with a bored-looking secretary with a notebook is more than I can imagine. Yet many authors think nothing of saying, "Ready, Miss Spelvin? Take dictation. Quote No comma Sir Jasper Murgatroyd comma close quotes comma said no better make it hissed Evangeline comma quote I would not marry you if you were the last man on earth period close quotes Quote Well comma I'm not comma so the point does not arise comma close quotes replied Sir Jasper twirling his moustache cynically period And so the long day wore on period. End of chapter."
If I had to do that sort of thing I should be feeling all the time that the girl was saying to herself as she took it down, "Well comma this beats me period How comma with homes for the feebleminded touting for custom on every side comma has a man like this succeeded in remaining at large mark of interrogation."
P.G. Wodehouse, Over Seventy
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Worth Deciphering
This is nothing short of genius.
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2 comments:
My brain hurts reading that. Very clever.
I laughed so hard when I read it, that I almost woke up the sleeping beauty on the next pillow. (Um, that would be the two-year-old.)
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