Editorial Content for On the Mark: From Periods to Interrobangs, How Punctuation Remade the World
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
ON THE MARK is an extraordinary and entertaining account of how the words we read have a hidden language and history of their own. At first, I thought that Florence Hazrat’s book might help me improve my writing skills. But I quickly realized that this would be a far different journey, and it was one that I fully embraced and enjoyed.
In 2007, the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary changed 16,000 words by altering hyphens. Some words were combined, while some hyphens were eliminated by divorcing words previously joined together. The editor explained his decision by commenting that ordinary people “are not confident about using hyphens anymore,” because they are “messy looking and old-fashioned.” The tiny hyphen had served readers and writers well for thousands of years. Why toss it into the dustbin (or is that dust-bin) of punctuation history?
"Florence Hazrat has given us far more than a thoughtful history of punctuation. In this delightful adventure in reading, she has provided us with a history of the world."
For Hazrat, changes in punctuation are normal and an important reflection on our values. ON THE MARK examines how humans have interacted with punctuation individually and collectively. It organizes our lives and has done so even before the printed word became part of our daily existence.
Punctuation began with lines and notches pressed into clay in ancient Mesopotamia. For thousands of years, no spaces existed between words. Then, in the eighth century, Irish monks pioneered their use. By the 13th and 14th centuries, writing moved from religious documents to the public and governmental areas of people’s lives, and it required more than just written words. Punctuation became essential to proper communication. Along the way, important writers such as Martin Luther, Queen Elizabeth, Galileo and William Shakespeare used the world of writing and literature to educate and inform.
Hazrat weaves her way through history with wonderful examples of how punctuation has influenced our lives. In our world, printing is a simple process as we type, autocorrect and hit print. But at the beginning of the 20th century, printing was still a demanding task that required individual letters, ink and trays. Punctuation marks were a must. When the Russian government announced that printers would not be paid for punctuation marks, a strike ensued that impacted the entire nation. This was the beginning of the Russian Revolution of 1917. But this was not the first time that punctuation influenced history. Just recall our own American War of Independence and the writings of Thomas Jefferson.
ON THE MARK is neither a grammar guide nor a lecture on the evils of unpunctuating. It is an interesting journey of how we have arrived at a moment when we now ponder how emojis have become part of our communications. Florence Hazrat has given us far more than a thoughtful history of punctuation. In this delightful adventure in reading, she has provided us with a history of the world.
Teaser
You know the lively exclamation mark, the controversial semicolon, and the often-omitted apostrophe. But would you recognize a percontation point? How about an obelus? In ON THE MARK, Florence Hazrat argues that all punctuation marks, from the most forgotten to the most ubiquitous, are worthy of our attention. After all, the history of punctuation is the history of humankind. The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Across ages and cultures, amid technological revolutions and radical changes in communication, these dots and dashes have reshaped the societies that created them.
Promo
You know the lively exclamation mark, the controversial semicolon, and the often-omitted apostrophe. But would you recognize a percontation point? How about an obelus? In ON THE MARK, Florence Hazrat argues that all punctuation marks, from the most forgotten to the most ubiquitous, are worthy of our attention. After all, the history of punctuation is the history of humankind. The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Across ages and cultures, amid technological revolutions and radical changes in communication, these dots and dashes have reshaped the societies that created them.
About the Book
A lively history of punctuation, from ancient times to the age of the emoji.
You know the lively exclamation mark, the controversial semicolon, and the often-omitted apostrophe. But would you recognize a percontation point? How about an obelus? In this irreverent and delightfully intellectual book, Florence Hazrat argues that all punctuation marks, from the most forgotten to the most ubiquitous, are worthy of our attention. After all, the history of punctuation is the history of humankind.
The first punctuation mark was a triangular symbol pressed into clay somewhere in Mesopotamia. Spaces between words were unknown for millennia, until a group of Irish monks pioneered them in the eighth century. Across ages and cultures, amid technological revolutions and radical changes in communication, these dots and dashes have reshaped the societies that created them.
From the papyruses of the ancient world to our sprawling internet ecosystem, one thing has remained constant: Punctuation is powerful. These tiny marks can move markets, shift elections, topple political systems, and decide the fate of a precious human life on death row.
Weaving together anthropology, the history of writing, the philosophy of language, psychology, literature and more, ON THE MARK masterfully proves that punctuation is at the heart of human communication.
