December 2015, Year VII, n. 12
David Marsh
Idleness is the roof of all evils
Telos: Writing style is nowadays often almost ignored, moved in the background by the need of ever faster communication flows as if it were a quirky habit. What do you think about this trend, made of abbreviations and lack of punctuation? How can it be diverted?
David Marsh: It’s a matter of choosing the right style for the right occasion - what linguists call register. There are different styles of communication for different occasions, and I think people instinctively understand this. Just as no one wears a suit and tie on the beach, or goes to a funeral dressed for clubbing, so no one would write a job application, say, in the style they would use to text a friend... more
Editorial
Gianni Rodari was the brilliant author of modern fairytales, so reading David Marsh’s extremely amusing and deeply insightful interview immediately brings to mind one of his most famous fairytales: The Nephew’s trial. For lack of an apostrophe his uncle, “a model of virtue”, becomes the fathers of all vices... more
SocialTelos