Unsung Heroes of Literature: You know what I mean ... An Interview with Ellipses

 It was extremely difficult to get to the restaurant where Ellipses and I had agreed to meet. This was primarily the result of the fact that Ellipses wouldn’t give me the name of the restaurant, only the subway stop closest to it. After I got out of the Spadina Station, they texted me directions, but only one at a time. The first text message said; go south and stop at Harvard. There I waited until they sent me the next one; go a block west and look for a yellow house. That’s how it went all the way. Ellipses arrived shortly after I did, looking like they might have the flue or have been up all night clubbing. They didn’t tell me which. What follows is a direct transcript of our conversation. It has not been edited.

Open Book: How is your day?

Ellipses: I’m not a dash!

OB: Okay?

EP: I just wanted to get that out there. It’s not always easy for me to say what’s on my mind. I’m not like a lot of the other punctuation marks…

OB: What do you mean by that?

EP: You know what I mean…

OB: I don’t.

EP: Come on…

OB: What?

EP: They all have multiple …

OB: Multiple?

EP: Uses. They have multiple uses …

OB: Oh.

EP: Quotes lets pretty much everything inside them. Comma will do almost anything you ask them to do …

OB: Except conclude a sentence.

EP: Don’t get me wrong. I’ve got nothing against Dash. It’s just not what I’m into. Don’t link two phrases together using me — use Dash. Dash loves that shit. Colon too for that matter…

OB: Can we talk about your first usage?

EP: And don’t use me to change the meaning of a quote either! I hate that more than anything else!

OB: I think you just suddenly leapt from one topic to another, but let’s go with it. Isn’t modifying a sentence through omission what you’re meant to do?

EP: I mark an omission! That’s it! Either because something has been left unsaid. Or to clarify meaning by removing extraneous detail!  

OB: How is that not changing the meaning?

EP: If what I remove changes the meaning of the sentence, then you’re using me incorrectly!

OB: Okay.

EP: Got it?

OB: I got it. For someone specializing in omissions you’re awfully straight-forwards.

EP: I’m just so sick of it!

OB: I hear that you’re frustrated.

EP: Anything else you’d like me to clear up?

OB: I’m not sure I’m enjoying your … tone.

EP: Well get use to it. This is what happens when a punctuation mark is pushed to the edge by years of misuse!

OB: Um…

EP: Anything else?

OB: Well, actually, not that I want to put you on the spot or anything but I do have one last question.  

EP: I’m listening…

OB: Why leave something unsaid in the first place?

EP: Because cadence is power…

OB: What?

EP: Don’t play dumb. You know what I mean…

OB: I really don’t!

EP: It’s the way people speak. It’s natural rhythm. You know what I mean …

OB: I don’t.

EP: So much of what people say is left unsaid, is spoken specifically through the silence.

OB: Yes. Obviously. I agree. But I think that’s a perspective that comes from your background in theatre, in playwriting. Would you agree with that?  

EP: It is true that I came into this world in plays printed in the mid-1500s, to mark where characters trailed off, leaving a thought unfinished…

OB: So, then …

EP: What?

OB: My question is why write that way? Why not, when you’re putting it down on paper, just spell it out? What wrong with saying what you’re trying to say?

EP: Are you questioning Virginia Wolfe? Conrad?

OB: I know you were very close with both of those writers.

EP: We were intimate…

OB: But still …

EP: Still what?

OB: Why not just say it?

EP: Okay. If you want me to I will: You are a blunt little man Mr. Kaufman.

OB: Because I want writing that’s clear? Straight-forward? That leaves nothing out?

EP: Because you don’t understand that some thoughts and actions and beliefs, when exposed to print, simply…

OB: What? They simply what?

EP: Simply…

OB: Simply what?

EP: …

OB: …?

EP: Exactly.

Unsung Heroes of Literature is a series of interviews with the most under-appreciated or routinely overlooked aspects of the book. Next up, a conversation with the new kid on the block: Will the Interrobang Break-through‽