Thirty-five seamstresses and designers at MGM’s wardrobe department in Hollywood had created [Grace Kelly's] wedding gown, using one hundred yards of silk net and twenty-five yards of silk taffeta. The underwear designed for the occasion had a silk crepe sheath.
AU: Unclear what’s being described here. Do you mean underskirts or petticoats? Not sure why there’d be specially designed underwear, as in panties or bras, or why these unmentionables should be mentionable.
Love,
Your Copyeditor
Posts
Dear Ray Gunn,
ReplyDeleteDo you mean Monaco?
Certainly.
ReplyDeleteI blame my monocle.
ReplyDeleteOr mon oncle.
Monocle or mon oncle, always glad to read love, your copyeditor or, love your copyeditor!
ReplyDeleteps. Would like to tell you my Word Verfication word, but doing so is complicated because the verification doesn't occur until posting.
Dear Ray Gunn,
ReplyDeleteI have a question not related to this post, so sorry about that, but I really am baffled by something. I picked up a book by Thomas McCormack titled The Fiction Editor, the Novel, and the Novelist. I'm confused by the placement of the commas outside quotation marks all the way through the book. Here's an example: Be slow to say there's no such thing as an "ideal appropriate reader", because there's a useful sense in which most of us accept there is. See? I checked and this book was printed in the U.S. and Thomas McCormack is, by all accounts I can find, an American. What's going on? I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone! Thanks for your help, Kim
Hi, Kim
ReplyDeleteI love when people ask me questions, so I'm glad you did.
I have one very simple explanation for what's going on here, one that I'm likely to catch hell from my husband about, but I think my theory is spot-on.
I looked up Mr. McCormack on Wikipedia and found out pretty quickly that he's got a degree in philosophy. Philosophers are a strange little clique (like Britons) who think that punctuation belongs outside the quotes. Joking aside, there are actually some compelling arguments about why they like it this way, especially when it concerns philosophy of language. It's likely he held tightly to these principles even once he left philosophy for publishing. Some people just like to be contrarian and buck the system. That's something I can relate to in some ways. Just not this one.
I think he also wrote his own Wiki entry, because all the punctuation is outside the quotes.
Was it a good book?
Ray,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for answering me because this has been driving me crazy! I can't really say for certain whether it's a good book because I couldn't get past the quote I gave you--it was from page 1! I will say though that it does appear promising--aside from the weird punctuation.
You know, I think I'll check with my boss--he has a doctorate in philosophy. I've never found him to misplace a comma like that, but maybe it's because he worked in publishing before the doctorate. How funny (but irritating)!
Kim
Ray,
ReplyDeleteI looked a bit more through McCormack's book and found this admission on page 81: "I do not include within quote marks a final comma, semi-colon, or period if it is not part of what I am citing." I still don't like it though.
Harumph,
Kim