Cassowaries Rant

Pedantry and books

Q. What’s one Pedant at the Bottom of the Sea?
A. A good Start.

I have been lent a Copy of Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver, volume one of the Baroque Cycle. One might be surprised (based on the Author) or less than suprised (based on the Series Name) to learn that it is a Piece of historical Fiction (the Portion I’m reading is alternating between the late 17th and early 18th Centuries). It is, I am assured, a good Book; and Neal Stephenson is a good Author. Nevertheless, I feel like whingeing not about the writing Style, or anything else, but about some pedantic Points, based on the british (trade) Paperback.

Firstly, on the very first Page, they somehow managed to let slip a Typo: The project would not have happened it [sic] all were it not for serendipitous conversations several years ago with George Dyson and Steven Horst. This could be ignored if it were on the second-last Page. On the first and one has to wonder whether they relied on a Spellchecker for the Proofreading. To their Credit, I don’t think I’ve noticed any others.

Secondly, whoever did the Italicisation has no idea how to do it, and in a List of Titles italicised the separating Semicolons etc. I would not care about this if it was just a Webpage or a Word Document or something, but I expect better of published Books. It would be a pity if the Knowledge of Typography and Punctuation was lost to the Ravages of Time, because we have them for a Reason.

And thirdly, Stephenson has often used historic Words and Spellings (for instance, Clubb for ‘Club’ and phant’sy for ‘fancy’). I’m not exactly sure of the Authenticity or Accuracy of all of these. Yet at the same Time, and in the british Edition, modern-day american Spellings have been used, which is a horrible Mixture of the modern and the archaïc. I would not care if he hadn’t used the Archaïsms. Also, he has a Couple of Anachronisms: The most interesting one is using the Word silhouette in the Speech of a 1713 recollection of an old Man’s Childhood. Silhouette, from french silhouette, comes from the Name of the french Finance Minister of 1759, M. Etienne de Silhouette (1709–1767); he would have been 11 at the time and so I sincerely doubt that anyone, much less an old Man in America, would be making use of the Term. A much better Word would’ve been shadow. (De Silhouette drew Silhouettes on his Walls as a Hobby; his Name, in turn, is a Fankification of the basque Surname ‘Zilhueta’, which can be decomposed as zilo ∼ zulo ‘Hole’ + -eta ‘Abundance of’.)

Anyway, after this Diversion I shall get back to reading.