To me, what's interesting about the exclamation point (!) is that it leaves a lot of room for interpretation.
Does one ! = Another ! . . . ?
Now, it seems to me the question mark is fairly well understood as that thing you "put there" when something isn't understood, to whatever degree.
But the exclamation point is more ambiguous. It can sometimes mean 1) Someone's shouting or screaming. In other cases, it definitely 2) signifies enthusiasm or excitement. Then there's those times when it's all 3) idiot rage, also known as the Fox News Pointless Exclamation.
Of course, everyone agrees context is everything.
But the problem is that everything is not context.
All this by way of explaining that the single Exclamation Point in the Header
of this blog-entry should be unequivocally understood in the most emphatic manifestation of the 2nd sense.
I am thrilled that Editor/Author/Post-Renaissance/Pre-Age-of-Enlightenment Man Michael Bailey has chosen to include my story "The Angel Chaser" in his upcoming Sci-Fi/Horror Anthology, QUALIA NOUS.
I AM SPEWING NUMBER 2 ALL OVER THE PLACE!
(By number 2, I refer only to the 2nd sense of exclamation, as described above. Please do not read any other meanings into the phrase "I AM SPEWING NUMBER 2 ALL OVER THE PLACE!")
Check out the AMAZING line-up so far:
In the Nothing-Space, I Am What You Made Me” by Paul Anderson
“The Rondelium Girl of Rue Marseilles” by Emily Cataneo
“Voyeur” by John Everson
“Twelve Kilos” by Patrick Freivald
"Lead Me to Multiplicity” by Peter Hagelslag
“The Angel Chaser” by Erik T. Johnson
“Night Guard” by Erinn Kemper
“Cataldo’s Copy” by Christian A. Larsen
“Second Chance” by John R. Little
"The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family”
by Usman Tanveer Malik
“Ruminations” by Rena Mason
“18P37-C, After Andrea Was Arrested” by Elizabeth Massie
“Good and Faithful Servant” by Thomas F. Monteleone
“The Shaking Man” by Gene O’Neill
“Dyscrasia” by Ashlee Scheuerman
“Psychic Shock” by Ian Shoebridge
“Shutdown” & “Tomorrow’s Femme” by Marge Simon
“Dura Matter” by Lucy A. Snyder
“Kilroy Wasn’t There” by Pat R. Steiner
“The Jenny Store” by Richard Thomas
QUALIA NOUS will be available later this year in paperback
from Written Backwards.
Does one ! = Another ! . . . ?
Now, it seems to me the question mark is fairly well understood as that thing you "put there" when something isn't understood, to whatever degree.
But the exclamation point is more ambiguous. It can sometimes mean 1) Someone's shouting or screaming. In other cases, it definitely 2) signifies enthusiasm or excitement. Then there's those times when it's all 3) idiot rage, also known as the Fox News Pointless Exclamation.
Of course, everyone agrees context is everything.
But the problem is that everything is not context.
All this by way of explaining that the single Exclamation Point in the Header
of this blog-entry should be unequivocally understood in the most emphatic manifestation of the 2nd sense.
I am thrilled that Editor/Author/Post-Renaissance/Pre-Age-of-Enlightenment Man Michael Bailey has chosen to include my story "The Angel Chaser" in his upcoming Sci-Fi/Horror Anthology, QUALIA NOUS.
I AM SPEWING NUMBER 2 ALL OVER THE PLACE!
(By number 2, I refer only to the 2nd sense of exclamation, as described above. Please do not read any other meanings into the phrase "I AM SPEWING NUMBER 2 ALL OVER THE PLACE!")
Check out the AMAZING line-up so far:
In the Nothing-Space, I Am What You Made Me” by Paul Anderson
“The Rondelium Girl of Rue Marseilles” by Emily Cataneo
“Voyeur” by John Everson
“Twelve Kilos” by Patrick Freivald
"Lead Me to Multiplicity” by Peter Hagelslag
“The Angel Chaser” by Erik T. Johnson
“Night Guard” by Erinn Kemper
“Cataldo’s Copy” by Christian A. Larsen
“Second Chance” by John R. Little
"The Vaporization Enthalpy of a Peculiar Pakistani Family”
by Usman Tanveer Malik
“Ruminations” by Rena Mason
“18P37-C, After Andrea Was Arrested” by Elizabeth Massie
“Good and Faithful Servant” by Thomas F. Monteleone
“The Shaking Man” by Gene O’Neill
“Dyscrasia” by Ashlee Scheuerman
“Psychic Shock” by Ian Shoebridge
“Shutdown” & “Tomorrow’s Femme” by Marge Simon
“Dura Matter” by Lucy A. Snyder
“Kilroy Wasn’t There” by Pat R. Steiner
“The Jenny Store” by Richard Thomas
QUALIA NOUS will be available later this year in paperback
from Written Backwards.
