The Book-Length Sentence In The Age Of Twitter

New York Times:

The most famous mega-sentence in literature comes at the end of the book, not the beginning. Molly Bloom's monologue from "Ulysses" (1922) --36 pages in the thinly margined, micro-fonted 1986 single-volume corrected text (and actually two long sentences, thanks to an often-overlooked period 17 pages in) -- sets an impossibly high standard for the art of the run-on. It breathlessly binds together all that comes before while nearly obliterating it, permanently coloring the reader's memory in one final rush. It feels unstoppable, and then it stops.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[french queen13]

03:40 AM on 12/31/2010

A long sentence is not automatically a run-on; nor is a run-on necessarily a long sentence. A run-on has two unrelated clauses that aren't properly linked, whether by punctuation or a conjunction. I haven't read Ulysses, so can't comment on that one, but I do get tired of being told that a long sentence - a properly constructed and punctuated long sentence - is a run-on. Some wannabe editors seem to be stuck at the "Run, Spot, Run!" level of writing.

[VintageMary]

03:23 PM on 12/30/2010

I must read this sentence...

[DarthCalvin]

02:15 PM on 12/30/2010

OMG...LOL.

Yeppers, the written language is going to suffer from txting and twitter...that along with "sound-byte" sized news stories from the media...we're all doomed.

=)