An Admirable Point: A Brief History of the Exclamation Mark!

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Few punctuation marks elicit quite as much love or hate as the exclamation point. It's bubbly and exuberant, an emotional amplifier whose flamboyantly dramatic gesture lets the reader know: here be feelings! Scott Fitzgerald famously stated exclamation points are like laughing at your own joke, Terry Pratchett had a Discworld character say that multiple !!! are a 'sure sign of a diseased mind'. So what's the deal with ! ? AN ADMIRABLE POINT recuperates the exclamation point from its much-maligned and misunderstood place at the bottom of the punctuation hierarchy. It explores how ! came about in the first place some six hundred years ago, and uncovers the many ways in which ! has left its mark on art, literature, (pop) culture, and just about any sphere of human activity - from Beowulf to spam emails, ee cummings to neuroscience. Whether you think it's over-used, or enthusiastically sprinkle your writing with it, ! is inescapable"--