Punctuation Are Comma Splices Always Evil?

thirdwind · Nov 1, 2015

Catrin Lewis said: ↑

I want his speech (or the narration through his POV) to be run-on and helter-skelter.
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You're going for a certain effect, so using comma splices could be a good stylistic choice in this case. Go for it.

Also, since you asked, below is an excerpt from Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's Blindness. He loves comma splices and hates quotation marks. For anyone unfamiliar with his style, you can tell if a new speaker is speaking when the first word after the comma is capitalized.

The next day, while still in bed, the doctor’s wife said to her husband, We have little food left, we’ll have to go out again, I thought that today I would go back to the underground food store at the supermarket, the one I went to on the first day, if nobody else has found it, we can get supplies for a week or two, I’m coming with you and we’ll ask one or two of the others to come along as well, I’d rather go with you alone, it’s easier, and there is less danger of getting lost, How long will you be able to carry the burden of six helpless people, I’ll manage as long as I can, but you are quite right, I’m beginning to get exhausted, sometimes I even wish I were blind as well, to be the same as the others, to have no more obligations than they have, We’ve got used to depending on you, If you weren’t there, it would be like being struck with a second blindness, thanks to your eyes we are a little less blind, I’ll carry on as long as I can, I can’t promise you more than that, One day, when we realize that we can no longer do anything good and useful we ought to have the courage simply to leave this world, as he said, Who said that, The fortunate man we met yesterday, I am sure that he wouldn’t say that today, there is nothing like real hope to change one’s opinions, He has that all right, long may it last, In your voice there is a tone which makes me think you are upset, Upset, why, As if something had been taken away from you, Are you referring to what happened to the girl when we were at that terrible place, Yes, Remember it was she who wanted to have sex with me, Memory is deceiving you, you wanted her, Are you sure, I was not blind, Well, I would have sworn that, You would only perjure yourself, Strange how memory can deceive us, In this case it is easy to see, something that is offered to us is more ours than something we had to conquer, But she didn’t ever approach me again, and I never approached her, If you wanted to, you could find each other’s memories, that’s what memory is for, You are jealous, No, I’m not jealous, I was not even jealous on that occasion, I felt sorry for her and for you, and also for myself because I could not help you, How are we fixed for water, Badly.
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Bookster · Nov 1, 2015

thirdwind said: ↑

You're going for a certain effect, so using comma splices could be a good stylistic choice in this case. Go for it.

Also, since you asked, below is an excerpt from Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's Blindness. He loves comma splices and hates quotation marks. For anyone unfamiliar with his style, you can tell if a new speaker is speaking when the first word after the comma is capitalized.
Click to expand...

Narcissistic and nearly unreadable, Nobel or not.

Bookster · Nov 1, 2015

Wreybies said: ↑

This is a comma splice, it requires a comma to join the independent clauses in order for the eponymous name to make sense.

This is a run-on sentence it requires nothing to join the independent clauses erroneously.

Someone's bound to ask the difference between the two.
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Could be, but what's now called a comma splice was called a run-on sentence (whether it contained a comma between the clauses or not) back in the Dark Ages when I was in school.

Catrin Lewis · Nov 1, 2015

thirdwind said: ↑

You're going for a certain effect, so using comma splices could be a good stylistic choice in this case. Go for it.

Also, since you asked, below is an excerpt from Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago's Blindness. He loves comma splices and hates quotation marks. For anyone unfamiliar with his style, you can tell if a new speaker is speaking when the first word after the comma is capitalized.
Click to expand...

Whoa! Not quite the effect I was going for . . . That was like being in a Force 12 gale.

thirdwind · Nov 1, 2015

Catrin Lewis said: ↑

Whoa! Not quite the effect I was going for . . . That was like being in a Force 12 gale.
Click to expand...

It was an extreme example for sure, but just thought it might be helpful.

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Punctuation Are Comma Splices Always Evil?

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Punctuation Are Comma Splices Always Evil?

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