Dialogue minus the quotation marks
Has anyone noticed recent releases without quotation marks -- I mean like none, not any. I have stumbled across several books lately without this punctuation. I.E., Cormac McCarthy's latest releases. I understand that James Joyce also abandoned punctuation - so is this some stylistic new wave or pretentious or just literary economy? I have to say it leads to very elegant prose, no "blaa, blaa, blaa," he said/she said." The writer has to identify each speaker with an action/description that makes it clear who is speaking and why they are saying it.
Does anyone have a backstory on NO QUOTES? Have you had experimented with it?
I would appreciate any thoughts
Madeleine
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McCarthy has long avoided quotation marks. Says they are more trouble than they are worth. But it's a bit of a leap that readers will not be confused. Don't know were it started but with all the post modern fiction authors exploring how to recraft the novel, tossing quotations seems the least challenging.