Jokes aside, let us turn to serious matters.
So a lot of what you see in the Baroque Cycle is me wanting to be one of those guys. In the case of Anathem, I needed something that was more formal, less flashy, as if it had been translated from the classical language of another planet, but enlivened with slang terms that a teenage narrator would enjoy throwing around.
It wouldn't be right for me to clown around when I'm painting a president.
When you have to write a letter, you're automatically put into a state of composure and a kind of formality. You can't help it. So, no, I never once got a letter where someone just popped off at me.
I wrote the text of the resignation. I cannot say with precision when, but at the most two weeks before. I wrote it in Latin because something so important you do in Latin. Furthermore, Latin is a language in which I know well how to write in a more appropriate way.
Joking apart, now let us be serious.
Academic writing is such a different way of writing.
Writing is like paying myself a formal visit.
For your information, I would like to ask a question.
I don't think, in my entire 18 years as a student, I ever used an exclamation point in an academic paper.
The Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular.
I have a cultured manner of speaking.
Use declarative sentences… Use an elevated tone… Use graceful language
I have a British voice and a rather formal one at that, having been brought up in post-WWII Britain. My voice is perfectly suited to the sort of book I write, I think. It would not fit a contemporary, besides which I do not know enough about the contemporary world to write convincingly or comfortably about it!
He (Ted Simmons) didn't sound like a baseball player. He said things like 'nevertheless' and 'if, in fact.
No matter who I'm talking to, I always talk like I'm doing an interview.
I don't do emoticons unless I'm making a big deal out of them. I'll type out, 'This is so amusing it makes me want to grin in pixels.' And then do it.
As far as I'm concerned, 'whom' is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler.
It is important to say "sir" at these moments. And if they ever call you by your first-middle-last name, you better watch out. I'm telling you.
I still put punctuation in my texts. If it's an 'I', I make sure it's a capital.
The problem with having so many people call me by nicknames was that when someone called me by my actual name, it usually meant something serious was happening.
Welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, welly, well. To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit?
I would love a sandwich,' said Tybalt, with enough gravity to make it sound like a formal proclamation. Resolved: that we will have ham and cheese sandwiches.
Thank you, but we respectfully decline your overture, being more enjoyably occupied at present.
