A revolution in writing?

[Earniel]

I read this little amusing article today (translation mine):

Originally Posted by VRT-website

The Irony mark unveiled at Dutch Book Fare

wo 14/03/07

The Dutch Language has gained a punctuation mark: the irony mark. The mark is made on initiative of the Stichting Collectieve Propaganda van het Nederlandse Boek (CPNB) and was unveiled last night on the Book Fare.

"The new punctuation mark offers writers new linguisitc possibilities, and is also easy to write by hand," said the CPNB.

The Fin-German-Dutch designerscollective Underware has developed the mark. The mark looks like a mangled exclamation mark. On the Book Fare is was called a swinging exclamation mark, one with rock-'n-roll.

According to the CPNB there is a lot of demand for such a mark. Anyone can download it freely on the internet.

The punctuation mark was presented at the Book fare in Amsterdam at the start of the yearly Book Week. The theme of the year is humor and the motto 'Praise of Folly', a reference to the same-named writings of the humanist Erasmus in 1509.

Look here to see how the sign actually looks.

Would anyone use it in their writings? Should new punctuation marks be added or is that pointless? Or which other mark would you like to see developed?

[brownjenkins]

Not a bad idea, though I've got to say that half the fun of irony is seeing if people grasp it or not.

A mark that says, "this is an ironic statement" might kill the fun.

Though, there are times when I use the smilie for the same thing when I fear that if someone doesn't realize I'm being ironic, they might take it personally.

[The Gaffer]

Agree with BJ, though I think that the similarity with the exclamation mark might make me think it's being shouted or something.

A sign of net writing, with its smileys and emoticons, influencing normal writing?

[me9996]

The thing is, that mark is allready on warning signs warning against electrisity...

But otherwise I prefer irony to be evedent rather than marked(I hope this isn't introduced to english)

[Olmer]

I like it. It's about time to make a regular writing more expressive.

[Tessar]

I'm not against it, certainly . I think in the right contexts, it could add something.


But I have to say, if you're so shallow that you can't grasp irony anyways, forming a mark to say 'this is ironic' wont help you .

[Thain Peregrin Took I]

It looks a lot like a weird shaped question mark. I would probably never use it. If you don't use irony the right way, some people might not get it, but irony is usually understood.

[Curubethion]

Oh, that's simply a lovely idea. And of course I'm going to use it in my next book. Simply a lovely idea.

[elven dragonrider]

I think someone ought to do something with the period and the exclamation mark. So many people read exclamation marks with absolutely no exclamation at all whatsoever. Something in between the two might spark some imagination, because not all things quite need an exclamation, but most need more than a period.

[Lief Erikson]

I'd certainly never use that mark in my book writing. Spelling things out like that, I think, can spoil the humor.

I might use it in place of the "" emoticon, here in Entmoot posts, though, on occasion, if it really takes off and becomes extremely widespread and popular.