Editing Semicolon (section)

== Literature ==
{{Quote box
| quote = Just as there are writers who worship the semicolon, there are other high stylists who dismiss it — who label it, if you please, middle-class.
| source = [[Lynne Truss]], ''Eats, Shoots, and Leaves''{{sfn|Truss|2004|page=107}}
| width = 27%
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| style = padding:8px;
}}
Some authors have avoided and rejected the use of the semicolon throughout their works. [[Lynne Truss]] stated:

{{Quote|text=[[Samuel Beckett]] spliced his way merrily through such novels as ''Molloy'' and ''Malone Dies'', thumbing his nose at the semicolon all the way. [[James Joyce]] preferred the colon, as he thought it was more authentically classical. [[P. G. Wodehouse]] did an effortlessly marvelous job without it, [[George Orwell]] tried to avoid the semicolon completely in ''[[Coming Up for Air]]'' (1939), [[Martin Amis]] included just one semicolon in ''[[Money (novel)|Money]]'' (1984), and [[Umberto Eco]] was congratulated by an academic reader for using zero semicolons in ''[[The Name of the Rose]]'' (1983).{{sfn|Truss|2004|pages=88, 108–109}}}}

In response to Truss, [[Ben Macintyre]], a columnist in ''[[The Times]]'',  wrote:

{{Quote|text=Americans have long regarded the semi-colon with suspicion, as a genteel, self-conscious, neither-one-thing-nor-the other sort of punctuation mark, with neither the [[butchness]] of a full colon nor the flighty promiscuity of the comma. [[Ernest Hemingway|Hemingway]], [[Raymond Chandler|Chandler]], and [[Stephen King]] wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch with a semi-colon (though [[Truman Capote]] might). Real men, goes the unwritten rule of American punctuation, don't use semi-colons.<ref>{{cite news |last=MacIntyre |first=Ben |date=19 November 2005 |title=Is it worth busting your (Lynne) truss over a comma with a hat on? |newspaper=[[The Times]] |place=London, UK |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article591397.ece |access-date= }}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>}}

Semicolon use in British fiction has declined by 25% from 1991 to 2021.<ref name=Lloyd>{{cite web |author=Lloyd, Will |date=24 November 2021 |title=The melancholy decline of the semicolon |website=UnHerd |url=https://unherd.com/thepost/the-melancholy-decline-of-the-semicolon/ |access-date=27 November 2021 |archive-date=27 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211127153315/https://unherd.com/thepost/the-melancholy-decline-of-the-semicolon/ |url-status=live }}</ref>