Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Tragic grammar

Sometimes, I think, copyediting something could take away the beauty that is found in flaws. Here, an example, is Virginia Woolf's suicide letter. Imagine if someone had copyedit it! Now, that would be tragic.

"I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer."

3 comments:

Pat said...

Your question is really about writing, not copyediting, I think. And my guess is that you don't have to worry about anyone copyediting suicide letters.

Takashi said...

I think the way someone writes tells a lot about that person. In that sense, writing grammatically incorrect sentences is one manifestation of who the writer is. If requested, a copyeditor can help the writer by asking, “Did you mean to say this?” or “Did you really want this ungrammatical construction here?” Unless the writer meant his or her sentences to be ungrammatical, I think the writer would appreciate the copyeditor’s efforts in making the writing grammatical.

But someone can of course make an argument that any editing tampers with the author’s voice…

Pat said...

Lily, please see Sarah's post of Feb. 4 and the comments.