This Christmas my werdiness* was indulged. I not only received a copy of the book
Just My Type: A Book about Fonts by Simon Garfield, but I found a 4th edition pocket Oxford English dictionary in a used book shop for £1.50! I also received moveable print press blocks of my initials!
But, in true fashion of the typographically obsessed, the most incredible discovery this December was learning all about the
interrobang (‽).
There are several reasons why the interrobang has secured itself as my favourite punctuation:
1) I'm a word fuser. By accident of nature I've always mashed up words. Since I was a kid when I get over-excited and can't decide which word to say to describe something both words try to come out at once. My brain then automatically combines them and produces a seemingly non-sensical word (e.g. awful + horriffic = awriffic).
As an adult (and hopeful OED contributor) I indulge this brain glitch and diliberately fuse words when there is not a word to describe what I mean and a combination of the two actually implies more than either one on its own (e.g. sneering smile = snile).
2) My previously preferred punctuation was always the exclamation point (!). I felt that it summed me up in many ways. It's definitive. It's exciting. It implies energy. This leads to my third point.
3) The interrobang kind of looks like my artist's mark which is a fusion of my initials TP and an '!'.
In situations where inserting a copy of my mark was not possible I would simply type it as 'T!P'. But now I can simply insert an interrobang
The interrobang is the ultimate punctative fusion; the emphatic question. In a lot of ways, it describes me to a tee. Like most artists I like to believe I have a unique perspective and this somehow classes me as 'other', extraordinary, a bit of an enigma. But, the other part of me that I define as 'me' is my enthusiasm. I'm an enthusiastic curiosity.
And so, I go forth now as Themo, an interrobang, an indefinable ball of energy.
‽
Tips: Want to interrobang in HTML? Just insert '& # 8253 ;' without spaces into your code.
*werdiness = the state of being a word nerd. Someone who has a fetish for all things associated with the written word, i.e. grammar, fonts, punctuation, learning new words, typography. This is different to a 'punctuazzi' a punctuation nazi who is someone that has a particularly accute understanding of and distaste for incorrect punctuation.
