An Admirable Point: A Brief History of the Exclamation Mark!

"Few punctuation marks elicit quite as much love or hate as the exclamation point. It's bubbly and exuberant, an emotional amplifier whose flamboyantly dramatic gesture lets the reader know: here be feelings! Scott Fitzgerald famously stated exclamation points are like laughing at your own joke; Terry Pratchett had a Discworld character say that multiple !!! are a 'sure sign of a diseased mind'. So what's the deal with ! ? AN ADMIRABLE POINT recuperates the exclamation point from its much-maligned and misunderstood place at the bottom of the punctuation hierarchy. It explores how ! came about in the first place some six hundred years ago, and uncovers the many ways in which ! has left its mark on art, literature, (pop) culture, and just about any sphere of human activity - from Beowulf to spam emails, ee cummings to neuroscience. Whether you think it's over-used, or enthusiastically sprinkle your writing with it, ! is inescapable"--