FINALLY! You've hit the nail on the head. I am now subscribed and will continue to follow your essays. Sometimes the avant garde works for certain aspects but overall this new style of writing feels like things are changing on the horizon. I too, have my traditional style, but reading this gives me hope!
Thank you so much, Misha! I'm so glad you agree and enjoyed reading. There are definitely ways to be fresh and original in your writing while preserving a traditional visual/typographic style!
I enjoyed your discussion, Ramya. I don't like all lowercase simply for the fact that it's harder to read. I have a chronic illness and lowercase is much more tiring for my eyes, so it is a barrier for me. I think it's actually a little ableist to use all lowercase. It can work in a short poem but not in long prose.
Thank you, Conny, I'm so glad you enjoyed! That's such a good point—all lowercase writing is definitely harder on the eyes, and it's important for writers to be mindful of all people who may be reading their work.
This is such an insightful essay that delves into our generation's shift from capitalisation . It says a lot about the current generation's relationship with formality. But, using only lowercase seems like a liberation from conventions. When I read all lowercase, I think of it as a raw and unfiltered thought, something intimate. Really a wonderful essay!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and to leave such a thoughtful comment, I'm so glad you enjoyed! I definitely agree with you that it does seem more raw and intimate and that probably explains a lot of its usage!
Enjoyed reading this! Your gripe against all-lower-case for its inauthentic authenticity is similar to my annoyance at it for its affected affectlessness. It's a calculated, jaded innocence.
Funny thing is though that even professional men's sports teams sometimes dabbles in it. I remember Arsenal players wearing jerseys with last names in all lower caps and it all seemed so try-hard. I wanted to chalk it up to Arsenal being Arsenal, but unfortunately, I learned that Tottenham has done it too in the past.
"Calculated, jaded innocence" is a perfect way of describing it. It's so interesting that this has even spread to men's sports teams, the last place I would have expected! Nobody can resist the aesthetic, it seems. Thank you so much for reading, Chris, I'm glad you enjoyed!
I write in lowercase, but I liked reading this essay and another on the same topic. I do admit there's a bit of affectation to it, yeah feels casual. Come to think of it, it looks nice when used in a note card or a 3-5 sentence paragraph. But not as well in an essay stretching more than 100 words.
My substack is actually called `lowercase letters`. I can't switch, can I?
haha, I guess you're locked in now! I agree that there's something about it, especially on the Internet, that looks nice—I remember when I was on a forum as a teenager and it became a huge trend for everyone to have usernames in all lowercase. Glad you enjoyed, and thank you for reading!
For me, capitalized letters and punctuation and paragraphs are little way-points and rest stops in the journey through words. They provide our minds with a break and a breath and a pause before reading on. They mark off "chunks" of words which is a mental strategy for managing data. When those markers are removed, the words begin to feel like white noise to me. The extreme example is those horrifying novels consisting of one sentence. I'll never forgive ee cummings for his willful transgressions!
That's such a good point—I find writing without capital letters and punctuation much harder to read because there's nothing for the eye to really catch onto, and reading on a screen (at least in my experience) is harder on the eyes than reading a printed page. The "horrifying novels consisting of one sentence" thing is the reason I never attempted to read Ducks, Newburyport! As for e e, I do love his poetry... but it is taxing on the eyes
FINALLY! You've hit the nail on the head. I am now subscribed and will continue to follow your essays. Sometimes the avant garde works for certain aspects but overall this new style of writing feels like things are changing on the horizon. I too, have my traditional style, but reading this gives me hope!
Thank you for your thoughts.
Thank you so much, Misha! I'm so glad you agree and enjoyed reading. There are definitely ways to be fresh and original in your writing while preserving a traditional visual/typographic style!
I enjoyed your discussion, Ramya. I don't like all lowercase simply for the fact that it's harder to read. I have a chronic illness and lowercase is much more tiring for my eyes, so it is a barrier for me. I think it's actually a little ableist to use all lowercase. It can work in a short poem but not in long prose.
Thank you, Conny, I'm so glad you enjoyed! That's such a good point—all lowercase writing is definitely harder on the eyes, and it's important for writers to be mindful of all people who may be reading their work.
This is such an insightful essay that delves into our generation's shift from capitalisation . It says a lot about the current generation's relationship with formality. But, using only lowercase seems like a liberation from conventions. When I read all lowercase, I think of it as a raw and unfiltered thought, something intimate. Really a wonderful essay!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and to leave such a thoughtful comment, I'm so glad you enjoyed! I definitely agree with you that it does seem more raw and intimate and that probably explains a lot of its usage!
Enjoyed reading this! Your gripe against all-lower-case for its inauthentic authenticity is similar to my annoyance at it for its affected affectlessness. It's a calculated, jaded innocence.
Funny thing is though that even professional men's sports teams sometimes dabbles in it. I remember Arsenal players wearing jerseys with last names in all lower caps and it all seemed so try-hard. I wanted to chalk it up to Arsenal being Arsenal, but unfortunately, I learned that Tottenham has done it too in the past.
"Calculated, jaded innocence" is a perfect way of describing it. It's so interesting that this has even spread to men's sports teams, the last place I would have expected! Nobody can resist the aesthetic, it seems. Thank you so much for reading, Chris, I'm glad you enjoyed!
I write in lowercase, but I liked reading this essay and another on the same topic. I do admit there's a bit of affectation to it, yeah feels casual. Come to think of it, it looks nice when used in a note card or a 3-5 sentence paragraph. But not as well in an essay stretching more than 100 words.
My substack is actually called `lowercase letters`. I can't switch, can I?
haha, I guess you're locked in now! I agree that there's something about it, especially on the Internet, that looks nice—I remember when I was on a forum as a teenager and it became a huge trend for everyone to have usernames in all lowercase. Glad you enjoyed, and thank you for reading!
Good thoughts on an interesting topic, Ramya! 👏
For me, capitalized letters and punctuation and paragraphs are little way-points and rest stops in the journey through words. They provide our minds with a break and a breath and a pause before reading on. They mark off "chunks" of words which is a mental strategy for managing data. When those markers are removed, the words begin to feel like white noise to me. The extreme example is those horrifying novels consisting of one sentence. I'll never forgive ee cummings for his willful transgressions!
Thank you, Baird!
That's such a good point—I find writing without capital letters and punctuation much harder to read because there's nothing for the eye to really catch onto, and reading on a screen (at least in my experience) is harder on the eyes than reading a printed page. The "horrifying novels consisting of one sentence" thing is the reason I never attempted to read Ducks, Newburyport! As for e e, I do love his poetry... but it is taxing on the eyes