This episode asks the age old question: What the Hell is an Em Dash? As the first punctuation mark Annar and Claire cover in the WTH series, it is a fan favorite among contemporary writers, as evidenced by this tweet from author Alexander Chee: “Em-dash is the ‘just belt it and go’ of punctuation. Thus my devotion to it.” There's even a (particularly nerdy) Distracted Boyfriend Meme circulating the web.
So what distinguishes an em dash from other dashes? Why do poets in particular have such a fondness for it? Why is she so flirty and fun? In this episode, the Host team gets to the bottom of these questions and find: more questions, of course! But also, lot's of great insight into how writers have come to affectionately use this hip punctuation mark.
These are the books discussed in this episode:
Final Harvest by Emily Dickinson
Sho by Douglas Kearney
To the Realization of Perfect Helplessness by Robin Coste Lewis
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