in “quotes”
I’m “occasionally” guilty of the quoted-words style that Jakob takes issue with. Everytime I do it, I cringe, but there is a certain effect that it has, that my writing skills otherwise have problems evoking.
The meaning as I see it: emphasis, while admitting triteness or irony/sarcasm.
Where did it originate? I blame the Zagat Survey. For example:
“lunch time is busy,” but this affordable noodle shop still supplies a semblance of “serenity” in the “frenzy of Midtown” with its “bamboo walls” and “attentive staff.” “Soba connoisseurs” report that the “delicious namesake noodles” are made “fresh” from the restaurant’s own “buckwheat farm” in Canada.
I’m sure their quotes are signifying actual words that were used by reviewers, but they’re a little excessive about it.
——— reblogged snippet below ———
There is a weird thing I see online from time to time. A recent example was when someone wrote an article accusing me and David Karp of being assholes for starting a site that made fun of homeless people (which we had nothing to do with):
I am sure Lodwick thinks he is “cool” enough to make this joke. After all, he’s “famous”, at least according to his own blog. (Yes I get the famous thing is probably some inside joke - it just isn’t sufficiently “ironic”).
What is the meaning of the quotation marks around those words?
Maybe someone else has a better explantion.
