M&D (1)

[David Casseres]

>On Wed, 7 May 1997, thomasvieth wrote:
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>> First, I thought it does follow the German rules, but then it doesn't, 
>> because there are mid-sentence adjectives that are capitalized and they 
>> are certainly not in German. I think both spelling and capitalization are 
>> nilly-willy as they were back then. I mean, this wasn't yet the age of 
>> Common Spelling Rules.
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>I think you're probably right.  The German rule is basically just to
>capitalize all proper nouns and names.  Pynchon follows this most of the
>time, but maybe not 100%.  And actual 18th-c. English writing seems rather
>arbitrary.  There are a few excerpts in _M&D_ that appear to be actual
>quotes from Mason's & Dixon's notes, and the capitalization in these bits
>is rather random-looking.

I can't stand this any more.  The German rule is to capitalize *all 
nouns.*  The *English* rule is to capitalize proper nouns and names.  I 
don't believe there was ever a consistent English rule until this one; 
does anyone know where it came from, and when?


Cheers,
David