Touching Rules

Rules, said Douglas Bader
Are for the Guidance of the Wise
And the Obedience of Fools

Self Praise, Lord Byron cried,
Is No Praise at all.
(The Empty Vessel the Most Noise makes, my mother said)

The Fool doth think he is wise,
The Jester said, but the Wise Man
Knows Himself to be a Fool.

Should Obedience be our Touchstone, or
Is Disobedience Wise?  Who makes the rules,
And, Why?



Who makes the rules, indeed, and why?  Are the rules set in stone, or are they merely a touchstone with which to assay the worth of our work?  Guidance or obediance - how important are the rules?

Mostly, I suspect, rules were made because they seemed to work - to produce the best results, as judged by the standards of the time and place in which they were made.  Spelling and grammar rules give certitude to transmission of meaning from author to reader, it is believed.

Mostly, again, this is true - particularly when the meaning being transmitted can be accurately and precisely defined, as in the case of manuals and text books - but where would poetry and literature be without all the great rule-breakers?  Shakespeare's writings would have been so much poorer if he had stuck to "the rules" that existed at the beginning of his career.  No doubt he understood the language well enough to do amazing things with it as it stood, but he also knew how to change and add to it, and did so in ways that affected all English speaking writers afterwards.

Likewise Lewis Carroll and his Jabberwock - if he had stuck to the rules and canon of his time, would The Goon Show or Monty Python have emerged?  What about James Joyce, or Jack Kerouac - what would their thoughts have looked like if written down strictly according to the rules of grammar as then applicable?

On the other hand, Hemmingway, Greene, Le Carre, Christie, or Child are scrupulous in their observance of linguistic norms, but have succeeded in turning out highly regarded and widely read work - it's a fine line between the pleasure and displeasure of the editor's audit.

How can we know if we are writing wisely or foolishly?  Anne R. Allen addresses that question in her blog post The Rules of Writing.... and Why not to Follow Them, but, in the end, it might come down to as simple a question as "Are you enjoying what you just wrote"?

When you read it out loud, does it move you?  Do the creepy bits send a shiver up your spine?  Do you smile at the happy parts, or do those words take you once again to a beautiful place you knew, long ago?  Is a tear welling in the corner of your eye as you read that paragraph about a lost love?

The rules are worth knowing, there is no doubting that - just as there  is no doubting the value in stepping onto the road less travelled to see where it leads you; if the destination isn't what you hoped for, then try another track - serendipity is waiting for you, somewhere around the bend.