Craft Chat An Absence of Speech Marks

[Sedayne]

I seem to have read a few novels this year where the writers eschew speech marks for their dialogue. It's not a new fad - James Joyce did it a long time ago, and apparently Cormac McCarthy thinks if you write properly you shouldn't need to punctuate (I purposely omit the punctuation as I quote him).

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy and Girl, Woman, Other by Bernadine Evaristo both worked well for me in that I barely noticed the speech marks were missing. I loved these novels.

I'm currently reading Talking at Night by Claire Daverley, another book with no speech marks. Occasionally, I find myself stumbling to distinguish what is being said out loud or just observed. Which is a shame, because otherwise I am enjoying the book.

My own fiction is dialogue-heavy, and I've never considered ditching the speech marks. Maybe I could have a go with something else as an experiment, but I'm not sure I could pull it off (or if I would want to).

What is the opinion of Litopians on speech marks?
Have you written anything without them?
Do you have any favourite novels that don't use them?

 

[Sedayne]

Which is a shame, because a good reading can sell some books, create some interest. but a bad, unprofessional reading, can kill it.
On the other hand, we might be getting off topic

As the creator of the opening post, I heartily approve of the thread drift. And there are no discernable speech marks at a reading.

 

[LJ Beck]

I'm still confused about what purpose it serves to not use speech marks?

 

[Sedayne]

I'm still confused about what purpose it serves to not use speech marks?

I don't know that it's anything other than a stylistic choice.
Some writers use en-dashes instead to serve the same purpose, but at least that's some indication. When there's nothing at all, the writing needs to be exceptional to stand up without.
I loved Trespasses and the dialogue flowed nicely without anything. But I've put aside Talking at Night for now to read something else instead. Might go back to it, but the lack of speech marks was putting me off.

 

[LJ Beck]

Kind of like finding a way to not use "said" when said works just fine?

Thanks for the clarification. From what I can tell, it's a style choice that's to show how exceptional a writer they are that they don't need pesky speech marks?

Guess I'm not a fan of a style choice that's just for show, might be off-putting, and has no bearing on the story itself.

But that's just me!