Nicholson Baker's new novel is essentially a book of porn (which you can read more about here) called House of Holes... and did I mention that it's awesome? It's about a sex amusement park/vacation retreat, full of more proddings than you can shake a peeny wanger at. It's has the most fun wordplay I've seen in quite a while, and to illustrate let's take a look at House of Holes copy editor Timothy Mennel's style guide to hyphens, commas, and terms in this fantasy land of women being erotically peed out of urethras (that totally happens!). Peep the whole style guide here via Deadspin.com.
A sampling:
Principal sources
Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed.
Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.
Words into Type, 3d ed.
www.urbandictionary.comuse serial comma
commaless adjective stacking sometimes OK: e.g., "some huge soft heavy sad hangers"Alphabetical Terms:
babymaker (pg. 165)
backthighs (241)
ball-hankie (106)
beatstick (228)
bitchgroove (242)
blookie (168)
bodyboy (204)
boobosity (236)
boycone (127)
brimmingness (236)masturboats (13)
maximus cheeks (200)
meatstick (25)
meat wagon (105)
mike (247)
moneyshot (267)
Monsieur Twinklestump (225)shrimp locker (33)
shudderation (275)
silly string (98)Places (fictional unless noted)
Arch (St. Louis; real; 73)
Aswan Dam (real; 239)
Avenue of the Men Who Need to Suck on Twat Every Day (240)
Bean Warp (108)
That is one sexy style guide! It truly puts the Mercury's to shame.
