colon within a colon

Question

I have seen this used in first rate writing, is it acceptable and how does it effect how the writer ends the sentence.

The dog was dead: its eyes were closed; its paws still; its nose dry:indicating it had stopped secreting the mucus which living dogs secrete constantly.

^ just off the top of my head so a bit nonsensical but grammatically OK?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Anonymous have seen this used in first rate writing,

I have not.

Anonymous is it acceptable

No.

Anonymousso a bit nonsensical

Yes.

Anonymous grammatically OK?

No.

Anonymous · Answer

It's used in Infinite Jest by DFW, a Harvard professor with and grammar devotee, hence my confusion.

Mister Micawber · Answer

Anonymousa Harvard professor with and grammar devotee

Nevertheless, I think he's taking liberties. As you know, it was an experimental novel, and early reviews were less than laudatory:

Some early reviews, such as Michiko Kakutani's in The New York Times, were mixed, recognizing the inventiveness of the writing but criticizing the length and plot. She called the novel "a vast, encyclopedic compendium of whatever seems to have crossed Wallace's mind." In the London Review of Books, Dale Peck wrote of the novel, "... it is, in a word, terrible. Other words I might use include bloated, boring, gratuitous, and — perhaps especially — uncontrolled." Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University called it "just awful" and written with "no discernible talent" (in the novel, Bloom's own work is called "turgid"). And in a review of Wallace's work up to the year 2000, A.O. Scott wrote of Infinite Jest, "The novel’s Pynchonesque elements...feel rather willed and secondhand. They are impressive in the manner of a precocious child’s performance at a dinner party, and, in the same way, ultimately irritating: they seem motivated, mostly, by a desire to show off."

colon within a colon

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