Phaedrus
Banned
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2012
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- English
- Home Country
- United States
- Current Location
- United States
Franzen is writing in a jocular tone, emphasized by the silly plural forms.
I agree with you about the author's tone being jocular and even sympathize with your finding the plural forms silly-looking and/or harsh on the eyes.
That said, imagine the sentence without those "silly plural forms." Revise it mentally so that Denny'ses becomes Denny's, Wendy'ses Wendy's, etc.:
". . . one eyeful of U.S. 36 north of Denver—the Denny's and Arby's and Wendy's, the tall man's cars in the big man's lanes . . . ."
Is it still clear that the author means to refer to more than one of each? Don't we need to add something, like "many" or "all," to make that clear?
". . . one eyeful of U.S. 36 north of Denver--the many Denny's and Arby's and Wendy's, the tall man's cars in the big man's lanes . . . ."
". . . one eyeful of U.S. 36 north of Denver--all the Denny's and Arby's and Wendy's, the tall man's cars in the big man's lanes . . . ."
I rest my case.