#interabang

The interrobang (/ɪnˈtɛrəbæŋ/), also known as the interabang (‽) (often represented by ?!, !?, ?!? or !?!), is an unconventional punctuation mark used in various written languages and intended to combine the functions of the question mark, or interrogative point; and the exclamation mark, or exclamation point, known in the jargon of printers and programmers as a "bang". The glyph is a superimposition of these two marks. The interrobang was first proposed in 1962 by Martin K. Speckter.

A sentence ending with an interrobang asks a question in an excited manner, expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or asks a rhetorical question. Writers using informal language may use several alternating question marks and exclamation marks for even more emphasis; however, this is regarded as poor style in formal writing.

In 1965, Richard Isbell created the Americana typeface for American Type Founders and included the interrobang as one of the characters. In 1968, an interrobang key was available on some Remington typewriters. In the 1970s, replacement interrobang keycaps and typefaces were available for some Smith-Corona typewriters. The interrobang was in vogue for much of the 1960s; the word interrobang appeared in some dictionaries, and the mark was used in magazine and newspaper articles. Few modern typefaces or fonts include a glyph for the interrobang character.

Hi anon, sorry it’s taken me so long to answer this. I hope you see it.

I know that this kinda sucks, but I suggest journaling or some other way to get things out from inside you and into the physical world. It’s a commitment and it’s hard to remember to do, but (in my own experience) feeling like I don’t have feelings around most things is a sure sign that I am super out of touch with my feelings. The act of thinking about what you write, the act of physically writing the words themselves, and the act of reading it and perceiving the person you’ve read/written all help me to re-frame myself and my situation. And something about having a physical artifact makes it more meaningful to me than reflection that is solely internal

Through a lot of self-reflection, I found that it wasn’t that I didn’t have interests, it was that I was so afraid and ashamed of failure that whenever i wasnt good at something immediately I would essentially emotionally self-flagellate (telling myself I was dumb, that I would never be good at the thing, that if anyone thought I was smart or competent it was because I must have tricked them somehow, etc). Humans are relatively reasonable. When something is painful, we avoid it. So, since failure is a necessary part of learning, after years of me having such negative reactions to failure, I cut off any interest I had in learning things. To remedy that, I had to find ways to make learning actively enjoyable. I had to re-frame failure as proof that I was interested in something enough to try, and if I continued to fail, that was proof that I was willing to stubbornly keep trying things even when they were disheartening.

I still fail a lot and I fall into old toxic patterns, but I’m doing much better than I was, and building this image of learning and of myself has been the key to that.