“Zero Tolerance”

From Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss:

“Of course, nothing is straightforward in the world of literary taste.  Just as there are writers who worship the semicolon, there are other high stylists who dismiss it—who label it, if you please, middle-class” (Truss 107).

Why can there never been one right answer?  There always has to be conflicting opinions, multiple possibilities.  It seems that a lot of grammar just comes down to personal preference…which makes the purpose of this book all seem a little strange.  I am enjoying the book, don’t me wrong, and I am learning some things—but, she is trying to teach a “zero tolerance approach to punctuation,” and it seems an awful lot like there are so many extenuating factors that “zero tolerance” are some pretty strong words for the open-endedness of the various parts of grammar.