Multiple Em Dashes

[Esoltas]

Grammarians,

I have a question for you. I understand the em dash's usage--as an abrupt interruption of a train of thought. But in the following sentence, should you change the punctuation at "influences--and my future"? Because the sentence is meant to have 2 abrupt appositives, "my influences" and "my dreams." The sentence could be thought of as: "For anyone to have a real sense of who I am, he or she must understand both my past (my influences) and my future (my dreams)." But I have an aversion to parentheses in formal writing. If parentheses are indeed more suitable for the purposes of clarity, please hint so.

SENTENCE IN QUESTION: "For anyone to have a real sense of who I am, he or she must understand both my past—my influences—and my future—my dreams."

-Esoltas

[Carolyn]

That's a tricky question.

The Chicago Manual of Style, my favorite reference for modern sticky and tricky punctuation issues, says that no sentence should contain more than two em dashes. If more elements need to be sent off, parentheses should be used.

I'd suggest combining the elements "my past and my future" and then setting off "my influences and my dreams" with the em dash.