My comment is a question and what I think are possible answers. What are the reasons that exclamation points and semicolons have no place in literature? Exclamations could be seen as marks to indicate "sound effects," which should be conveyed by the words, the phrasing. I have more trouble finding a reason to exclude semicolons. Perhaps, semicolons should be used to arrange data in a financial report, but not used to organize ideas, feelings, or experiences.