I use Emacs to write and edit long-form prose, mainly in org-mode,
markdown-mode and other text-mode derivatives. While doing
so, I frequently use different types of quotation characters at the
same time.

However, since Emacs 25.x, I have lost the ability to work with some
quote chars – in particular quote pairs 0x2018 and 0x2019, and 0x201C
and 0x201D. These are Unicode chars LEFT/RIGHT SINGLE QUOTATION MARK
and LEFT/RIGHT DOUBLE QUOTATION MARK, or what some people call
typographic or curly quotes.

For some reason, Emacs now shows these quote marks in my org-mode
and markdown-mode buffers (and, as far as I can tell, everywhere else in
Emacs, including fundamental mode) as either a grave accent (0x60) and
single quote (0x27) pair, or a double quote (0x22) pair (see screen
shot). I say shows, because when I do C-u C-x = on these chars, the
decomposition tells me they are, in fact, the quote chars I expect, Emacs
just chooses to display them as something else.

The quotes also appear to have a display table and face applied, but I
don’t understand the significance of this information, or if it’s a clue to
solving my problem.

I read in NEWS about a new variable, text-quoting-style, which
manipulates how quote are displayed, but none of its documented options
seem to have an effect on the appearance of quote marks in my writing
buffers, or anywhere else for that matter. Perhaps this is unrelated.

I would like Emacs to simply display the actual quote chars in my
buffers without applying any kind of styling.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Nick

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