Can one list independent clauses in a single sentence list?

I'd call this a borderline case. I would accept it, especially in a work of fiction, but if you ask a particularly fussy English teacher, you might get the opinion that it's wrong - more specifically, that it's a "comma splice". Still, the clauses are all related, so you might argue that that makes it OK.

In a work of fiction I would simply use an em-dash to get round the comma splice issue.

She knew this house-she visited it often-but it didn't belong to her father.

The one I struggle with is where "and" is the coordinating conjunction.

The music played, the lights dimmed and couples took to the floor.

I usually just let it go and claim asyndeton with

That's not how I posted that. It seems to have done something weird with my em-dashes.

She knew this house - she visited it often - but it didn't belong to her father.

Just pretend those dashes are em-dashes!

OK, I've researched this a bit more, just in case anyone else should ever venture onto this thread and check this out.

In the first sentence, using "but" as a connective conjuction, the middle phrase does not form a comma splice, because it is a parenthetical element (i.e. you could put it in brackets).

In the second sentence, using "and" it is acceptable to create a list of inde

Hi,

Commas are used to separate things in a list, but what if the list is of independent clauses?

Example: She knew this house, she visited it often, but it didn’t belong to her father.

Yes, you can use commas like that.

But in the original example, I'd prefer