WRNBookReview

WRNBookReview, 10 months ago

@Laking86 @bookstodon I, for one, would welcome a return of such educated snobbishness in books on serious subjects. I just tried to listen to a podcast of three PhDs discussing a newly published book and the discussion was at the intelligence and vocabulary level of a lunch-room table of not particularly bright middle school students. This is a trend I am all to frequently seeing in the text of new books as well.

WRNBookReview, 10 months ago

@mutinyc @Laking86 @bookstodon Higher than "That was really some good shit!" (Yes, this is a direct quote from the interviewer.)

I concede the importance of clarity and straight-forwardness in language to make material accessible to a broad audience, but such vernacular denegrates the subject (unless perhaps the subject is actually manure), the presentation, and the public image of what a university professor is, should be, or at least once was.

WRNBookReview, 10 months ago

@mutinyc @Laking86 @bookstodon We're in the same boat. My father only completed 9th grade and my mother 10th; his parents were immigrants and hers were migrant laborers. All were distinctly blue / no collar through and through. They taught me read and write at an early age, bought me a dictionary and a set of encyclopedias on installment payments, and insisted that I should always speak properly so I would have a better chance in life than they did.