From: Matt Teichman (email suppressed)
Date: Wed Sep 07 2005 - 14:59:19 PDT
I think Messrs. Plotkin and Willey ought to consider the idea--at least
as a remote possibility--that others besides themselves might have
noticed the same phenomenon and found it equally abhorrent.
I'm sorry, but post-structuralists don't have a monopoly on polysyllabic
words. That terms like "aesthetic" and "address" (in use for some time
before "theory" came to dominate the humanities) should be mistaken for
the kind of pomo jargon that Sokal satirized is indicative of the sorry
state in which Anglo-American literacy seems to have found itself.
Dictionaries are cheap, folks, as the expression goes; even avant-garde
filmmakers can afford them.
Incidentally, there is more name dropping in Omar Willey's last post
than I've seen even in the most debased academic schmoozefests. It's
obviously out to impress.
I do agree that Scott Macdonald's work is an exemplary case of moving
away from the pretentious affectations of most scholarly writing. And I
think Fred Camper, who has a remarkable talent for expressing
complicated ideas in ordinary language, should also be mentioned.
-Matt
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