Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Know what I hate even more than pretentious crap?
Pretentious carp.
Nothing worse than fish getting above themselves.
Pretentious carp.
Nothing worse than fish getting above themselves.
Pretentious Crap
- Thread starter josef k.
- Start date
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
there
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Roffle, nice work folks.
For the record, I have no special animus against post-grads, though I do find a lot of academic writing sloppy, elitist and complacent, even as I continue to consume it. The question of pretentious crap, for me, concerns the relationship between knowledge, authority, and communication, and then also another term - not very fashionable these days - which would be wisdom. I think Socrates provides a compelling model for non-pretentious philosophizing, mostly lost in Plato's overbearing interpretations. Another good model is Eugene Hutz's favourite philosopher, Diogenes the cynic. Or perhaps Wittgenstein. "The meaning of pretentious crap is in its use."
Given the close relationship between academic language and questions of knowledge, communication, deeper lying structures, and so on, its natural that questions of pretentious crap should - at least in their first move - turn on the university. But the question obviously doesn't stop there. I still like Rosselini's point that certain camera moves may be considered pretentious. But I can't remember the exact quote so I can't really pursue this.
Given the close relationship between academic language and questions of knowledge, communication, deeper lying structures, and so on, its natural that questions of pretentious crap should - at least in their first move - turn on the university. But the question obviously doesn't stop there. I still like Rosselini's point that certain camera moves may be considered pretentious. But I can't remember the exact quote so I can't really pursue this.
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vimothy
yurp
Speaking as a mother...
Speaking as someone who is engaged in post-graduate study, as well as working both in higher education and in the field of education more generally, I find the idea that I am making fun of post-grads rather strange.
I don't think being pretentious is bad necessarily (in fact I think it is part of identity formation necessarily -- truly universal, as I suggested upthread); I don't think all academics are pretentious; I don't think all academics use post-structuralist/whatever-you-call-it language; I don't think post-structuralist language is pretentious necessarily; I don't think use of technical language is pretentious necessarily; I don't think post-structuralist lingo is technical necessarily (some of it is indeed pretentious); yadda, yadda, yadda...
Speaking as someone who is engaged in post-graduate study, as well as working both in higher education and in the field of education more generally, I find the idea that I am making fun of post-grads rather strange.
I don't think being pretentious is bad necessarily (in fact I think it is part of identity formation necessarily -- truly universal, as I suggested upthread); I don't think all academics are pretentious; I don't think all academics use post-structuralist/whatever-you-call-it language; I don't think post-structuralist language is pretentious necessarily; I don't think use of technical language is pretentious necessarily; I don't think post-structuralist lingo is technical necessarily (some of it is indeed pretentious); yadda, yadda, yadda...
Can i just say, this is genius. Completely skewers this history book from the 80s I'm reading. Although I can totally see, within my field (musicology), what the motivations behind such language were.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Agent I tried to send you a shite gift, but I don't know if it worked.
Non-Traditional Student who asks way too many questions.
Non-Traditional Student who asks way too many questions.