walkitout: (Default)
Nella Acceber ([personal profile] walkitout) wrote2010-03-02 01:43 pm
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I surrender

I think I now, at this late age, understand _why_ academia/science has/have? adopted a hideously opaque structure and rhetorical style. Because when you turn it into narrative, people's judgment lapses as they prepare to be entertained.

*sigh*

[identity profile] ethelmay.livejournal.com 2010-03-02 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)
True, true. Unfortunately the duller books aren't necessarily any better researched -- I've run across too many books that were dull, dull, dull, with every bit of dullth footnoted, and STILL inaccurate. And sometimes, of course, they might be accurate, but it doesn't matter, because they are saying something not worth saying -- I've seen more than one academic book that boiled down to "I will compare and contrast X and Y. X and Y are different in a, b, c ... z ways. X and Y are, however, alike in 1, 2, 3 ... 26 ways. Isn't it interesting how alike, yet different, X and Y are?" To which the answer is, of course, No.