Aug 4, 2009
Some benign hypocrisy I noticed in David Foster Wallace’s essay “Authority and American Usage”
Wallace discourages so-called grammatical errors because they cause unnecessary nanoseconds of audience attention (CtL 93), but he regularly uses Latin and words like epigone.
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haha. if you ever read something by D.A. Carson, that (wonderful) man knows no bounds with his obscure words and Latin/Greek phrases. we saw him speak once and my fiance leaned over and whispered that i could hit him every time Carson said “prolegomena” or “par excellence.” i hit Kevin four times that night.
i find that i do it too, though (not as much as Don, because i’m not as smart). is it covert pride, or a form of laziness, or just forgetfulness that keeps academics using obnoxious jargon with laypersons?
But isn’t diverting audience attention to fix an error a different thing than diverting their attention to learn something new?
To be completely precise, Abraham, it should be said, “Wallace discouraged…,” rather than the present tense ‘discourages,’ since he no longer does anything anymore. ;0)