Too Literary?
Are you reading this at work? Don't worry, I won't tell. But I suspect that you are. I've nothing in the way of firm evidence, mind you. But the impression gets stronger every day. The only people who don't do their Web log reading and writing at work appear to be people who don't have any work to go to.
Is Dilbert the Holy Ghost of the Blogosphere? You know, the wise one.
[We interrupt: Is Anglophone anti-intellectualism - as pervasive in the UK as it is in the United States - the cause or the effect of such linguistic tics as the one that morphed Sanctus Spiritus into Holy Ghost? "Spirit," in the other European languages, connotes wit, intelligence, and wisdom as well as a certain insubstantiality; "Ghost" is just a dumb spook. It couldn't be further from the Greek original: Hagia Sophia, "Holy Wisdom." Did you find this interruption pedantic and annoying or curious and provocative?]
Is the Blogosphere bustling because employees seek distraction? Am I contributing to a decrease of productivity?
Not bloody likely. I have begun to wonder if my writing isn't a little too literary to be savored in the workplace. No, that's not true. I haven't begun to wonder. I've begun to take my wondering seriously. I leave it to you to guess why; I would never mention anything so vulgar as ... hits.
When I launched Portico in 2000 (not that I ever said "launched" at the time), I pictured its readers as people who had just finished the Sunday Times (perhaps on Saturday) and who were absentmindedly following up a reference to something interesting on the Web. That's how I would read this site, if I weren't writing it. But in this as in most ways I am an oddball. The last thing that people who read (and write) Web logs at work want to do on the weekend is more of same.
So I'm thinking of modeling my prose on sports writing - a genre not without its highly literate admirers. (Will the recent chorus of praise for A J Liebling induce me to read about boxing? I haven't even opened David Remnick's anthology.) Since I don't, to put it mildly, actually follow sports, I may have to plagiarize.
If I won't tell on you, don't you tell on me.
Comments
Wait. Transition please... Could you elaborate on how you settled on "sports writing?" What sparked this train of thought?
Posted by: Ms NOLA | February 4, 2005 11:15 AM
I would trace the move from Sanctus Spiritus to Holy Ghost to Lutheranism specifically and Protestantism in general, both of which may be said to have their anti-intellectual elements. On the links between Protestantism and the English-speaking world, see Weber, et al. (Yes, I am writing this from work.)
Posted by: Mucus Membrane | February 4, 2005 11:16 AM
Ms Nola: See my earlier remarks ("Non Speakers") about "jarring." Also, watch for my expanded Super Bowl MC2 coverage!
MM: I believe that "Holy Ghost," in English usage, antedates the Reformation, so we'll have to find another culprit. Thanks for writing!
Posted by: R J Keefe | February 4, 2005 11:28 AM
Sorry for not being a close reader. Super Bowl MC2 Coverage? Is this something else I missed?
Posted by: Lauren | February 4, 2005 11:35 AM
It's only slightly too literary; more specifically, it isn't possible to follow up on any of the references without taking too much time. But something somewhat literary (in the sense assumed in A Hazard of New Fortunes, a near great American novel) should be injected into days, if only to keep aspirations alive.
Posted by: Ken Roberts | February 4, 2005 11:38 AM
I am too verklempt to post. A great actor has died. John Vernon passed away today at 72. He is best known for his role as Dean Vernon Wermer on the classic movie of all trading desks, "Animal House." We are ignoring the market that will NEVER die (the Treasury market is sort of like one of the 1950's horror movies) and discussing favorite moments from the movie. "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."
Posted by: PPOQ | February 4, 2005 12:07 PM
Hoo hah, sports writing. While I will grudgingly admit that there are sports writers who can actually write (e.g., Roger Angell - but classifying him as a sports writer is too restrictive), the genre makes me flee shrieking. Shrieking! Have you ever read the supposedly excellent sports writers in the Boston Globe? You can hear the sound of their knuckles dragging!
Then there's John Feinstein, who seems to crank out one throwaway book on sports per year, and keeps up some excruciating Saturday-morning banter with the NPR guy whose name escapes me.
And then, re workplace: I would love to count how many man-hours (yes, mostly man, but not entirely) have been spent this week on my office-building floor alone discussing the Patriots. Again: fleeing, shrieking.
Posted by: Max | February 4, 2005 12:36 PM
Yes, I am reading this at work. It is one of the more enjoyable breaks in my day! Dean Wormer dead........ Oh my God! I just ran across Animal House this weekend while channel surfing and had to stop to watch.
I suspect the Treasury Market will survive even longer those of us who fondly remember Animal House!
Posted by: Tindley | February 4, 2005 01:05 PM
Roger Angell on baseball, Herbert Warren Wind on tennis or golf, Dave Anderson in The Times.....I could go on and on but there are some great writers whose topic is sports. And while I fail to grasp football very much at all, I will succumb I'm sure and watch a few minutes. And while I loathe the Red Sox, I love Fenway and would spend many a day there if I could.........
Posted by: PPOQ | February 4, 2005 01:25 PM
While I take it on faith that there are sports writers who write very well, I'm not in a position to test the proposition, because I am missing the sports gene. "Sports writing" is simply shorthand for "shorter paragraphs, shorter sentences, and LOSE THE SEMICOLONS."
Tindley, have Evan and Scott seen Animal House? Ahem?
Nobody has remarked on my link to the Ken Powers scandal. Plagiarizing sports writing? What kind of IQ-suppressor does that require?
Posted by: R J Keefe | February 4, 2005 02:50 PM
I did go to the Boston Sports Media Watch. Now there's a City that takes its sports seriously, that they have a media watch on their sportswriters. And the plagiarism reminded me of the term paper I wrote on Spanish Phonetics. When I realized how closely I had followed the text, which hadn't been checked out of the library for 30 years, I decided to ibid the whole book!!! This sports jerk was really ill prepared to plagiarize. I got an A!!!!!
Posted by: PPOQ | February 4, 2005 03:42 PM