It seems, at least at first blush, hard to believe. I've known many brilliant people in literary studies--huge vocabularies--who are on the Left. Perhaps becoming a committed left-winger, though, tends to reduce fluency by mandating the repetition of key phrases. But even that seems a stretch, I must admit. Still, fascinating tidbit.
Perhaps I ought to have said 'self-limiting'. The repetition of phrases and jargon from the Lacan/Derrida/Foucault/Butler Approved Lexicon is indeed the core of the issue. There is probably also a list of words once used by C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton which are forbidden by academic publishers.
Back in 1988, I first encountered Jacques Derrida in grad school. When probed to see if I understood the method and the style I threw up a fresh crunchy word salad with a nice ginger sesame (sticky sweet) vinaigrette just to demonstrate I could follow the bouncing ball. When I turned in my first paper, however, I was skewered for not playing in the "major league." My response was this: "Just because I can 'Derrida,' why would I want to?
I didn't know that!
It seems, at least at first blush, hard to believe. I've known many brilliant people in literary studies--huge vocabularies--who are on the Left. Perhaps becoming a committed left-winger, though, tends to reduce fluency by mandating the repetition of key phrases. But even that seems a stretch, I must admit. Still, fascinating tidbit.
Perhaps I ought to have said 'self-limiting'. The repetition of phrases and jargon from the Lacan/Derrida/Foucault/Butler Approved Lexicon is indeed the core of the issue. There is probably also a list of words once used by C.S. Lewis or G.K. Chesterton which are forbidden by academic publishers.
I'm sure that's the case.
Back in 1988, I first encountered Jacques Derrida in grad school. When probed to see if I understood the method and the style I threw up a fresh crunchy word salad with a nice ginger sesame (sticky sweet) vinaigrette just to demonstrate I could follow the bouncing ball. When I turned in my first paper, however, I was skewered for not playing in the "major league." My response was this: "Just because I can 'Derrida,' why would I want to?