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Thursday, January 06, 2011

Essays

I hate essays. Everyone writes essays; they amass all their arguments and all their rationale all the way back to Plato and beyond. If there was ever a real need for Occam's Razor, truly this is it: to cut through the verbiage.
However, I am aware that perhaps this is a result of my incredible antiquity, having been a sort of Wandering Jew or Flying Dutchman, or even a Xerxes the Homeless Guy - condemned to eternal dumpster diving for having given Esther a hard time.
I certainly do not know everything, but it all seems familiar, very familiar.

There is little of value that can be learned within the limited scope of the essay, except the point the writer wishes to make. Einstein - if physics is your topic - cannot be restricted to the Planck scale of the essay. Same thing with Foucault ( With whom I had dinner 35 years ago... it was chicken. He made a joke about poulet which means "chicken" but also refers to sex trade workers. Nowadays I would frown mightily at such louche behavior.)

Leave the learned baggage with the TSA that pats down your spirit, and jump freely into the friendly skies of Opinion!
Posted by Montag at 3:16 AM

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Surprises me. I rather like essays. They're a supple form. And it's all opinion anyway . . . or at least most of it. :-)

Friday, January 07, 2011 4:07:00 AM
Montag said...

Upon reflection, I like them, too.

I do not like a certain form of the essay, and that the essay designed to convince, and proceeds to do so by hitting one with a hammer of so-called facts.

I guess the trick is always saying just enough: not too much, not too little.
It helps to know your audience. Perhaps the levels of education in the present day are so widely fluctuating that it is impossible to assume what the audience background of commonly-accepted knowledge is.

Friday, January 07, 2011 5:38:00 AM

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