for 28 March 2000. Updated every WEEKDAY.
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The Jawbone of a Scare Quote in your article for today's edition of suck, you wrote: "Let's make a pledge right now. If you ever find you need quotation marks up against a word or phrase so you can tell a sarcastic insult from a straightforward one around here, let us know. We'll fix things right up. You want that shirt of vituperation, you won't have to "mess" with any typographical snakes to get it. And that's not any Mazola, friend: that's a promise." how about: "Kaufman, a lecturer in American Studies at a university in England, has written an entire book predicated on a stray remark of Kurt Vonnegut, that 'American humorists or satirists or whatever you wish to call them, those who choose to laugh rather than weep about demoralizing information, become intolerably unfunny pessimists if they live past a certain age.' Never mind that some of the subjects of the book, like stand-ups Lenny Bruce and Bill Hicks, didn't exactly make it to 'a certain age,' or thatothers, like Herman Melville and Sinclair Lewis, were always more pessimistic than humorous: An academic book that tells its readers that all irony, even its highest literary manifestations, is a priori doomed, is bound to please a lot of people who would rather social critics like Lenny Bruce and Sinclair Lewis never even went through the laughing-rather-than-weeping phase, much less the intolerably pessimistic one. 'Irony fatigue,' a phrase Kaufman coined looking for what American humorist/pessimist Fran Lebowitz described as 'undue fanfare,' is a concept whose time has come. Even as knowing a filmmaker as John Waters, never exactly Frank Capra, ends his latest film Pecker with a toast to the end of irony. We've come a long way from what Spy magazine in the '80s labeled "the irony epidemic." The Irony Backlash has set in. Everyone is tired of the trickled-down and facile irony that pretty much defines the media sensibility of recent years; now, a professor gives the people who never liked any kind of irony, facile or otherwise, the chance to declare it self-destructive and unproductive. Unfunniness and optimism, freed from their shackles, can reign in the land once more, and shine on us even at midnight. I feel warmer already." (see also joshua glenn's "fake authenticity: an introduction" for scare quotes run rampant.) despite the perceived inconsistency, however, i appreciate your analysis of the phenomenon as well as your writing in general, and look forward to reading more. (this will include, of course, a more thorough exploration of the hermenaut site as time permits.) Jim Kuemmerle <J.Kuemmerle@m.cc.utah.edu> While writing about scare quotes, I learned many things. Among them? The New York Times used to write better headlines. Weeks go by now with barely a mention of wolf girls or whisky-demanding bandits there. That's because the world has changed. And so have I. So please don't GET ON ME for the lapses of that pretentious BUM Hamrah. How do you feel about all caps instead? I appreciate your research. Thanks for outing me. The world may have changed, but it can only be for the better when we're unafraid to be who we really are. Slotcar Hatebath  Hey Slot, I enjoyed this one a lot. Today's essay put into words several vague ideas that had been swimming around the back of my half-semi-subconscious. I believe that in the greatest of current writing, both words and punctuation should have meaning. As televised culture threatens to make readers into little more than a literary cult, it is up to the "true" readers to put depth of meaning beyond the reach of "couch potato America". Just for fun, take an inventory sometime of all the words NPR disdains with their "so-called" quotes. Ironically, Rich <richard.banks@cpa.state.tx.us> That's because National Public Radio is where scare quotes meet air quotes. The little jingles that brackett everything on NPR are perhaps are form of quotation marks around all they do. Slotcar Use and Abuse -loved- today's article. *s* (insert healthy contempt for the 'average user' engendered by time spent in tech support) my retail site has just one hoop, and that's just in case of the unlikely event there are ever scantily-clad humans demonstrating the products *sigh* all six customers thus far haven't seemed to mind. take a look. maybe you'll be amused. Rafe Proprietor & Lead Deviant www.digitaldiscipline.com Amused? More like amazed. Who knew goth marital aids were so expensive? Hae you considered buying in bulk, then selling them as tech support devices? Pixel Vixen With the number of new computer users and web surfers that keep getting added to the fray every day (not to mention the entrepeneurs trying to make money off of these people) it ends up becoming the equivalent of urban sprawl--too many sites being built too quickly-with no attention paid to whether or not people can easily access the things they need. If you have to drive around three brand new mini-malls to get to the grocery store, you haven't progressed at all. Keep the suck sucking!!! Robert C. You know, you've just outlined the premise for Mike Davis' new book: City of Silicon: Excavating the Profit Line. Consider the similarities between the Web model you put forth and Los Angeles: - both are filled with people attracted to shiny objects - both require inordinate amounts of time simply to get anything done - LA has air smog; the Web has data smog - Studio business model: banking on ephemeral celebrity; Web business model: banking on ephemeral stock Pixel Vixen Of late, rewarding bogus competence ("My Child Is A Super Student At Nosebleed Elementary") has drowned real achievement. The unfortunate answer is that the programmer was right: the users are stupid. This will only get worse as the Web audience expands beyond the yokels sporting aol.com addresses and gets to those with full frontal lobotomies, the beneficiaries of sustained electroshock therapy, and Democrats. I can only hope none of these savants end up in technical support -- on either side of the phone. Rob McMillin <rlm@pricegrabber.com> I admire your joie de malice, but really — bogus competence has been very good to me. How else do you think I ended up writing this? Pixel Vixen Hurrah! Well written, and echoes truths bound to leave the inane buggered and the web marketers choking on their own latex inflatable ego. As a technology manager trying (I emphasize trying) to implement an e-commerce system for a major financial services company, very few understand that Functionality and Usability are the priority when trying to develop a tool to lead to success. I cannot possibly cite the number of instances where marketing managerís gaze suddenly glazes over and nearly drool in catatonia when listening to the issues of functional flows, navigation, and usability. eric lang <langericp@earthlink.net> You know, I got email from someone earlier today who specializes in fetishwear. Perhaps you and he should get together and offer an e-fetish line; latex inflatable egos might be the next big thing. Of course; the marketing people aren't going to actually use the product they're selling. I suggest recasting the flows, navigation and usability in these terms: brand identity. That should keep them awake. Then it's your job to pull a fast one and actually try to marry the brand to a non-hideous surfing experience. Pixel Vixen The Jawbone of a Scare Quote Thanks so much for your slight to the AP style guide. "Yet the term isn't mentioned in The New York Times' heavy-duty instruction manual, nor in The Washington Post Deskbook on Style; not in the slim volume the Associated Press puts out or The Chicago Manual of Style or any of the various MLA guides." Sincerely, Edith <ess@blkbox.com> Why do people force the blowy AP style guide on anyone, anyway? It's one of those mysteries, like why is the Associated Press a non-profit organization? Slotcar One of the local businesses around here, Danny "D" TV Repair, had a sign in their window announcing that they were going on "vacation". I puzzled over that one for weeks. Take care, Scoats <scoats@greylodge.com> "Scoats" sounds like a contraction of "scare quotes." Is that why you're so interested in their deployment? As a responsible journalist, I contacted Danny "D" TV Repair. Danny (Senior) put "vacation" in quotes like that because he spent his time off sitting on his couch watching a Philco he repaired five years ago that the customer never came to pick up. Turns out the guy died. Now there's some ironical usage! Slotcar Oh boy, oh boy! I already found a word that needs scare quotes! In the first paragraph, you say: "They pat the phrase on the back and send it on it's way bundled up in scare quotes." Ooh, it's a trendy mis-usage of non-possessive "it's"! This is obviously an attempt to get closer to your readers by using layman's jargon, right? Egads. "Layman's jargon" sounds somehow very intimidating, & perhaps a bit naughty, though it's certainly not worthy of scare quotes. I did really enjoy the article, though. Have no doubts about that. It's just the militant grammatician in me that causes such reactions to occur while I sit here eating my "Grape-Nuts" & reading "Suck" naked. kate.rears.kittka <hkrear@wm.edu> At least one mystery has been solved here. Those signs at restaurants that advertise "Breakfast" Served All Day? Copy editing didn't catch the writer's mistake before they taped it to the wall. Your letter gets the award for most interesting batch of scare quoted words used to beat me over the head. With "layman's jargon" and "Suck" you wouldn't have placed. "Grape-Nuts" pushed you over. Especially since you claimed to be eating them naked. The facial contortions needed to chew those things + breakfast table nudity = most lasting image of the day. Thank you. Slotcar Subject: ethnic cleansing/genocide No, no...you have it all wrong: ethnic cleansing is NOT genocide. The point of genocide is to kill everyone in a given ethnic group. The point of ethnic cleansing is to clear a given ethnic group out of a given area: usually by forcibly evacuating them. Granted, shooting a few helps get the overall message accross to the others, but still they are different concepts. The reason ethnic cleansing survived as a coinage — beyond its appealingly sinister ring — is that it conveys something different from genocide. Francisco Toro <franciscotoro@hotmail.com> To my cauliflower ear that sounds a lot like a justification for ethnic cleansing. Since the use of the word genocide isn't reserved for instances where it's been successful — where every member of a group has been killed — well, then every member of a group doesn't have to have been killed for genocide to have been committed. It's about intent. Maybe ethnic cleansing is what genocidal maniacs use to describe genocide that they know won't succeed. Your definiton is pragmatic, just like in my example. The numbers just aren't there. The use of the term ethnic cleansing anesthetizes readers to the reality of genocide and makes it tolerable. Heavy, huh? Slotcar Speaking of letters from my grandmother, she always signed her cards: "Love," Nana Which always made me wonder about whether there was real sentiment behind the $5 bill she enclosed. Ted Metzler <metzlert@proxicom.com> These scare quotes stories are enough to break my cauliflower heart. I'm so sorry, Ted. It's sadly obvious that your grandmother didn't love you. But you're better off than me. My Aunt "Winnie" and my Uncle "Willie" only sent me a dollar bill every year. On the other hand, I was doing pretty good because I had no idea who the people behind those obvious pseudonyms were. It's like parents who sign the cards "Santa Claus" on the Christmas gifts they give to their kids. That's a red (and green) flag, kiddies, and an early lesson in why you shouldn't trust a scare quote. Slotcar Hey, what is a "ho-made" Donut? Donut made by "ho"s? Cameron Geiser <cameron@slip.net> See, you see what happens with scare quotes? People get all smart-mouthed because they can't resist questioning everything inside them. A (or is that an?) "ho-made" donut is not a donut made by hos, funnyman. A "ho-made" donut is a donut made by ex-hos who've been forced to get "real" jobs under new welfare strictures. I suppose it's easy to denigrate their Krispy Kreme efforts. In the future, resist the impulse. Slotcar |
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