"The myth of clarity" (was "Fabian...)

Cliff Sloane (cesloane@MAROON.TC.UMN.EDU)
Fri, 1 Apr 1994 23:22:42 -0600

Wasn't it the sometimes impenetrable Bourdieu who once said that he writes
like that to challenge the myth of clarity? If someone can post the entire
quote, I'd appreciate it. Talk about a warrant for obscurity!!

Difficult ideas are one thing. I, however, have become intolerant of prose
that intentionally obscures. I am attempting to provide my students with
outlines, sometimes whole rewrites of essays, that have valuable
information, but it's embedded within unnecessarily dense and convoluted
prose.

Cliff Sloane