Re: Emperor's new prose

Cliff Sloane (cesloane@MAROON.TC.UMN.EDU)
Sat, 2 Apr 1994 13:22:00 -0600

I would submit there is a difference here. On the one hand, it seems
perfectly reasonable to question how arguments are constructed, and how
knowledge and its acquisition are defined. Fine. But my complaint is one
of intention. I find the dense prose of "the French guys" intentionally
difficult. This is no exercise in epistemological alternatives. This is an
intentional effort to make readers struggle. One needs to look at the site
of these difficulties, in an arena of academic competetiveness, to
understand why people CHOOSE to write impenetrable prose.

Cliff Sloane