Wow. I get up (it's still before ten here on the west coast) and check in and find that what had been an innocuous comment has become organic and evolved into a full-fledged thread.
It's the tone of that thread that has my momentary attention. Many have taken exception to my word play.
Now like more than a few lower courts, these critics may have come to the right conclusion but for the wrong reasons (one would think critics would have more in the way of critical thinking). Sometimes I am wordy; if that translates to a lack of respect for my reader's time, mea culpa. I like to read leisurely meandering compositions that allow me insight not only into the subject at hand but the author's persona, as well.
But attributing it as a bid for showing off, or interpreting that I am making a conscious show of it, or "working too hard" at it, is just wrong.
A fundamental truth is that I enjoy writing. No less true is that some enjoy reading my product. It follows that those that see fit to arbitrarily criticize that product implicitly call into question the more refined tastes of my supporters. So please know that I follow-up herein not for my benefit, but theirs
The fact is that words are the tools of my trade. They can establish a tone, a meter, and an ambience. Given the limitations of this medium and in the absence of voice inflection, this proves a most valuable asset. So while my admitted loquacity *may* be a turn-off to some, it has proven inoffensive to others and, in my initial posts, was harmless by any objective standard.
Unfortunately, much has been made of my use of "parsimonious". It's true that I could have used the word "stingy". I just prefer the former's its euphonic sound, the slightly sibilant sound it makes as it slides off the mind's tongue. "Stingy" smacks of a lack of imagination and comes across as too harsh. Nah, not for me.
Another said that my message read differently than its predecessors. I would hope to God so. I'd hate to think that our general homeostasis dictates an across the board predictability.
My mood dictates my tone. When I am tired, I tend to be less creative, more terse. Given the luxuries of time and energy I can be more leisurely in composing my thoughts and words. I can jump in and splash around, soak myself in our beloved language and spoil myself at will (My post. My words. Their tough luck).
Now I would offer these detractors all manner of rhetorical questions, but then I would obligated to define the term. And in the end, they don't matter. If they were reflective to enough to analyze the reasons for knee-jerk reactions, we wouldn't be having this chat now. What does matter is any interpretation of a lack of response on my part might be deemed as acquiescence on my part.
Of course, there is a fundamental risk to successfully defending one's self against one's critics: Success. And overkill can engender sympathies for the afflicted ("Please Hammer, don't hurt 'em!"). But any objective soul worth his salt - and therefore whose opinion I would value - would recognize that all I have done is responded in kind, and then some.
You see, I'm a chameleon. I mirror my environment. Given a modicum of respect, I return it tenfold. Of course, the converse is true, too. As well it should be.
Don't like it? Tough.
The fact is I get paid to write, and my subsidies go well beyond financial gain. How many of you who have seen fit to offer negative comments can make that claim? I am willing to bet: None.
Why?
Because writers understand the nuances of their task, and appreciate the practitioner puts towards the craft. They know it is more than grabbing a thesaurus, a dictionary, or cutting and pasting miscellanea culled from the internet. It means being able to present a cogent contention in a unique engaging manner. Should it prove to be engaging and edifying, so much the better. But you'd better not come into the equation tablua rosa. There had better be something occupying that cranium other than some xenophobic hubris and fear of a word that one finds foreign.
Foreign or not, words are tools of our profession. Applied in nobler causes, they can save lives (indeed, I have been acknowledged in doing just that). On other, less nobler fronts, they can be nonetheless instructive, and offer cautionary parables for those who display the ill-considered wisdom to pick a fight with those who routinely wield them. Caveat lector.
In my first post, I'd mentioned that I don't post often herein. Whatever else, this follow-up affords me a belated explanation for that posture. Part of that reason is because Friendly Metal Detecting doesn't always live up to its name. There are little cliques herein, some formed around product loyalty, regional bias, or just the desire to clasp unto another's kneecap for mutual ill-considered support ("Boy, we really showed him, huh?" Wink-wink). And just because profanity doesn't rear its ugly countenance doesn't mean its second cousins aren't present and accounted for. All too often there is a cameo by sarcasm and showboating by some bozo who thinks he is uniquely qualified to tender an opinion to the exclusion of another's feelings. The word "snarkiness" comes to mind (if the word doesn't exist, it should. Just doing mah part to speed up the evolution of our lexicon).
That being said, I really enjoy *reading* a vast majority of the posts and it would be disingenuous of me not to acknowledge my debt to them. The best have both entertained and edified me. And I am thankful for them (indeed, what is frustrating is that some of those I am taking to task herein have proven to be kind on other fronts. I guess R.L. Stevenson would have something to say on that score).
But on this thread I encountered a bunch of lame-brained retorts and criticisms and so took predictable umbrage. Roughly characterized, the formula is as follows - 1) somebody else makes waves; 2) I splash back; 3) and suddenly it's my butt out of the pool (Workable definition of irony: When your greatest character flaw is to have character).
Look, fwiw, I am capable of using very short words. In fact, I have been known to use a two word phrases with the letters "f" and "u" that wasn't "Felix Unger" (indeed, feel like employing some now).
But these words will have to do. Had my mission been an experiment to draw out such insecure souls, I would have been more ostentatious about it. I really would have laid on all manner of polysyllable embroidery so as to make their addled heads spin. But that was obviously not my intent. Nonetheless, it achieved similar ends. Score one on the group studies front.
Not that I couldn't go on. I could . But to what purpose and at what cost? They'll be no converts in my wake. Those more salient souls will know where I am coming from. The others will remain the same sullen limited-thinking souls who claim to resent my vocabulary, but pretty much envy the whole damn enchilada.
As a member of Mensa I spent twenty-five years battling idiocy in the streets. I have won the medal of valor. I mention these facts not for aggrandizing purposes (look it up), but to establish certain facts about my persona that might not otherwise be gleaned by what has preceded this. What it boils down to is my constitution does not bear bullies well. Nor should it have to. Oblique snipings and smart aleck remarks demand the occasional rebuttal (but not always...any Spartan can tell ya that the numbers will get you eventually).
But if I can't snap these anthropoids out of their synaptic doldrums, I will be happy to be the thing stuck in their craw, the burr in their saddle, and an omnipresent reminder of their inadequacies.
"Thousands of excellent nouns, verbs and adjectives that have stood in every decent dictionary for years are still unfamiliar to such ignoramuses, and I do not solicit their patronage. Let them continue to re-create themselves with whodunits, and leave my vocabulary and me to my own customers, who have been to school." HL Mencken
the persimmonousnious a fruit of Chinese origin. Originally cultivated in both Japan and China for centuries, this fruit is now grown in Italy and other Mediterranean countries, the Middle East and the USA.
