Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Complex Narrative

Today, I used the phrase “complex narrative” as a descriptor of a piece of literature I was analyzing for an English paper. In seriousness. I hate myself.

“Complex narrative” is one of those phrases like “postmodern” that doesn’t actually mean anything – people just toss it around to make their speech or writing sound more intelligent and high handed. It’s like when people use the word vocabulary to refer to something other than one’s command of the words of one’s native language. Or refer to a play or a book as “organic.” It’s just dickery and everyone knows it, but for some reason they choose to ignore it. No longer. I’m calling myself and everyone else out. Don’t be a tool. Use words that mean something in a context outside of an upper division English/philosophy/lit theory class in private school.

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