Dancing with Professors

One of our readings this previous week concerned the use of ridiculous, expansive, and intrinsically meaningless banter and the epidemic of it in academia. The article directed the reader to a growing problem in academic writing, which was a trend towards more verbose and less clear prose, as well a tendency to cram far too many ideas into one sentence. As a result, students are first assailed with words and ideas with no viewable capability of interpretation, and second taught to embody said prose themselves. The repeated hammering of droll readings combined with added pressure to conform their writing styles to these pseudo-intellectual doldrums. Limerick states that one of the greatest tragedies that comes from this process is that writing loses the element of being a craft, and becomes more of an exercise.
One of Patricia Limerick's particular examples spurred some interest and further contemplation. She brings up the fable of Tweedledee and Tweedledum from Lewis Carol's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", wherein one of the brothers expresses fear at being decapitated. Limerick expands this to the arena of academic prose by suggesting that the post-modern meaninglessness and exhaustive sentence lengths wrap a veil of protection around the author. As the Author does not assert meaning, the claim holds no responsibility. This concept of prose being a drill appears elsewhere in Alice's Adventures, most notably with the caterpillar scene. When Alice is told to recite poetry by the caterpillar, she is told her way is far off the actual proper way to recite one's work. The caterpillar squashes Alice's creativity by conforming her standard to his own.