tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post3415312601620561245..comments2024-03-21T07:37:30.475-04:00Comments on Light reading: "Aphorizing public menaces"Jenny Davidsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02295436498255927522noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6959297.post-3996066042658863792010-01-18T20:45:16.174-05:002010-01-18T20:45:16.174-05:00Pardon the rant - but if there's one thing I c...Pardon the rant - but if there's one thing I can't stand more than consciously composed aphorisms, it's people's determination to reduce <i>all</i> writing into aphoristic soundbites. I suspect it's partly down to the US school-level educational system, where there seems to be a huge emphasis on aphorisms (for instance, as pretty mandatory accompaniment to yearbook entry mugshots, and for ledes for every possible written assignment).<br /><br />Look in the Yahoo! Answers Quotations topic, and you'll see a stream of enquiries where students are evidently being asked to brain out the meaning of aphoristic statements, which you often find are taken wildly out of context from continuous texts. If Thoreau wrote "The closet stinks" in the middle of a gripe about the plumbing at Walden, they'll be taking it in isolation and reading into it some deep wisdom about Thoreau being secretly gay. Bah...Ray Girvanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05556764642402680159noreply@blogger.com