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Mar. 20th, 2014 11:40 amHave I mentioned recently how much I hate "let me explain"? I do. Every time I see it in an article I become slightly more rageous than I was before and am filled with rather more disdain for the author than was previously the case. I am perfectly happy for you to explain things, sometimes that is even why I am reading the article in the first place! But there is no need to effing signpost that you are about to explain something, and to write as though you are having a cosy chat with the reader who has just expressed mild disbelief at what you have just said. I WASN'T SURPRISED. STOP EFFING ACTING AS THOUGH I AM SURPRISED AND YOU HAVE BLOWN MY MIND. This example from The Toast:
"As a matter of fact, there are actually very good reasons to think that neither Shakespeare nor Ichabod should be speaking with what we currently think of as a “British” accent at all. What? Yes, really. Let me explain."
I DIDN'T SAY "WHAT". BECAUSE THIS IS NOT NEW INFORMATION. AND EVEN IF IT WERE NEW TO ME THEN IT IS NOT EXACTLY WORLD-CHANGING. ALSO "LET ME EXPLAIN" PRETENDS THAT THERE IS SOMETHING I CAN DO TO STOP YOU WHEN CLEARLY YOU DECIDED ON THIS DEVICE A WHILE AGO AND MY ANGER DOES NOTHING. If this were a seldom-used technique I would mostly be able to skate over it (I could never like it), but it comes up so often that I am unable to ignore it.
I am quite pleased to find that I still have pointless rage left. I used to hate-read someone's journal (that sounds mean, but he was a hateable, pretentious, open-source-boob-project-creating twat), and then I made myself stop for a while, and now I just skim over the posts on friendsfriends without even a flicker of interest in making my blood boil. More grown-up, and probably more productive, but nonetheless a sense of loss in my life.
I forgot to say yesterday that I bought the Cazalets book from Hive, which is an online book shop where all the orders are fulfilled by a local independent book shop (mine came from a shop in the basement of a church on Prince's Street). It's free standard shipping or you can arrange pick up, and they have some discounts too. Perfect if like me you felt vague guilt at still using Amazon when they were so evil, but only really got the push to leave when their free shipping minimum went up. The order arrived very quickly as well, I recommend them!
(I haven't heard back from the jobs I applied for. These are the first ones I went for after I got feedback on my competency examples and revised accordingly, so I am slightly hopeful but mostly despairing. I hear back about the next state of the promotion board next week.)
"As a matter of fact, there are actually very good reasons to think that neither Shakespeare nor Ichabod should be speaking with what we currently think of as a “British” accent at all. What? Yes, really. Let me explain."
I DIDN'T SAY "WHAT". BECAUSE THIS IS NOT NEW INFORMATION. AND EVEN IF IT WERE NEW TO ME THEN IT IS NOT EXACTLY WORLD-CHANGING. ALSO "LET ME EXPLAIN" PRETENDS THAT THERE IS SOMETHING I CAN DO TO STOP YOU WHEN CLEARLY YOU DECIDED ON THIS DEVICE A WHILE AGO AND MY ANGER DOES NOTHING. If this were a seldom-used technique I would mostly be able to skate over it (I could never like it), but it comes up so often that I am unable to ignore it.
I am quite pleased to find that I still have pointless rage left. I used to hate-read someone's journal (that sounds mean, but he was a hateable, pretentious, open-source-boob-project-creating twat), and then I made myself stop for a while, and now I just skim over the posts on friendsfriends without even a flicker of interest in making my blood boil. More grown-up, and probably more productive, but nonetheless a sense of loss in my life.
I forgot to say yesterday that I bought the Cazalets book from Hive, which is an online book shop where all the orders are fulfilled by a local independent book shop (mine came from a shop in the basement of a church on Prince's Street). It's free standard shipping or you can arrange pick up, and they have some discounts too. Perfect if like me you felt vague guilt at still using Amazon when they were so evil, but only really got the push to leave when their free shipping minimum went up. The order arrived very quickly as well, I recommend them!
(I haven't heard back from the jobs I applied for. These are the first ones I went for after I got feedback on my competency examples and revised accordingly, so I am slightly hopeful but mostly despairing. I hear back about the next state of the promotion board next week.)
