"My people" (Los Angeles, San Diego: public schools, closing, square footage)

[clongirl]

I just gotta laugh at this whole thread of nonsense.

Big words do not show true intelligence, but a sign of insecurity and lack of emotional depth (now if you are Asperger's, I'll forgive..my daughter is suspect).

But, reading from a dictionary, using big words do not show intelligence, but a lack of perception. I live in one of the most highly educated areas around, I've lived in a particularly educated part of Europe and am married to someone that is absolutely brilliant, yet I cannot fathom a person that speaks over people. If you were that smart, you'd understand how/when to use big words.

BTW, perhaps read "Angela's Ashes" for example..by Frank McCourt. He is gifted in speaking at the level of the reader and not over. Had he spoken to his audience like that, his books would have been thrown in the trash...not relating to his audience and come off as an embarrassment to Limerick (I used to live in Limerick).

Oh, but Coyoteskye will certainly be the first to jump on the chance (perhaps misogynistic reasons?) to declare that I'm "belittling" someone on their use of ostentatious wording. Protecting some poor sod because he's just innocent in his queries (despite attempts to get the guy to talk like a real person).

[coyoteskye]

Originally Posted by clongirl

I just gotta laugh at this whole thread of nonsense.

Big words do not show true intelligence, but a sign of insecurity and lack of emotional depth (now if you are Asperger's, I'll forgive..my daughter is suspect).

But, reading from a dictionary, using big words do not show intelligence, but a lack of perception. I live in one of the most highly educated areas around, I've lived in a particularly educated part of Europe and am married to someone that is absolutely brilliant, yet I cannot fathom a person that speaks over people. If you were that smart, you'd understand how/when to use big words.

BTW, perhaps read "Angela's Ashes" for example..by Frank McCourt. He is gifted in speaking at the level of the reader and not over. Had he spoken to his audience like that, his books would have been thrown in the trash...not relating to his audience and come off as an embarrassment to Limerick (I used to live in Limerick).

Oh, but Coyoteskye will certainly be the first to jump on the chance (perhaps misogynistic reasons?) to declare that I'm "belittling" someone on their use of ostentatious wording. Protecting some poor sod because he's just innocent in his queries (despite attempts to get the guy to talk like a real person).

Well thank you for the invitation but no, i have no wish at all to jump on you and not 'cause i'm misogynistic (yeah right which hat did you pull that one out of?) ... although i do prefer the company of men and if i was into women, ummmm, you wouldn't be one of them as i find you a bit nonsensical yourself (at times), tiresome and just somewhat of a poser, not wholly sincere and you strike me as someone who would drop names if you had them to drop.
But, thanks again.

And there is nothing wrong at all with intellectualism (although intellectual prowess without the warmth of the heart is rather empty imo) and "big words" can be wonderful and are certainly, in and of themselves, not an indication of insecurity nor an indication of a lack of emotional depth nor an indication of a "lack of perception" (there's no such thing as a "lack of perception" btw unless one is in a vegetative state but i imagine that even they have some degree of perceptual capacity but i dunno).

I will however agree that Frank McCourt's book "Angela's Ashes" was lovely as was he.

[Jay100]

LOL What?

I was just going to say try Santa Cruz.

[Laocoön]

.

[Laocoön]

Read Gore Vidal (big-hearted, very demotic sensibility -- indeed politically very liberal). Read Morris Berman (same). Check out Robert Pirsig, T.S. Eliot, or Noam Chomsky (the latter is a flaming liberal-progressive and could be considered populist in the grand scheme of his ideas). Those who prefer the informal and everyman voice: check out Kerouac and the Beats. Then, after reading some samples of these, tell me with a straight face that I'm wielding big words with an inordinate or absurd rate of frequency, or that I'm speaking stiltedly or pedantically.

To those of you who have expressed feeling "alienated" by my vocabulary and "intellectual prowess": it is much more a commentary about your lack of literacy and sophistication than it is about my so-called "ostentatious" writing. It reeks of how you sometimes hear a garage punk rock band disparaging a symphony orchestra: They don't play with heart and soul... Their music doesn't move... They're elitist... They're boring and put me to sleep... I can't relate to what they're putting out.

Why is it that so many in this country who are facile with a skill or exhibit competence & command of an art or craft are immediately encircled by the mob and beaned with stones until they renounce their learning, undergo a lobotomy, chuck their fine instruments, and take up the crude tools of the commoner? Know this, people: You'll not bean me into submission; I shan't deny my maker.

Why is it that the mob's first reaction is to belittle? And why does the mob immediately associate erudition with elitism? And furthermore, why is elitism, in the sense that it denotes having achieved a high level of accomplishment, so detested? I'll tell you why: envy. Pure and simple.

What does all of this say about the mindset of common folk and their envious obsession about the accomplishments of others? What does it say about where the bar is being set regarding classically-based knowledge and skill sets?

PEOPLE, I ONLY CAME HERE TO AX YOU SOME QUESTIONS!

You are the ones who have sidetracked this discussion with your disparaging comments and I-can't-understand-what-you're-saying posts. Do you understand how ridiculous that is?! That you can't understand a post that would earn the grade of "A" were it a college English paper, yet you so easily, and without complaint, comprehend posts that read like a five-year-old got aholt of mommy's computer and went to peckin' (without the backward S's, though)?

To the person who declared my expression to be heartless, I ask of you: Who are you to judge a person's heart? For my post to have heart would it have to make a emotional connection with you? Speak to your unique set of individual sensibilities? And what exactly qualifies as an emotional connection -- would I have to make you cry, laugh, make your panties wet? That would be an awfully myopic, self-centered, and shallow way to define a writer having heart. And yes, heart does need to comport with the brain, otherwise things are out of balance -- in an Aristotelian sense -- and you are less than your potential self.

Heart is a universal quality, and the most mature hearts are accompanied by the cold chill of reason and steely perception; and while such hearts are tempered emotionally, they are no less hearty and real. Smart hearts: born of experience and of the deepest contemplative sympathies; they arise out of the deepest recesses of self, but are boiled in the crucibles of human community and interaction. They are so much more than raw emotions and sensations.

And to that same person who declared my voice to be inauthentic and bereft of art... Again, who are you to judge? Are you an art or literary critic? I say no, or else you'd be on the very same forums to which you directed me.

I thought this was a forum for the purposes of discussing questions pertaining to cities and issues germane to living in them. I guess I missed the fine print where it said, Use a vulgar American street patois, or a series of symbols, emoticons, unconventional abbreviations, and misspelled words, or some sort of pidgin, or ungrammatical -- BUT KOSHER BECAUSE I'M TOO BUSY IN AMERICA TO BE LITERATE -- cyber-scrawl when posting.

[Jay100]

Yes everybody is so jealous of you. We should all just get on our knees and thank you for gracing us with your super powers.

[Snort]

Here's my theory:
You're channeling this guy:


through this guy:

[coyoteskye]

Does one need the title of literary critic to recognize?
No sir.
And i've read 'em all (except Morris Bermanand) and so friggin what?!!!

"Then, after reading some samples of these, tell me with a straight face that I'm wielding big words with an inordinate or absurd rate of frequency, or that I'm speaking stiltedly or pedantically."

Knock it off and wake up.
If you have no regard for who is receiving your words, you're an idiot!!!
Go find people who are your literary equals and you won't have this problem.
Why would you not do that?
What the f are you doing?
If you have complaints about the "mentality of common folks", what are you doing on city-data-forum?

And i'd rather have the heart of the child.
And a child is one who most often has the keenest of perceptions ... simple, clear, unadulterated, unsophisticated and free of the conditioned mind that skews the perceptions of those with "mature hearts" .

And i have no need nor desire to spend time on a literary forum and i often like to be around people who are not like me and the true quality of a person has nothing to do with his/her level of education and/or intellect.


And you're disingenuous when you say, "PEOPLE, I ONLY CAME HERE TO AX YOU SOME QUESTIONS". Bull S !

I find your expressions, for the most part, incredibly arrogant, unnatural, odious, and truly obnoxious.


You came, you asked, it seems that you haven't found the answers here that you're looking for and yet you continue to argue and belittle and express yourself to people who don't seem to be receptive to you.
Why not split?
What's your trip?
Would your rather stay in isolation or would you rather evolve?
If you wanna evolve, play up ... find people who see you, appreciate you, can call you out on your b.s. in a way that you cannot defend and who can challenge you into being a more authentic human being.

I'm done.
Peaceout.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by Laocoön

Why is it that the mob's first reaction is to belittle? And why does the mob immediately associate erudition with elitism? And furthermore, why is elitism, in the sense that it denotes having achieved a high level of accomplishment, so detested? I'll tell you why: envy. Pure and simple.

Oh my. A persecution complex, delusions of grandeur and elitism! You're like a magnet drawing the mob to you and have been since your first post. Since you continue to come back for more, no doubt you're enjoying the attention.

In prosaic Internet terms, I shall cease nourishing the troll.

G'Day!

Originally Posted by coyoteskye

Does one need the title of literary critic to recognize?
No sir.
And i've read 'em all (except Morris Bermanand) so what?!!!

"Then, after reading some samples of these, tell me with a straight face that I'm wielding big words with an inordinate or absurd rate of frequency, or that I'm speaking stiltedly or pedantically."

Knock it off and wake up.
If you have no regard for who is receiving your words, your an idiot!!!
Go find people who are your literary equals and you won't have this problem.
Why would you not do that?
What the f are you doing?
If you have complaints about the "mentality of common folks", what are you doing on city-data-forum?

And i'd rather have the heart of the child.

And you're disingenuous when you say, "PEOPLE, I ONLY CAME HERE TO AX YOU SOME QUESTIONS". Bull S !

I find your expressions, for the most part, incredibly arrogant, unnatural, odious, and truly obnoxious.


You came, you asked, it seems that you haven't found the answers here that you're looking for and yet you continue to argue and belittle and express yourself to people who don't seem to be receptive to you.
Why not split?
What's your trip?
Would your rather stay in isolation or would you rather evolve?
If you wanna evolve, play up ... find people who see you, appreciate you, can call you out on your b.s. in a way that you cannot defend and who can challenge you into being a more authentic human being.

I'm done.
Peaceout.

Brava!

[Fontucky]

Are you actually reading his long, boring posts?