at he could publish a book explaining the definiton of bullshit when he clearly states at the beginning of the book that his definiton is merely a guess. Honestly, his book "On bullshit" is.....BULLSHIT.As you can imagine I was excited to start reading "A Kind Word for Bullshit: The problem of Academic Writing by Philip Eubanks and John D. Schaeffer" which, explained all the problems and falses in Frankfurts "On Bullshit". The first thing I liked about the "A kind Word for Bullshit" was that it was organized and easier to read. These academic wrtiters (taking their writing extremely serious) were enraged by the phrase academic bullshit. The hard work and research that goes into many scholars work was being called untruthful.
Next, I liked that Edubanks and Schaeffer described bullshit as a game or type of gameship. For example, I remember selling a variety of things throughout elementary and middle school. The item that sticks out to me most was selling market day foods to families in my neighborhood. While trying to sell these I exaggerated the tastes of these items and also making a point that they were worth the money. And on the other side, I was forced to be prepared to answer questions the customer had, to show my knowledge and commitment to the Market Day sales. (In reality I could care less about Market Day, but really just wanted the cool prizes you could win, for selling the most stuff). This is an example of bullshitting, but it is also a "game" or "gameship" people play.
The article describes a well thought reason for why academic bullshit is said to be so popular. It is put into excellent terms when said, "professional rewards come from academic reputation , and academic reputation comes from publicaiton." For a writers book to be published it but be exaggerate the influence and meaning in what they wrote, and this is commonly mistaken for bullshit. So there you have it, when you are writing in a professional manner there is bound to be some form of bullshit.
Part 1
ReplyDelete"On Bullshit" by Harry Frankfurt was, yes, full of bullshit, but it introduced the topic well in a language easy to understand. Before posting my reply, I decided to look back at my first post as a refresher on Frankfurt's piece. I was surprised to find that one of my sentences in the introduction directly opposed the message I made throughout the rest of my paper. Perhaps with Frankfurt being so inconsistent, it caused a confusion within me regarding my own thoughts on the matter. "A Kind Word for Bullshit: The Problem of Academic Writing" by Philip Eubanks and John D. Schaeffer had a much more definitive view on bullshit. However, I disagree that this selection was easier to read. While they may have had more consistency in their message, I often found myself lost in translation and re-reading certain paragraphs to understand what was just written. Ironically, Eubanks and Schaeffer tackled this very issue.
The one quote that caught my attention the most was the following: "Generations of students have struggled with dense writing, many thinking they are not smart enough to grasp the writer's deep ideas. Some have been right about that, but more could have blamed the writer's inability (or refusal) to write clearly" (Eubanks 382). This put writing in perspective for me. I have always known the phrase, "Try walking in someone else's shoes," but I never applied it to writers. Authors strive to be a part of a club. They go through years of schooling in order to be able to write something that best conveys their message in a language that would impress fellow authors, publishers, and admirers (people who want to write like them). Thus, as Eubanks and Schaeffer point out, the problem is "the audience" (Eubanks 382). Most students do not plan to become writers nor possess the same skills as the authors they come across. On the other hand, most authors do not write books with the intention of having a student with basic English skills understand them. Textbooks are usually easy to read because they are made specifically for students. Altogether, the message I am trying to convey here is that Frankfurt seems to be a less qualified (or perhaps less trained) author then both Eubanks and Schaeffer. He created confusion, did not tie all of his ideas neatly together, and wrote a passage using common terms and phrases. This may be the reason that his book was so successful since it was easy to read and talked about an interesting topic that most writers would never touch. Why would a professional ever make fun of his profession? Would a news anchor ever publicly joke about proper posture and word choice with his feet up on the desk and referring to the Detroit Lions as shit? Also, before writing this response and after reading "A Kind Word for Bullshit," I listened to a couple of my favorite songs to relax. It made me realize, though, that the reason so many people like songs and find them relaxing are because they have simple messages and use simple language. I find myself singing the lyrics with the artist most of the time. I cannot imagine being comfortable and relaxed listening to a song with Shakespearean or Marlowean language. However, this is all off topic, and I should get back to the response portion of the assignment.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteI can relate to the Market Day sales. At my school, we always had pizza sales with prizes for the top sellers. I also worked as a server for about a month. The servers were rewarded "bonus points" for selling a special on the menu. The bonus points could eventually result in a raise. Thus, the other servers and I would always push the specials on the guests. While I had never personally tried any of the specials, I would always suggest it and add beautiful wording to the description. Yes, I did sell a lot of specials and I was very proud of that, but I always worried about what the customer thought of the food and, if it were not good, if he would lose respect for me or the restaurant as a whole. So I guess I have bullshitted before, but it is not something I enjoyed doing. However, it was all a "game" and I justified it by thinking that the customer should expect me to make suggestions. Another quote that I found interesting was "intentions are seldom if ever pure" (Eubanks 377). This explains the reasons we bullshit, often times for our own personal gain.