Skip to main content

What point is Wilde making about journalism in general and reviewers in particular when Algernon remarks, "You should leave that to people who...

When Algernon makes this statement, he seems to imply that journalism is a field filled with relatively uneducated people (who have not been "at a University") and that these people believe, nonetheless, that they are qualified to offer critiques of modern literature or anything else, really.  Algernon's claim that literary criticism is not really Jack's "forte" and that he should leave it to those folks who review books for the papers -- a generally untrained, uneducated, unenlightened group -- is an example of irony.  We would expect him to connect the ability to accurately critique literature with someone who has received a higher lever of education, as Jack evidently has, instead of someone who hasn't.  Therefore, Algernon seems to have a relatively low opinion of journalism in general -- that it is a profession filled with individuals who believe that they are qualified to do something that they are not actually capable of doing -- and a similarly low opinion of literary reviewers in particular.  However, it is possible that Algernon is also pointing a finger at the university education in general, claiming that it actually makes us less qualified to do serious mental work rather than more (also ironic).  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.
Post a Comment
Read more