Assorted Pretentious Candies

The other day I was accused of being pretentious by a faculty member. I had used some big words in an email to a group of faculty: they were: “metonymy” “synecdoche” and “abjure”. I was suggesting that the tenor of a faculty senate debate was problematic, presenting a singular issue as standing for the whole. Histrionics depend on this strategy and even college faculty fall prey to it. One might say ” especially” college faculty because university professors are groomed to be contrarians. Alas, skepticism without sophistication about the uses of rhetoric leads to easy credulity every time. My email might have been patronizing, rather than pretentious. I had to wonder how my correspondent had fared on the SAT back when.

Meanwhile I’m watching Wallace Shawn on Chris Hayes’s Sunday TV show “Up” and praise be, Shawn is talking about socialism without apology. He’s describing the global scale of industrial exploitation. He’s talking about the crimes of Capitalism. The rise of industrial suicides and the decline of labor unions. A dark narrative of our times. But what a relief to hear this discourse from the cathode tube. (That’s right, I don’t have a flat screen.)

CNBC has a new confrontational hidden camera show called “Filthy Rich”…one hopes it’s about confronting sweatshop owners. How about authentic feeling, empathy for the poor? Forget TV with the Donald?

“We are enjoying a privileged life because the world is the way it is.” (Wallace Shawn, just now.)

Maybe before rushing out to buy the IPad 3 one may properly ask Apple about the people who made them? I’m so pretentious! An upstart! How annoying!

I wonder if the professor who called me pretentious felt emboldened because I’m blind? Blind guy using big words! Ableism stands behind the assertion I suspect. I’m “uppity” apparently. What can I say? I’m interested in the transition of Hegelian dialectic to Marx, and fascinated by the incorporation of Enlightenment principles into the transactional nature of political discourse. And of course this gets worse: I’m a poet. What could be more irritating? Oh, and it gets worse, I believe in the social democratic form of capitalism they have in Finland. I’m all for the rich, just as long as they create functioning neighborhoods.

Two nights ago I gave a poetry reading at 601 Tully, a neighborhood community center located in one of Syracuse’s poorest neighborhoods. I read poetry for about 20 minutes and then listened to students and community members read their own work. It was a restorative evening. Look! Everyone was slinging lingo! Hell, some were even using big words!

Author: stevekuusisto

Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University View all posts by stevekuusisto