The worst thing about Seymour’s book is that he thinks he writes as well as Hitchens, with embarrassing consequences. It may be true that Hitchens’s book on Thomas Paine was not his finest, but would anyone with English as a first language suggest it should be classed as “a somewhat opuscular component of the Hitchensian oeuvre”?
The problem our man has being that if he wrote in plain English then everyone would understand what he is saying.
You know, shut up you oiks and let us the revolutionary vanguard take care of everything for you. The same get back in the fields you peasants that Johnny Porritt is prone to.
12 responses so far ↓
1 Matthew L // Feb 4, 2013 at 12:46 pm
“a somewhat opuscular component of the Hitchensian oeuvre”
Sounds like pretty standard academese to me. More intended to impress the unwashed than bamboozle them. That it does both is a bonus.
2 The Pedant-General // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:08 pm
It’s not intended to impress the unwashed rather precisely because it’s not intended for the unwashed at all.
It’s written to impress consumers of acadamese, unwashed or otherwise.
3 Surreptitious Evil // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:12 pm
And, do remember, that use of obscure wording and obscure uses of otherwise standard wording are a shibboleth for the hard left. If you talk about democratic centralism, then you’re a Trot, etc.
4 Matthew L // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:25 pm
SE: Yes, and they don’t seem to realise that they’ve descended to self parody.
5 Dennis The Peasant // Feb 4, 2013 at 2:58 pm
TP-G: “It’s written to impress consumers of acadamese, unwashed or otherwise.”
Actually, it’s written under the mistaken impression that Hitchens is worth talking about. Although it’s clear that the subject is small enough to be perfectly appropriate for Seymour’s intellect.
6 Philip Scott Thomas // Feb 4, 2013 at 9:37 pm
I’m disappointed that one of the Arnalds, those great arbiters of literary taste, hasn’t so far been along to tell us what a great writer and ‘imagineer’ Seymour is.
7 sackcloth and ashes // Feb 4, 2013 at 10:20 pm
Seymour usually has the assurance that his turgid and obnoxious ‘books’ will be reviewed by members of the SWP and fellow travellers, all of whom can be guaranteed to toe the line.
But every now and then an adult (in this case a real academic, rather than a perpetual student) actually reads one of his tomes and writes a response:
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/unhitched-the-trial-of-christopher-hitchens-by-richard-seymour-8465539.html
8 Matthew L // Feb 5, 2013 at 3:40 am
I wonder if Seymour would have had the guts to write his soon to be forgotten pamphlet if Hitchens was still alive.
9 MellorSJ // Feb 5, 2013 at 7:04 am
You don’t wonder, Matthew, and neither do any of us.
10 Arnald // Feb 5, 2013 at 10:15 am
Three-first-names
Shut up.
11 Philip Scott Thomas // Feb 6, 2013 at 9:35 pm
And lo, he has.
The comedy continues.
12 Philip Scott Thomas // Feb 6, 2013 at 9:38 pm
And lo, he has.
Or, more accurately, one of them has.
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