The "axiomatic preference for complexity"
 

within academia, one of the shared "protocols of discourse" is an "axiomatic preference for complexity"
 
"'Actually, I believe it's more complicated than that' is, within the academic world, an unanswerable shibboleth" (also "a professional mode for producing more discourse and for giving it an archivally cumulative character")
 
"The same gesture falls hopelessly flat in journalistic settings, where the extensive uptake of audience attention is at a premium"
 
"Writers in this world are inevitably involved in a different language game from journalism"

> from Michael Warner's Publics and Counterpublics (2002)

> tagged with #language, #academia

> created Jun 28, 2025 at 10:03:41 AM


> part of unfinished everything


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unfinished everything is an original work / ongoing project (1997-present) by jeremy p. bushnell

selection, arrangement, and original text available for creative reuse under this licensing arrangement

authors' quoted words are their own.


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