{"id":1214,"date":"2006-11-20T07:49:42","date_gmt":"2006-11-20T12:49:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/too-marvelous-for-words\/"},"modified":"2006-11-20T07:49:42","modified_gmt":"2006-11-20T12:49:42","slug":"too-marvelous-for-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/too-marvelous-for-words","title":{"rendered":"Too marvelous for words"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the new City Journal<\/em>, Theodore Dalrymple lays a whomping on Steven Pinker’s theory of language development<\/a>. Dalrymple being Dalrymple, he draws out the moral implications of Pinker’s theory:<\/p>\n

The contrast between a felt and lived reality — in this case, Pinker\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s need to speak and write standard English because of its superior ability to express complex ideas — and the denial of it, perhaps in order to assert something original and striking, is characteristic of an intellectual climate in which the destruction of moral and social distinctions is proof of the very best intentions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Given that Dad’s english isn’t among his top two languages, and that my first writing influence was Stan Lee<\/a>, I’m pretty amazed that this site isn’t filled with pages of fragmented alliteration. Fortunately, I had Mom (and Chris Claremont<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the new City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple lays a whomping on Steven Pinker’s theory of language development. Dalrymple being Dalrymple, he draws out the moral implications of Pinker’s theory: The contrast between a felt and lived reality — in this case, Pinker\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s need to speak and write standard English because of its superior ability to … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Too marvelous for words”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26,4,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comics","category-literature","category-urban-issues"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-jA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3018,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/publishing-still-doomed","url_meta":{"origin":1214,"position":0},"title":"Publishing: Still Doomed","author":"Gil","date":"December 4, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm still a bit under the weather, so I won't offer much commentary on these posts about book publishing. There was a big shakeout yesterday at Random House and layoffs at Simon & Schuster. Along with last month's announcement that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt was \"freezing\" acqusitions -- leading to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":442,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/my-city-of-ruins","url_meta":{"origin":1214,"position":1},"title":"My City of Ruins","author":"Gil","date":"January 25, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Theodore Dalrymple has a very thoughtful essay about Dresden in the new City Journal. Nowhere in the world (except, perhaps, in Israel or Russia) does history weigh as heavily, as palpably, upon ordinary people as in Germany. Sixty years after the end of the Second World War, the disaster of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (implicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (implicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-implicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4693,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-nov-27-2009","url_meta":{"origin":1214,"position":2},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Nov. 27, 2009","author":"Gil","date":"November 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Post-Thanksgiving links! Enjoy the long weekend! I'm off to Philadelphia for my 20-year high-school reunion. (Or maybe not. I'm feeling lousy with the beginnings of the same cold that knocked my wife out last week, and it'd be dumb to run myself down and get heavy-duty sick right at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=039333354X","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5413,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-july-2-2010","url_meta":{"origin":1214,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: July 2, 2010","author":"Gil","date":"July 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I not only managed to wrap the Top Companies ish by the deadline, I also managed to get you a full dose of Unrequired Reading this week! Now get to reading! Now that I'm done with the big issue, I can get back to writing here on VM! I still\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Comic books & strips"","block_context":{"text":"Comic books & strips","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0312428227","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16997,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-601-jess-ruliffson","url_meta":{"origin":1214,"position":4},"title":"Episode 601 – Jess Ruliffson","author":"Gil","date":"August 20, 2024","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 601: Jess Ruliffson \"I started talking to some of my friends who were veterans with the idea of 'what do you do when come home, after you've done your job but also been exposed to some weird stuff?'\" Comics journalist Jess Ruliffson joins the show to talk\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ruliffsoncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ruliffsoncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ruliffsoncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ruliffsoncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/ruliffsoncomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C719&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1169,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-oct-27-2006","url_meta":{"origin":1214,"position":5},"title":"Unrequired Reading: Oct 27, 2006","author":"Gil","date":"October 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend of mine recently brought up how \"the West has lied,\" failing to keep its \"never again\" promise after Rwanda. I mentioned that, just as anti-genocide forces learned from Rwanda, we should remember that groups that plan to commit genocide also learned lessons from what happened in Rwanda (and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}