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A review by gvenezia
Quack This Way by David Foster Wallace
3.0
Two snoots* review a few linguistic communities in Quack This Way. Perhaps my favorite David Foster Wallace interview, Bryan Garner's deep love for and knowledge of standard English pushes DFW to expound his views on very specific debates and ideas in linguistics, academia, writing, and grammar. The conversation focuses on "dialects" central to daily life (business-speak, advertising, officialese and government doublespeak, and political propaganda) as well as one central to Wallace's career (academic jargon). One could easily imagine some insightful DFW nonfiction essays based on his cursory assessments of these dialects. While it's easy to ridicule academic jargon or incorrect grammar in advertisements, DFW's hints at the important functions of these dialects—which ordinary English might not accomplish as well. The interview is sprinkled with many such insightful comments on contemporary language and writing styles (see some exemplary quotes at the end).
The obvious complaint for most will be that the brief discussion isn't suited for a book. Except for facilitating notes and highlighting, the book format only detracts from the content. The charm of DFW's spoken voice and accompanying mannerisms—which might redeem the brevity—is lost (a small clip suggests the missed value). Moreover, due to very narrow appeal, the book is difficult to borrow or buy cheaply. Quack This Way was a nice afternoon morsel worth the price of admission for me, but I've also been known to read the dictionary for fun, listen to podcasts on regional vowel shifts, and reference the etymology of every new word I don't know. And even for this snooty reader, the full video interview would have been preferable. Buyer beware these multiple barriers to entry.
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* snoot: stands for Syntax Nudniks of Our Time, DFW created this acronym in his review of Garner's Modern American Usage, which started their friendship. (The review can be found in full in Consider the Lobster under the title "Authority and American Usage". I'd recommend that essay before this interview.)
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Quotes:
"We always get these corporations [saying]: 'We care about you. Therefore, we proactively try to facilitate your growing business needs'" Well, that second clause communicates the opposite of 'We care about you' because that second clause isn't a human-to-human contact" (101)
"There's a lot of advertising stuff that's really ridiculous. Right? There's special, super special, [raising voice] mega super special, triple exclamation points!!! Or my favorite as a child was 'Save up to 50% and more'.
[...]
"It's occurred to me, though, that it's possible that advertising English is a dialect unto itself—very different from regular English. And its main job is to penetrate your consciousness[...] The point is not that this is okay[...] but I've stopped thinking that it's just idiots who weren't paying attention in eight grade and don't how to do this stuff.
"In fact, I think there are probably about a thousand different professional dialects of English, and they're often motivated by incredibly complicated premises."
(103-105)
On officialese, business-speak and other formal, public dialects:
"I don't know. I've stopped thinking, 'Gosh darn it, I wish they would just simply start speaking good English,' and started thinking that . . . You know what? There are reasons behind this stuff. Very complicated reasons or not, but there are reasons. And we really don't know what the consequences would be if we all started using English in human, urgent interpersonal tones in all kinds of public situations" (102)
On writing:
"It's true, I think, that a lot of the muscles you use, skills you use, in trying to get better as a writer, are skills and muscles that pay off in ways that don't immediately seem to have to do with writing simply because language and interpersonal communication... it's our world, right?" (42)
"if you spend enough time reading or writing, you find a voice, but you also find certain tastes. You find certain writers who when they write, it makes your own brain voice like a tuning fork, and you just resonate with them. And when that happens, reading those writers[...]becomes a source of unbelievable joy. It's like eating candy for the soul." (61)
On the pros of a usage dictionary for a specific community of discipline:
"It is the trunk cable into the linguistic heart."
The obvious complaint for most will be that the brief discussion isn't suited for a book. Except for facilitating notes and highlighting, the book format only detracts from the content. The charm of DFW's spoken voice and accompanying mannerisms—which might redeem the brevity—is lost (a small clip suggests the missed value). Moreover, due to very narrow appeal, the book is difficult to borrow or buy cheaply. Quack This Way was a nice afternoon morsel worth the price of admission for me, but I've also been known to read the dictionary for fun, listen to podcasts on regional vowel shifts, and reference the etymology of every new word I don't know. And even for this snooty reader, the full video interview would have been preferable. Buyer beware these multiple barriers to entry.
———
* snoot: stands for Syntax Nudniks of Our Time, DFW created this acronym in his review of Garner's Modern American Usage, which started their friendship. (The review can be found in full in Consider the Lobster under the title "Authority and American Usage". I'd recommend that essay before this interview.)
———
Quotes:
"We always get these corporations [saying]: 'We care about you. Therefore, we proactively try to facilitate your growing business needs'" Well, that second clause communicates the opposite of 'We care about you' because that second clause isn't a human-to-human contact" (101)
"There's a lot of advertising stuff that's really ridiculous. Right? There's special, super special, [raising voice] mega super special, triple exclamation points!!! Or my favorite as a child was 'Save up to 50% and more'.
[...]
"It's occurred to me, though, that it's possible that advertising English is a dialect unto itself—very different from regular English. And its main job is to penetrate your consciousness[...] The point is not that this is okay[...] but I've stopped thinking that it's just idiots who weren't paying attention in eight grade and don't how to do this stuff.
"In fact, I think there are probably about a thousand different professional dialects of English, and they're often motivated by incredibly complicated premises."
(103-105)
On officialese, business-speak and other formal, public dialects:
"I don't know. I've stopped thinking, 'Gosh darn it, I wish they would just simply start speaking good English,' and started thinking that . . . You know what? There are reasons behind this stuff. Very complicated reasons or not, but there are reasons. And we really don't know what the consequences would be if we all started using English in human, urgent interpersonal tones in all kinds of public situations" (102)
On writing:
"It's true, I think, that a lot of the muscles you use, skills you use, in trying to get better as a writer, are skills and muscles that pay off in ways that don't immediately seem to have to do with writing simply because language and interpersonal communication... it's our world, right?" (42)
"if you spend enough time reading or writing, you find a voice, but you also find certain tastes. You find certain writers who when they write, it makes your own brain voice like a tuning fork, and you just resonate with them. And when that happens, reading those writers[...]becomes a source of unbelievable joy. It's like eating candy for the soul." (61)
On the pros of a usage dictionary for a specific community of discipline:
"It is the trunk cable into the linguistic heart."