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Piwe Pikie's avatar

Bring back hypnagogia!! I’m a firm believer that the people who are meant to appreciate your writing will appreciate the specificity of your word choices.

I think a part of why people are so scared of being challenged by big words/complex ideas is because they’re then forced to confront their lack of knowledge, which translates to “their lack of intelligence” in their heads. And instead of looking at their potential lack of intelligence as an invitation to learn more, they become defensive.

Great essay!

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Rosie Whinray's avatar

Great essay! One thing I find interesting about language use in particular is that eccentricity can be the mark of the autodidact, not the University-educated intellectual. I'm all for unique voice. I try to spice up my pretentious tendencies with a bit of vernacular (in my case I speak 'New Zealand'), so it’s not entirely pseudy...

Basically it's difficult to be a writer with risking trying to seem smart, it's what we do & for a lot of us, what we've always done. Revenge of the nerds ha ha

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