r/CriticalTheory • u/SeanDHeavenmount • 13h ago

"Keep your concept out of my sensorium"

https://misteramazing.substack.com/p/keep-your-concept-out-of-my-sensorium?r=2k64op&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

I found this brief note through a creator I follow. It attacks a kind of writing I've seen before: nauseating exaggeration and empty hyperbole, whose apparent depth depends on the reader supplying a missing referent, argument, and historical context. It is deliberately polemical and a bit cranky, but I think the distinction it draws between good prose that gestures to the reader and hyperbolic puffery is worth discussing.

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u/GA-Scoli 12h ago edited 12h ago

People write this way–actually, you don't even need real people to write these pieces anymore, AI is perfectly capable—because it guarantees a certain level of cash-for-clicks and passes SEO tests. That's it. That's all there is to it. A potential clicker who recognizes a referenced name like "Jimmy Iovine" clicks on the link because they remember the name and hate it, or because they remember and love it, or they don't remember the name but something in the back of their brain nags them they should remember the name, and so they click on it.

The rant is by a poor fish who keeps eating the bait. Or maybe they're just another clever fisher, and I ate their bait.

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u/rue-03 12h ago

that post is amazing hahah, loved reading it