Thursday, January 31, 2013
Diane Ackerman
I won't go into why I don't like Ackerman's writing as you guys have already heard me complain in class. In the section on touch, Ackerman briefly describes her experience at a psychic fair. First and foremost, I find it amusing anytime someone illustrates the absurdity of superstition. Secondly, I enjoy Ackerman's writing much more when she writes in more of a narrative form like she does here, and also when she talks to the perfumer. She gets away from what I sometimes find a pretentious tone, generated by a barrage of information and overly saturated sentences.
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I agree with this but I wish you would have mocked and prodded at that passage a bit; it's obviously amusing how fake the psychic readings are, but I think there's capacity for humor in analyzing that ridiculous passage. I realize the word range is pretty prohibitive to indulgent analysis, though.
ReplyDeleteI get the sense that Ackerman herself is a skeptic, but maybe that's because I find some of her phrases sarcastic when she might actually be serious.
ReplyDeleteI can understand your point because she does often come off pretentious but I think that she's one of those people that may not be aware she's doing it. I know several of those people, you get angry and then you realize they have no clue. I think she just thinks she's being interesting. This is how I interpret her any who.
ReplyDeleteNo I think you're right, Ackerman is definitely poking fun at the fair, it's not just your disillusion with her stylistically.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I find Ackerman's off-the-wall descriptions to be very enjoyable and amusing. She seems to think about everything so wildly, blowing up descriptions until they seem both novel and alien. Though she does come off as pretentious sometimes, Mary makes an excellent point. You are completely spot-on about her overly saturated sentences though. I have a feeling that she is just an over-the-top sort of person, and that's just her style.
ReplyDelete"Both novel and alien" is a good phrase here, Alexis.
ReplyDeleteTristan, I like your thinking. She does seem to get into a different register when she goes narrative, if you will. The book is missing a thru-line and a why. I find it immensely interesting, but I don't yet know why Diane Ackerman is obsessed enough to collate thousands of facts and stories.
DW