Parachuting
Saturday, June 6, 2009
I propose that we use the word “parachuting” to refer to those occasions, all too frequent in academic writing, when a particular figure is quoted in a definitive manner without the author having previously given us any grounds for expecting to hear from the figure at all.
In theology blogging, a common example is when a blogger is discussing some topic and concludes with a sudden quotation from Rowan Williams. Yoder often comes in for this treatment as well. Another example: in broader humanities writing, for a long time it was de rigueur to “parachute in” a quotation from Walter Benjamin.
You may argue that there is already a term for this, namely deus ex machina — but what are we, a bunch of idol-worshippers?!
Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 4:01 pm
In economics it is almost certainly good olde Adam Smith.
In Marxism, it is certainly Gramsci.
Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 4:32 pm
If you’re a British ‘reasonable liberal’, who is broadly a journalist, of either Left (Johann Hari) or Right (Christopher Hitchens), you have to parachute in Orwell at some point, particularly his essays ‘Politics and The English Language’ and ‘Why I Write’. All together now – ‘Political language [...] is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind’ ‘Good prose is like a windowpane’.
Sad and quite ironic thing is, this is the Orwell, who ‘Politics and The English Language’ (which I had pinned to my wall as a young battling socialist) advised “Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print”.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 6:53 pm
“…what are we, a bunch of idol-worshippers?!”
Yes.
Saturday, June 13, 2009 at 12:23 pm
[...] Saturday, June 13, 2009 Just so everyone knows, it’s now cool to claim that sex is a matter of complete indifference. Regular readers of theology blogs will not be surprised to learn that this newfound conviction stems from a quotation from everyone’s favorite pontiff, Rowan Williams. [...]
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 10:47 am
Love this
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 10:59 am
[...] Adam has made up a great theoblogging term. [...]
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 12:48 pm
Presumably pointing out all the famous people your theory destroys would be something like “walking the plank” or “ejecting”? Or would we need something more picturesque like “bungee hopping”. Keeping your imagery though, I reckon maybe “parachuting in a straw man” might work.
Whatever you call it, if I see another author write (pace Foucault) at the end of an entirely polemical argument, I sweare I’ll burn the book…