Can I say something?

[thebitterguy]

Just that E-Prime has gotta be one of the dumbest ways in the universe to communicate? Or, repeating that in 'stupdese', E-Primg causes my brain to hurt when I think of how dumb it appears to be on holiday at the beach.

Okay, in theory, it's an interesting idea (many things are; trepanation seems like an interesting idea, especially if you have extraterrestrial insects possessing you. I ain't gonna do that either), but the idea of using it to write, well, anything seems simple an exercise in self-mutilation.

Absolute clarity is useful (or rather, some people find that clarity in writing has a greater level of utility for them, or did I make that sentence too easy to understand?), sure, but too inefficient, especially when you're trying to express a simple idea. Water is wet? Are you SURE? Damn fucking RIGHT I'm sure. Academic fooferah, while useful for some purpose (I presume) just becomes sand in the engine of humanity once you pass into mondus realicus.

Ah, I'm just cranky. Happy labour day.

Just don't try to write reviews using it. That's REALLY stupid.

Comments

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

It's useful fun when talking to hyperrationalists, but poetry it ain't :P

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

No, that's not even an interesting idea; it's just stupid pompous twattery, the sort of tripe I'm not at all surprised to see on that site.

[thebitterguy]

Not a Wilson fan, are ya?

[creativedv8tion.livejournal.com]

That obvious? ;)

[autodidactic.livejournal.com]

I don't like e-prime because it makes one sound as if one doesn't have a solid opinion about anything. Yeah, it would probably be the worst thing to use for writing reviews.

L.

[thebitterguy]

Oh, definitely. A review is a piece of descriptive writing. Describing something without using the EP Forbidden words is just, well, dumb. Although, sure, you have to get creative ("John's writing is boring" vs "John's writing plods across the page like a three toed sloth on its last legs"), it goes agaist my journalistic instincts for clarity and brevity.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Hmm...it seems to me ideal to me for writing legal briefs and EULA's

::B::

[thebitterguy]

EULA's? I know not that acronym.

But, yes, anything that's legalese is a crime against humanity.

[the-adzo.livejournal.com]

End User License Agreements, the thing you click past when installing software, usually where you have to click a check box saying you read whatever it was.

[atomiks.livejournal.com]

The one that in Kazaa, that says that you're allowing them to surreptitiously install adware, and collect personal information.

The ones that in Microsoft software, indicate that you don't actually *own* the copy of software that you're installing, but merely have been granted a licence to put it on your computer, by the good graces that your dollar amount goes for.

[thothmeister.livejournal.com]

S-F author David Gerrold spoke of this in his book Worlds of Wonder. Apparently there's an entire author movement to try writing in this.

[madmanofprague.livejournal.com]

Do you have any examples of e-prime reviews to share? :P

[thebitterguy]

Not yet. wickedthought has threatened to do so.

[waiwode.livejournal.com]

You've been reading John Wick reviews?

Replacing "is" with a lot of seems and appears is kind of like trying to write without using the letter "e". It can be done, but a man with two good legs can choose to limit himself to a wheelchair as well.

I sort of see where he's coming from. But on the other hand I think the "jwick" just gets too wrapped up about fact, opinion, and reviews.

Doug.

[thebitterguy]

It was Wick and other stuff.

I've yet to see any of his EP reviews (I shudder at the thought), but he's an arse about reviews, anyway. Truly an arse.

It *is* Robert Anton Wilson...

[schizmatic.livejournal.com]

RAW really annoys me because I have the strong feeling that he completely misunderstands, well, everything, when he begins talking about Physics and Quantum Physics. His The New Inquisition is pretty much a shining example of how to misunderstand the methodology used by the sciences.

OTOH, his fiction really *is* pretty funny, only occasionally getting bogged down by his belief that he tends to believe that psychoactive drugs are the next step in human evolution. Hell, I found the resolution of Masks of the Illuminati to be pretty damn clever.