Postmodernist "interrogate" (UNCLASSIFIED)

Mullins, Bill AMRDEC Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Fri Sep 9 20:21:28 UTC 2011


Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

> --------
>
> On 9 Sep 2011, at 10:05, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > The [nuclear plant] engineers [after the Mineral earthquake] call
the
> > process"interrogating" the cracks: engineers carry little loops of
> > wire in thicknesses from one thirty-second of an inch to one-third
of
> > an inch to measure the cracks' width and depth.
> >
> > "After Quake, Virginia Nuclear Plant Takes Stock", NYTimes, 2011
> > Sept. 8, A21/4 [New England edition]
> >
>
> I thought that the verb interrogate to describe investigation in the
> physical sciences was fairly commonplace jargon, neither new nor
> postmodernist.
>
> For example, here's seismologist whose home page starts out: "Thorne
> Lay's primary research interests involve analysis of seismic waves to
> interrogate the deep structure of the Earth's interior and to study
the
> physics of earthquake faulting."
> (http://www.pmc.ucsc.edu/~seisweb/thorne_lay/) I find nothing much
> remarkable about this.
>
> (Also, I'm wondering about your usage of "postmodernist".)
>


Perhaps something to do with the way that critics "interrogate" a text?

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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