[Ads-l] Quote: They're not writers; they're typists. (Truman Capote, Sprint 1957)

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Mon Mar 28 16:48:37 UTC 2016


Charles C Doyle:
> From a time of older technology, perhaps the closest parallel would be "writer" vs. "scribbler."

There are multiple belittling terms that can be used to contrast
superior and inferior styles in the poetry domain:

Poet versus poetaster, rhymester, or versifier

I've heard the term "deadwood" used to describe an inferior or
non-productive academic. One might say: They're not faculty, they're
deadwood.

Garson

> ________________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Sent: Monday, March 28, 2016 11:52 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Quote: They're not writers; they're typists. (Truman Capote, Sprint 1957)
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Quote: They're not writers; they're typists. (Truman Capote,
>               Sprint 1957)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> On Mar 28, 2016, at 11:39 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>=20
>> LH:  << Wonder what the slur is for an academic.  >>
>> WB:  Anybody ever call you an egghead?
>
> Could be (I still somehow associate "egghead" as invoked by those =
> scorning Adlai Stevenson because they liked Ike, and figured at the time =
> that it must have something to do with Adlai's receded hairline; cf. =
> http://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Stevenson,Adlai.html), but is an =
> academic really an egghead with finesse, or an egghead someone who =
> performs intellectual tasks with brute force rather than style?  Not =
> sure about that.
>
> LH
>
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