A man who will go unnamed has been flogging his book, in the title of which the weary word "amazing" appears. Yesterday, because the man is a shameless social media consultant, he posted on his Facebook page this dizzying Oscar video showing shameless Hollywood people calling one another (and one another's hair) "amazing."
I remarked that calling everything that's amusing "amazing" is a sign of a culture of salesmanship. I advised the author to distance himself from the term. Knowing, of course, that the author would not do any such thing.
Then some dude, not the author, accused me of being a curmudgeon.
"I love linguistic trends as much as the next guy," I replied. "They're entertaining, especially in spoken language. But I'm a writer, and one reason to write is to be remembered. If my writing is full of the linguistic fads of the moment, it'll be harder to read and will be taken less seriously as each year passes. I assume [the Amazing author] has the same interest in being understood and appreciated not just by the 'amazing'-inured audiences of today, but by the head-scratching audiences of tomorrow. Hence, my unsolicited advice to him."
That seemed to shut the guy up.
Amazingly enough.
(What is the matter with me?)
David, you are a curmudgeon. No insult there. Isn’t it satisfying though when a high profile guy like Jimmy Kimmel picks up your cause?
Jim, a curmudgeon is never satisfied.