Very interesting! Not just the concept of self-aware style, which, as some have said, can be taken too far. Most interesting is the spelling out of Pinker’s theory: when we are taught to write, we often learn stuff like “make sure to guide the reader all the way to the point you’re making”, and more generally “keep in mind how your writing is related with your audience” That’s good advice. But that’s also a different kind of advice from what I take from your description of Pinker’s theory: that we should keep in mind how our writing is related with the subject. In short: “Right here in this sentence, am I talking about the apple, or about my opinion of the apple, or about apple scholarship?”. Because, while it’s a major issue with classic style that one can’t go meta at all, sometimes one can go meta without noticing, and without meaning to. And confidence levels, and hypotheses, regarding apples, very much ahve their place, but when I’m reading something I’m most often reading it to learn about the actual subject. When I’m writing something, not always.
Very interesting! Not just the concept of self-aware style, which, as some have said, can be taken too far. Most interesting is the spelling out of Pinker’s theory: when we are taught to write, we often learn stuff like “make sure to guide the reader all the way to the point you’re making”, and more generally “keep in mind how your writing is related with your audience” That’s good advice. But that’s also a different kind of advice from what I take from your description of Pinker’s theory: that we should keep in mind how our writing is related with the subject. In short: “Right here in this sentence, am I talking about the apple, or about my opinion of the apple, or about apple scholarship?”. Because, while it’s a major issue with classic style that one can’t go meta at all, sometimes one can go meta without noticing, and without meaning to. And confidence levels, and hypotheses, regarding apples, very much ahve their place, but when I’m reading something I’m most often reading it to learn about the actual subject. When I’m writing something, not always.