Oh. My. Gosh. "Fascinated"? Are you? Are you really?
Really?
I mean, good heavens, how do these two men ever get anything done? EVERYTHING fascinates them! Everything! This argument, that point, the other subject; this book, that person, the other movie. It's all "fascinating"!
Nothing is mildly interesting, nothing is worth noting, nothing is of passing import. It's all "faaaaaaascinating"!Honestly, how do you get through your day, when every single object of thought causes your hands to release what they are holding, your jaw muscles to let go, and your legs to collapse? When everything seizes hold of your undivided attention, keeping every power of the brain in a vicelike death-grip? How? How?
...
Okay, I feel a little better now.
I think the Inigo Montoya hypothesis is what most likely applies here — only not about the word "inconceivable."
Posts
42 comments:
I blame Spock.
Are you fascinated by the over-use of the word "fascinating"?
:-)
Blessings
Tom
Yeah, you beat me, Jack. As I showered I thought, "Say, one of those graphics should be Spock!"
And TM, in the sense that it made me drop everything and go on and on about it... evidently.
(c:
This post certainly gives me pause....
I like a quote (attributed to CS Lewis, but I'm open to correction) that says something to this effect: Never use 'profound' when you mean 'interesting;' you'll have no words left for when something is truly profound.
It's a similar frustration to mine over the word "awesome."
Fascinating post, Dan! (If it had been even slightly humorous, I'd say "hilarious.")
Yeah, I'm with you.
I'm frustrated by the overuse of "fascinating", and "interesting", and..."frustrating".
There are a very few things in this world worthy of words like "fascinating." Or "amazing." Oh! Or "hate." When we immediately run to the superlative, what's left?
Funny.
Though I'm not a huge user of the word "fascinating", I must plead guilty for the overuse of words like, "amazing" and "profound". It seems the harder I try to rein my overstatements in, the greater I fail in my little pursuit. Sorry ;)
You know, I'm convinced that the over use of good words like "seriously" and "awesome" and "fascinating" is why we wind up with words like "fo-shizzle."
Also, in defense of Spock, when he said "fascinating" he looked fascinated.
And in my old D&D days, when your character got "fascinated" something really bad was about to happen to you.
And yes, I am an uber-geek.
And yes, I just helped to overuse "uber" along with everyone else.
And Dan, I linked you today. You should get one more hit if my wife bothers to read my blog today.
I don't mean to derail... but I would take it. In my world of trying to get middle-schoolers interested in anything I think I would go slack-jawed if they found something fascinating. Instead, their favorite word is "fail." Everything is "fail." "Johnny did you bring your homework to class?" His response, "fail." On and on it goes.
This one goes to show how accurate they are: one who fails is a "failer."
My two cents... keep the change.
Of course if everyone starts using the word "fascinating" to mean "mildly interesting," then in a few generations "fascinating" will mean "mildly interesting."
If the dictionaries can't keep up with how people are actually using the word then that's just their problem. :)
Brad - sweet!
Apparently, that Husky photo fascinates me, because I keep coming back to look at it.
I'm with you, Dan. The over-use of "fascinating" makes me literally explode every time I see it.
DJP said, I am just saturated to bursting...
Oh. My. Gosh. "Bursting"? Are you really lying there like a beached whale that's been languishing on the beach, in the sun for a month and is so bloated that merely touching it causes it to spew out noxious body fluids like a plump, overripe tomato? Are you? Are you really?
I love Medved.
Now it's time for a post on the incorrectly used and over-used word "literally." It popped up a few years ago and now I'm hearing it everywhere. It's literally driving me crazy.
This is the most wonderful post I have ever read.
al sends
I don’t listen to him anymore, but I understand that our Presidents use of the word “unprecedented” is.
This blog has the most sarcastic readers in blogdom.
However did that happen?!
And Paula: evidently, yes. Hence this rant.
Jug - is your memory this good? If so... scary.
Sandman: "fail" is huge at my house. It's probably mainly my fault, thanks to failblog.org.
And by the way - Sandman? You complaining about "fail"?
Fail!!
The next time someone says to me, "I'll be more than happy to (whatever)," I'm going to ask, "You mean you're ecstatic?"
BTW, it's "rapt," not "wrapt."
Oh goodness, of course you're right.
Thanks!
Pity I don't make my email easily available to everyone, or you could have have just....
Oh. Wait.
Dan,
Nope, I never read that, actually.
I was more drawing on my own recent campaign on the subject of "literally".
jmb,
Actually, "more than happy" is valid. One sense of the word "happy" is something like, "an average level of happiness". Like, "I'm not just happy, I'm ecstatic!"
So, "more than happy" means "beyond what you would normally call just 'happy'".
When we immediately run to the superlative, what's left?
Simple...you just add very and BAM! you've kicked it up a notch. :D
And by the way - Sandman? You complaining about "fail"?
Fail!!
NOOOOO! Not you too. I am literally, profoundly, unprecedentedly (what? it's a word), frustrated with your fascination with the word "fail!"
WV: spasmi= what this comment is.
Actually, "more than happy" is valid.
Because there were sixth other dwarves.
Verbing nouns and oversuperlativizing are perfectly cromulent manners of linguistic expression. Figuratively speaking.
"you just add very and BAM! you've kicked it up a notch."
As in, this is a very unique blog?
Insightful. Your comments are literally mindblowing. Or something.
Jugulum -
My point was that "happy" would be just fine (e.g. "I'm happy to do that for you.") "More than happy" is another example of the over-use of superlatives in our society.
jmb,
Ohhhhh. Gotcha.
My cheeks are literally burning. I mean, I'm figuratively embarrassed.
For your sake, I hope you mean figuratively burning.
Oh good grief... I'm laughing out loud!
Feeling just a wee bit sarcastic today, Dan?
This brings to mind your "verbing the nouns" post of a while back.
Or the British tendency to exaggerate the mundane, while down-playing things that actually are a big deal. You know... the traffic may be utterly wretched but if you've been in the hospital for emergency surgery you'd say you'd been feeling a bit rough or something.
Okay, this is a bit of a side note (only because I totally agree) -
Do you think when the writers of the Princess Bride came up with that phrase that they knew they had just created the defining phrase for all of post-modern American life?
And also -
Is it a sign of the times in which we live that I saw that piture of Spock and thought "Ooooh. Bad Botox. Reeeeaaaallly bad."
Paula said: "Are you really lying there like a beached whale that's been languishing on the beach, in the sun for a month and is so bloated that merely touching it causes it to spew out noxious body fluids like a plump, overripe tomato? Are you? Are you really?"
Brava, Paula, for stringing together for me in one sentence two very distinct memories:
1) A high school math teacher who was secretly named the "beached whale" by one of my friends who disliked her very much (the teacher hardly taught us anything); and
2) A college friend whose face was described by another frustrated friend as an overly ripe tomato because words never seemed to stop gushing from his mouth!
Now why is it that this blog often triggers certain deeply buried strange memories of mine? How utterly fascinating!!
*sniffles* I'm going to go cry to my mom now...I use..MISuse that word...not a whole lot, but I'm never truly fascinated about whatever I say I'm fascinated about...and now you've ruined it for me Mr. Phillips! thanks!! :'(
Algún dÃa, Ritacita, me oirás hablando en español; y entonces reirás.
hey! :P Espero escucharle hablar en español Mr. Phillips, y trataré de no reirme :D
The abuse of "love" is a pet peeve for me. Most significantly when people who've known each other for 48 hours as friends or otherwise talk about how they love each other, or how somebody loves a show, or loves someone they've never met but admire.
Post a Comment