locussolus - Knee-high pretenders

January 3, 2005

Will Baude defends Jeremy Blachman against attacks (aka envy) related to his recent rise to stardom, and also Crescat against the charge that it's pretentious:

Incidentally, as to the charge of pretension, very little on this blog is pretend. Your tastes may (and hopefully do) differ on some scores, but I, at least, make no special claim to importance.

Does pretentious really involve the pretend? The OED defines pretentious as "making excessive or unwarranted claim to importance, making an exaggerated or outward show, ostentatious." (And perhaps Baude was even refuting this definition in particular, since he makes "no special claim to importance.") Pretend, meanwhile, has two noun definitions. One echoes the above -- "the action of pretending; a pretention, an assertion" -- but was only used in the early 17th century and was rare then. The second is more intuitive (to me at least): "in children's use: the action or an act of pretending in imagination or play."

My point is just that pretend seems much more innocuous than pretentious -- it has this make-believe quality that's right at the beginning of fiction, while for me pretentious implies deception or delusion. Surely one could be pretending (like Blachman) without being pretentious, and vice versa.

Incidentally, I have been meaning to add Letters of Marque to my blogroll for some time, and the charge that Heidi Bond is unreadable provides the perfect occasion.

Comments

Will Baude {January 3, 2005}

As you guessed, the first sentence responds to the word's etymology, the second sentence responds to the OED definition. I do happen to think my writings have some meager shade of merit, but who doesn't?

paul {January 3, 2005}

Concerning my "writings" generally and also of course this blog, I have a disturbing love-hate relationship. Sometimes I see some merit, other times I want to delete the whole thing...

Ray Davis {January 5, 2005}

I associate "pretense" and "pretend" pretty closely myself, but then I'm proud to wear the label. Isn't pretense / playacting a prerequisite for getting anything interesting (including ignominious fiasco) done at all? Or is this merely an autodidact's attitude?

paul {January 7, 2005}

Isn't pretense / playacting a prerequisite for getting anything interesting (including ignominious fiasco) done at all?

I don't know about this! I see your (playful) point, but I think our terminologies have different connotations. Inasmuch as pretentious has to do with the playful sort of artifice, I'm all for it. But the idea of pretentious that resonates more with my usage-sense is deadly serious.