That annoying thing -
When you're at the discussion stage of a seminar or conference panel and somebody asks a question which suggests that All They Know About The Subject was gleaned by skim-reading an article in Journal of Things Misheard In A Pub some while ago, or possibly that they are simply free-associating -
- and which is -
a) pretty much completely tangential to what the paper/panel was actually about;
b) something on which one, as a member of the audience rather than the speaker or panel member knows Rather A Lot
- but what they have come out with is such a tangled mess of misapprehensions that one hardly knows where to start unpicking and disentangling, plus it would be completely hijacking discussion of the actual paper/panel.
Speaker did point out, a shade wearily, that it was something on which there was already A Good Deal of Scholarship, which was why they were doing something entirely different. This entry was originally posted at http://oursin.dreamwidth.org/2163352.html. Please comment there using OpenID. View
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