Is there a compromise between "intellectual" and "pretentious"?
 

I'm starting to wonder.

Today we went to a college town about an hour from here. I always find college towns really amusing because they're all the same and they think they're all really unique. I think half of those places stay in business selling the Freshman Enlightenment starter kits with the batik wall hanging, the Darwin fish, the smelly woven poncho and the damned patchouli.

I was going around the little indie record stores looking for a Boris the Sprinkler CD that never materialized and I lost count of how many badly-tended dreads I saw, how many clove cigs, how many baggy alpaca-wool sweaters and how much in-it-to-be-seen ostentatious environmentalism.

All of the shopkeepers were chatty and every. last. one. had to speak in this godawful, bizarre, utterly unnatural manner. I mean, one woman was telling me a story about her dog and she actually said, "I was seated, breakfasting on smoked salmon and cream cheese and a bit of artisan rye..." ...SHE ACTUALLY SAID THAT, WITH NOT A HINT OF HUMOR. She was breakfasting, she wasn't eating breakfast.

Who the hell talks like that? I spent many, many years being cranked through academia, in several disciplines, and I would never speak that way. It sounds stilted and ridiculous. You could write like that, sure, but when we're talking vernacular it just comes off as pompous. Aren't people conscious of that? Or is that just what they're going for, some sort of weird faux-laid-back persona where they speak as if they're at a signing, reading from their latest piece?

Ugh. :goth

Dunno. I've affected a slightly southern-ish accent and stopped using large words so that the people around here can understand me, some might argue it as being more pretentious than 'breakfasting'.

I have already expressed my feelings on this subject in the Convention Pictures thread, but I think it wouldn't hurt to repeat them:

http://www.i-mockery.com/forum/showt...php?t=69700535

When I went to college in Cobelskill NY, there was a diesel engine major in the building across the street, an agricultural major with a 500 head cattle barn, a fish hatchery, an honest to god course on landscaping (not design, just maintenence!), and of course a computer science department in which I was able to maintain a near 5.0 average despite the fact that I was an alcoholic drug adict with only a passing fancy in these stupid white boxes with screen things.

I have never heared anybody talk like that EVER.

What college town was this?

Was it a liberal arts college?

College has turned me from a liberal into a moderate. From the hippies to the greeks (and the Italians) to the indie emo kids, I hate every last one of them. Them and their goddamn "raising awareness" (I know what's happening in Darfur, thanks 24 hour news!) and masturbatory peace rallies. The hippie "movement" is pure hedonism - getting high, and patting yourself on the back for doing absolutely nothing. "I feel really good about this..."

People in any subculture have douchey jargon. The difference is, these people were douches to begin with. That's douche squared.

I actually went into college thinking it would be mature adults looking for an education. Fuck I can't wait to be in Iraq. 3 more months! >:

Yeah there's a fine line between speaking in a way that accurately conveys your meaning and speaking in a way that makes you feel smart.

Personally I think that if you're using language correctly then it's fine to use long/obscure words. Often they convey themes that would otherwise be difficult to express.

I do have a problem with people using words incorrectly though. Especially if they're obviously doing it just for the sake of sounding smart - case in point "Breakfasting".

I don't want to name the exact town, but I'll say that it's a small liberal-arts college.

I've gone to school (both Cornell and Ithaca) in Ithaca, and although they're slightly more granola and less retail than this place was, a similar mentality prevailed. As I checked out of the Green Star Co-Op once, the cashier asked me my favorite color. I wasn't in the mood to play, and I said "blue". Then she wanted to know what shade of blue, and I said, "I don't know... sky blue." Then she wanted to know what sky...just before dawn, a bright autumn sky, an overcast sky, a sunset. Longest checkout ever :(
I don't need a co-op cashier to bring me to awareness. I know that the sky can be different colors.

And the boyfriend is from Madison, we've been there many times, and it doesn't have the annoying pretentious garbage at all. Unless you hit the farmers market, then you get the LOOK AT ME I'M AT A FARMERS MARKET I AM WHOLESOME people. Everyone else doesn't wear a Farmers Market t-shirt and carry a Farmers Market bag to go to the Farmers Market :/

I don't know.

I got to an art school so there's a lot of hippie and emo types as well as a lot of bleeding hearts. I feel totally out of place sometimes because I'm an asshole :O

..

Zomboid, was it you that was stuck near Coos Bay? If so, where the hell are you enrolled, there isn't any civilization for miles

Last I heard Zomboid was like a coal miner or something.

:lol

Jesus Christ. I would've lost it and told her off.

:(

I'm in Edmonton. There's plenty of civilization, it's just that most of it sucks.

MM- That was oil field work, and it's just a very well-paying summer job.

Liquid- It's not hard to be an asshole IRL when most of the people you're being an asshole to at school look like you. Meaning: Really weak and not intimidating in the least.

When I moved to the south I hated it because of all the hicks and shit, but I've come to appreciate it because people don't assume shit about you. Except that you enjoy football.

Also: Jeanette :love

I talk like that. I also got yelled at by my roommate for dipping my chicken fingers in ketchup and my fries in bleu cheese instead of the other way around.

I think I'm just off key.

I'm always delighted when my misanthropy amuses someone. :)

10,000v- I think there's a difference between being genuinely quirky and doing it with an eye peeled to see how many people notice. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you land on the right side of the fence on that one.

I've seen people think they're reinventing themselves at college. I wish I had enough SHAMWoW to wipe the smug looks off their faces sometimes. At the end of the day though, I just sit back and remind myself. All these pompous fucks with the free the whales, Dane Cook impersonations and Vegan bullshit....

I went to I.T.T. Tech, didn't learn a damn thing about computers, but at least I didn't change myself to appease the masses.

I've lived in many cities and towns. I've lived in L.A. and S.F., Bourbon Indiana, Eureka California, Santa Cruz California... Well I guess that's it really. The point is, most of these places are different in there own right. All living organisms with a Borg mentality. When in Rome, do as the Romans. If you go to China, are you gonna get cranky about eating dog and killing baby girls? Then don't fucking go there. Don't go to a Dead show and complain about hippies and don't go to a college town and complain about hipsters. Don't go to Indiana and complain about republicans.

Observe and learn from it. This thread is pretentious.

You're prententious. :posh

Yes I am :hat