liguistic [sic] showoff

[David Morris]

--- Jasper Fidget <fakename at verizon.net> wrote:
> 
> Perhaps Dmitri took David's expression literally when DM wrote "VN is nothing
if not a liguistic [sic] show-off," which common American vernacular is meant
to convey "he's *certainly* a liguistic [sic] show-off," rather than "if he's
not a liguistic [sic] show-off then he's nothing."  I would be pretty annoyed
too if somebody implied my father was either a "showoff" or "nothing".

But if Dimitri took it that way (the incorrect way) then he's proven he's in no
position to stand as an authority in literary matters, his father's or anyone
else's.  And whether it's a good thing or bad thing to be a liguistic [sic]
show-off is beyond the point, since I was responding to a quote by VN where he
seems to imply it's a bad thing ("show-off" not being used, but refering to
*gratutous* use of facetiously flashy or grotesquely obscure language):

> "The main favor I ask of a serious critic is sufficient perceptiveness to
understand that whatever term or trope I use, my purpose is not to be
facetiously flashy or grotesquely obscure but to express what I feel and think
with the utmost truthfulness and [precision]." --VN




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