> we spend way too much time reading text that isn't really saying anything, and/or failing to find meaning in what we read
Absolutely. It helps make clear that the function of words isn't always what we think. It's the sort of window into the machinery of the mind that helps us reverse-engineer what's really going on.
It reminds me of the Oliver Sacks essay "The President's Speech", which Wikipedia describes as being "about a ward of aphasiacs [people who have lost the ability to understand words] and agnosiacs [here, people who understand only the words, as if reading a transcript] listening to a speech given by an unnamed actor-president, 'the old charmer', presumably Ronald Reagan. Many in the first group laughed at the speech, despite their inability to follow the words, and Sacks claims their laughter to be at the president's facial expressions and tone, which they find 'not genuine'. One woman in the latter group criticizes the structure of the president's sentences, stating that he 'does not speak good prose'."
Glibness has a purpose, but it's not really about conveying information. It's for something else.
Absolutely. It helps make clear that the function of words isn't always what we think. It's the sort of window into the machinery of the mind that helps us reverse-engineer what's really going on.
It reminds me of the Oliver Sacks essay "The President's Speech", which Wikipedia describes as being "about a ward of aphasiacs [people who have lost the ability to understand words] and agnosiacs [here, people who understand only the words, as if reading a transcript] listening to a speech given by an unnamed actor-president, 'the old charmer', presumably Ronald Reagan. Many in the first group laughed at the speech, despite their inability to follow the words, and Sacks claims their laughter to be at the president's facial expressions and tone, which they find 'not genuine'. One woman in the latter group criticizes the structure of the president's sentences, stating that he 'does not speak good prose'."
Glibness has a purpose, but it's not really about conveying information. It's for something else.