Less Than Words Can Say by Richard Mitchell (PDF)

Description

Twenty-odd years ago, Richard Mitchell, a professor at New Jersey’s Glassboro State College, set out on a quixotic pursuit: the rescue of the English language and the minds of those attached to the world by it. Donning cape and mask as “The Underground Grammarian,” Mitchell sallied forth upon his newsletter against the nonsense being spoken, written, and, indeed, encouraged by the educational establishment. (“One thing led to another,” as he tells it, “a front page piece in The Wall Street Journal, a proÞle in Time, and other such. Before it was over, The Underground Grammarian came to be, in the world of desktop printing, the Þrst publication to have subscribers on every continent except Antarctica.”) What began as a vivid catalog of ignorance and inanity in the written work of professional educators and their hapless students soon became an enterprise of most noble moment: an investigation, via mordant wit and Þerce intelligence, of “what we might usefully decide to mean by ‘education.’” The results of Mitchell’s inquiries are as stimulating today as they were when Þrst articulated. His project remains a telling explication of how, through writing, we discover thought and make knowledge. It is certainly the most drolly entertaining.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐If ever there was a must read book, Mitchell’s is it. Buy it. Give it to friends. But don’t give this version. It appears to be a computer typset reproduction printed without regard for typography or presentation. Those of us who remember Mitchell recall that early on he beautifully handset “The Underground Grammarian” using loose type, one character at a time, for a letterpress. Then he migrated to a Macintosh that closely duplicated the beauty and ease of reading of the original.This bastardized version has long lines that are hard to read on large pages to reduce the cost.Oh, but buy the book any way you can. Find a used original. Print if from online. Or buy this version if you must. What he says is too important to miss, if you value society and the necessary exchange of ideas it requires. Just remember that the original presented clarity in a beautiful way.

⭐A true classic on the importance of language usage. Getting hard to find since it been out of print for many years. If you are unfamiliar with it, it will surely change your view of speech, language and writing and open your eyes to learning. Not the easiest read although exceptionally well written and amusing. You will have to focus and keep your mind running at full capacity to absorb it all. I bought this as a gift for the head teacher at my grand daughter’s Montessori School. I’m sure it will help her see things in a brighter light.

⭐Just reading the introduction to this work will have you laughing. Anyone that has the great pleasure to have worked with administrative types will find this humorous. The first chapter has a very confusing description of a language that sets a tone for the confusing items of English. I bought this book on a recommendation of a college professor. But, if you are at all interested in communications or good writing, I recommend this book strongly.

⭐According to Richard Mitchell, sloppy language makes sloppy thought possible. When it comes to sloppy language and to the sloppy thought that accompanies it, the education establishment is king. In this provocative book, therefore, Mitchell dissects the jargon-laden nonsense that passes for thought in America’s schools by subjecting to his inimitable withering critique the letters, memos, speeches, and missives of those in charge of the life of the mind. The result is simultaneously alarming and enlightening — alarming because instructors cannot give to their students the education they themselves do not have, and enlightening because it will teach the reader how better to use language and logic.This book is a primer on subjecting one’s own writing and thought to careful scrutiny. From Mitchell, you will learn that if you pause to find the right word and do not go on until you have found the right word, you will know better not only what you do think, but what you should think. If you do not pause to find the right word, you will make it clear to those who do pay attention to your words that you are thoughtless and careless. In other words, you will learn to do to your own words what Mitchell does to those of the educationists. The lesson is invaluable.

⭐Mitchell’s book, like Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary, is satire. Likewise, Mitchell’s book is both entertaining and cleverly written as well as one that hammers home the thesis that that inferior thinking begets inferior writing. Unfortunately, Mitchell also resembles Bierce in his unrelieved crankiness, a trait in authors that ought to be taken in small doses unless one positively enjoys the drawing of dark clouds over the sky.

⭐I picked up several books in the past few years trying to ease the pain I feel over the disgusting abuse of the English language I see everywhere around us…This book did not give me the answers I was looking for either. At least it is well written. It is entertaining with some flow and structure, but it ends up as political ranting. Yes I agree. The system is [messed]up, but the problem is somehow more fundamental than students’ inability to spell correctly. What I would expect from an analysis of the subject is either to deal with the underlying political and cultural changes that created the [messed]up situation we are in, or a linguistic-cognitive analysis of the way, the mental process by which this [messed]up state manifests itself.This book came close, but it is not it. Too much politics (yet not enough,) many great examples not explored deep enough. Still, the evidence speaks for itself, the arguments are solid and the conclusions inescapable.Should you read this book? Most definitely. You can even find it in sharetext format. The source of my disappointment is my expectations, not the quality of this book.If I want the book I seek, I guess I have to write it.

⭐This is a considered, and superbly written and argued, attack on the collapse in literacy in North American schools, and indeed amongst North American educators. Mitchell describes a process which is now far advanced in the UK as well. See too Mitchell’s more occasional, shorter, witty demolitions of bureaucratic English and educationalism in his Leaning Tower of Babel.

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