Friday, 3 May 2013

Words and Phrases and Learning the Hard Way

It's taken me a while but I think I've finally decided that theatrical performances billed as 'challenging' or 'confronting', (see here for an example), are best avoided - and if 'burlesque' is mentioned anywhere on the poster, well, that's the clincher. All the 'burlesque' performers of my acquaintance have been somewhat repressed private school girls who seem to think that putting on satin corsets and fishnet stockings will help them transcend their inhibitions and transform them into wild-eyed sirens.

Here's one, getting ready for an evening performance:
By the way, have I ever mentioned how much I hate the phrase 'no-brainer'? I probably have, but there's no harm in making the point again.
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8 comments:

  1. Nota Bene3 May 2013 at 14:24

    Challenging or confronting generally translates as 'crap'...but obviously if you say that, it's because you have been challenged and confronted

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    1. zmkc4 May 2013 at 00:31

      I suppose the ultimate challenging or confronting performance would be to have the performer actually take a crap on stage.

      Delete
  2. Chris Matarazzo3 May 2013 at 15:44

    Yes! I'm tired of "challenging" plays and movies and TV shows, too. It seems every TV show in America is penned by some former English major who thinks he is "challenging" convention by writing characters who are "forced by circumstances" to do immoral things for the good of, say, their children -- shows like the "critically acclaimed 'Breaking Bad'" which is about a former high school chem teacher who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and, so decides to become a methamphetamine dealer so that he can leave his family with a nest egg. The "challenge"? This seedy world he finds himself is changing him for the worse and he is moveing farther away form his wife and kids with each passing day... BLECH!!!

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    1. zmkc4 May 2013 at 00:33

      Yes, I have the DVDs of that show, a Christmas present, and yet none of us - including the person who decided to give it to me, (because everyone insists it is marvellous, despite the subject matter) - can bring ourselves to take the cellophane wrapper off and actually watch it

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  3. Kevin Musgrove3 May 2013 at 21:52

    "Challenging" is usually crap.
    "Confronting" is usually aggressive crap.
    "Thought-provoking" usually means that the seats are uncomfortable.

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    1. zmkc4 May 2013 at 00:35

      And that's if you're lucky enough to be offered a seat - there's this vogue for what I think is called promenade theatre where you are forced to wander round a warehouse without ever sitting down. I don't like that at all.

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  4. Denis Wright8 May 2013 at 02:03

    I think some people - I suspect social scientists - have made a career out of euphemisms so they can help people to avoid what they should be faced with. [I even have my suspicions about the term "social science".]

    For the record, I share your lack of enthusiasm for "no-brainer". Apart from anything else, it signals to me the exact opposite of its intention.

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  5. zmkc8 May 2013 at 06:21

    Agreed on all counts - including re 'social science', now you point it out.

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