September 12, 2003

Pretension and Pomposity in Academe

By WILLIAM IAN MILLER

Role playing, performing our parts, is what we do; we can hardly blame one another for playing roles. Suppose, however, the role is flavored in such a way that the player can be described as pretentious. We all pretend, but that does not make us pretentious, or even pretenders in a bad sense, or in the way of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Pretension can take the form of adopting a style of something you aspire to be, and may eventually be, but are not yet -- thus the grad student who postures