Another weird habit that my students have is referring to artists as “descriptive.” I’m sick and tired of reading that “Goya is a very descriptive painter,” “Quevedo is a highly descriptive poet,” “Jose Enrique Rodo is a very descriptive essayist,” and “Gaudi is an exceptionally descriptive architect.”
What is it even supposed to mean? Is it something else they bring from high school?
Yes. You learn that modern people do not need description and 19th century and also earlier writing does not get to the point so fast because they spend so many words on «description» which is everything besides plot and action.
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Yes, I’m getting a feeling that whenever nothing is exploding and there is no car chase, all that’s left is “description.”
I’m reading the third essay in a row that suggests that Rodo’s vision of Latin America is more descriptive than Marti’s. It’s like they are writing in code.
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There was a version of this afoot when I was in school, in the Derridean days, pushed by some faculty. Description meant you were trying to control reality which you should be sophisticated enough to know you could not. Also, description went with the Enlightenment and Romanticism (as well as Realism and Naturalism) which were all inherently regressive because not challenging enough of representation.
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Perhaps your student feel that Marti is more poetic that Rodo and Rodo is more… descriptive than Marti? I am trying to help, here.
I have never encoutered the word `descriptive`in my student`s essay, perhaps because I have never taught in English. One of the words that puzzle me and that I have encountered too often in my student`s essay is `profound.`
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As one student wrote, “It is as if Marti were almost a poet.” Which was a sign to me that she did not listen to my lecture.
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It’s shorthand for, “The writer uses lots of flowery words” People are taught that good writing uses a minimum of words, especially in journalism classes. Also English uses far less words to say the same thing than other romance languages. As for applying the word descriptive to non written works, it could just mean the paintings/buildings lack a parsimony of lines.
Or more simply, “descriptive” is just a nice catch-all word they’ve gotten in the habit of using.
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Yes, that’s what I think. It’s meaningless but since the word is long, they think it makes them sound intelligent.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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