The conversation of intelligent people – particular in a certain field – is bound to be at least partially jargonised. I would hope we haven’t got to the point where those conversant in certain modes of critical thinking and interaction forget the privileges that have allowed them access to that world.

And while I don’t think it’s ‘odd’ to fire effusive praise in the direction of Mozart and Pound, that doesn’t make the statements anything more than assertions – and bland assertions at that.

There was a quote by Orwell or Eliot or someone that I came across recently that took aim at this practice of just saying something was ‘great’ in increasingly contorted ways. I can’t remember it or track it down right now, and it was in the context of literary reviews rather than general writing, but the point holds here. All the language I highlighted is just strained variations on a five star rating. It signals strong approval, but doesn’t say anything much else.

Why not tell the reader something insightful and real about the subject in question – whether it’s Mozart, Keats or Sutherland – and leave them to make up their own mind as to its value?