The more I think about this quote, the less sense it makes to me. From the profile of director Michael Haneke in Sunday's (9/23) NYTimes Magazine:
The experience of watching "Funny Games" is not unlike watching snuff-porn clips late at night in your bedroom, only to have your mother or Jacques Lacan switch the light on periodically without the slightest warning.
What the hell is this sentence supposed to mean? First of all, how many readers of this sentence know what it's like to watch "snuff porn"? Is this sentence intended to be read by a Bret Easton Ellis character? Second, what does my mom have in common with Jacques Lacan? Would I really react the same if Lacan came into my bedroom as I would if my mom did? Huh?
And, now that we've parsed this sentence, do you have any idea about what feeling is being described here? I sure don't.
Plus: the "not unlike" construction is so obnoxious. You know what "not unlike" is? It's "like."
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2 comments:
I always thought our mom looked and smelled a great deal like Jacques Lacan.
That's the sort of quote I would use to teach "bad writing."
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