A brief note to the academics of the world

I think I can say I've had a pretty decent education. Twelve years of American public school, and I've been attending university continuously since the year 2000. I have a high school diploma, a BA, a BS, and most of an MA. And in the last two years I've taken graduate level courses on the concept of the "nation state", sociology and linguistics.

I say all of this not to boast (though it's great to indulge my inner snoot*), but to make clear why I expect, when I open Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, a book concerned with the history of the nation state with a focus on sociology and linguistics, I expect to be able to read and understand the contents.

Instead it turns out that Anderson expects me to be a polyglot and interested in what he has to say. There are terms and phrases in Latin, French and German left untranslated and unexplained throughout the book, a depressingly common phenomenon in academic texts. Instead of referring to foreign workers as "guest workers", he chooses to enlist the subtle nuance of the German Gastarbeiter. Which literally means "guest workers," but (as noted by JKB in comments) carries a negative connotation not present in the English word. If Anderson had simply added a footnote explaining that the first time he used the term, I would be perfectly okay with his choice, but what of the half-page quotation in French that forms the basis of half a chapter's discussion? Does the whole quotation have such a subtle nuance that it wasn't possible to even attempt a translation for we poor few who don't read French?

I don't mind an author writing a book that is difficult to read because the concepts it contains are complex or because it assumes prior knowledge relating to the subject matter. And I don't mind an author using foreign vocabulary (my thesis and my blog both use lots of Japanese) as long as it is explained - in fact it can enrich a text by adding subtle textures not otherwise possible. But an author who cannot write an English-language book comprehensible to a monoglot English audience familiar with the subject matter is simply a bad writer. I'm much more impressed by the intellect of an author who can explain a complicated idea clearly than one who can throw around lots of words I don't understand and cannot look up in a dictionary.


* derived from "snooty", obviously