something about academic caviling

(Part of a thread of poems or poetry-adjacent writing as discussed here.)  

Note: Perhaps some context will help before we begin. These are words about being a scholar but disappointing people because you're a scholar. It is also about structural constraints of communication, not least in our current media culture, as I discussed here. There are other things tangled up in it, too, including rivalry with scholars who make (some) people happier because they don't seem bothered about outrageous oversimplifications. Is it really a poem or something else? I just know it says things I want to say with some precision.

fragments of the truth

each seeking its pure soundbite

that can go viral

each one concealing 

another fragment that is

off-message, suppressed,

too complicated 

to live in any soundbite

that can go viral. 

I’m contrarian.

I want to hear all the sides

ponder all half-truths

even uncool ones 

the kinds that get you ignored 

or simply cancelled. 

If this is a game

seeking clicks, pure and simple,

I’m on track to fail. 

I wear readers out.

Possibly I know too much 

for anyone’s good.

But I am vain, too.

I keep looking for a voice

that can do it all:

concise but nuanced

focused on what’s most needful.

Just the right amount

of analysis, 

examples, reader-friendly

chatty folksiness 

while still insisting: 

What you can’t see can hurt you! 

You do not need me 

just to restate things

that “we all already knew.” 

You need me to say

“that is what you see

and mainly you’re not wrong…yet

think about this too.”