The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People

by Ophelia Benson, Jeremy Stangroom

Two of Britain's leading cultural commentators provide a hilarious guide to the various trendy discourses that academics have churned out for decades. Covering such schools of thought as difference feminism, deconstruction, and the sociology of knowledge, the author reveals that clotted jargon, tortured syntax, and unreadable style hides the fact that nothing new is being said. This ironic guide offers an array of ludicrous, exaggerated, self-contradicting definitions and explanations of popular intellectual jargon, poking witty fun at postmodern theorists from Adorno to Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, and arming the reader with enough knowledge to salt them into the conversation if ever trapped at a party with a crowd of trendy academics.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Skepticism

128 pages, Hardcover

First published October 28, 2006

About the author

Ophelia Benson is co-author (with Jeremy Stangroom) of The Dictionary of Fashionable Nonsense: A Guide for Edgy People, Why Truth Matters, and Does God Hate Women?, and the editor of the website Butterflies and Wheels and Deputy Editor of The Philosophers' Magazine. She writes a monthly column for the online version of the magazine. She wrote formerly under the pen name "Kassandra."

Reviews

[Hywel Owen]

Fun book. A little repetitive if read front to back, but a good pointer to priceless gems of nonsense from the world of sociology, literary theory, and Marxism. Recommended.

[Sasha]

Not half as funny as it was billed as being.

[Melinda]

Im edgy and this is my guide. I love it. It sits on my desk and I use it when I need something witty to say or when Im stuck for words.

[Josh Bunting]

The dictionary format gives this book a listicle feel, which is great if you're like me and need some help understanding complicated subjects like the ones dealt with here.

[Ethan Lima]

This book reminds me of "The Devil's Dictionary."