quotable Sedaris
David Sedaris
Due to my general aversion to machines and a few pronounced episodes of screaming, I was labeled a technophobe, a term that ranks fairly low on my scale of fightin' words. The word phobic has its place when properly used, but lately it's been declawed by the pompous insistence that most animosity is based upon fear rather than loathing. No credit is given for distinguishing between these two very different emotions. I fear snakes. I hate computers. My hatred is entrenched, and I nourish it daily. I'm comfortable with it, and no community outreach program will change my mind.
"Nutcracker.com," in Me Talk Pretty One Day [New York: Little, Brown, 2000], 145.
6 comments:
The most commonly misused -phobe is homophobe, I think. I think more people loathe homosexuals than are afraid of us.
And, for that matter, a lot of people are accused of homophobia who neither loathe nor fear.
On that note, I really hate that if you use the suffix "phile," it is automatically pejoratively associated with the absolutely revolting "pedophile." Certainly there are loads of good people who are bibleophilic or goodbarbecuephiles or deepseafishphiles. (You can quote me on my Latin if you like.) Really, it makes me mad that the pervs had to steal a perfectly good suffix. Damn them.
Iguana Sam, are you a pedophilephobe?
Since it's so early in the morning, I am going to dodge the question by answering that I'm sometimes a claustrophobe.
I have never read Sedaris. Nor do I think that I fear anything enough to call myself a phobe.
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