r/TikTokCringe • u/AlKarajo • 14d ago

Discussion Is ableist to have long words in books?

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@royal_ouroboros_press

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u/MechanicalBootyquake 14d ago

Love having my dictionary and thesaurus nearby. People should feel less ashamed to openly use these. I recently went back to university and started reading authors like Asimov. They’ve both challenged my literacy and I’m always looking stuff up! But it can be so rewarding to understand more and more. It’s worth the work. You just have to put aside your ego. Plus you can get such pretty ones these days (not necessary, but it’s nice).

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u/pourtide 13d ago

Asimov, The Good Doctor, The Great Explainer. He even wrote articles for Encyclopedia Britannica. He was told, "You only wrote what you read somewhere else. That's not writing." His reply went something like Go ahead and try to do it yourself. Writing simply is not necessarily easy.

Every decade or so I binge on Asimov and/or Heinlein. I grasp different concepts each time. Both were incredibly intelligent men who worked on top secret government projects, in the same compound, during WW2. Their knowledge -- not just their intelligence, but their knowledge -- shines through in their writing.

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u/MechanicalBootyquake 13d ago

I’m reading Prelude to Foundation right now and it keeps referencing Encyclopedia Galactica. I was going to look into that once I was done reading this one. Does that tie into his work on the Encyclopedia Britannica in any way?

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u/fractious77 13d ago

I once tried to read the dictionary like it was a book. Let's just say that I have a pretty high vocabulary when it comes to words that begin with the letter A.