A Super Modest Proposal

[My Work]

This is the essay version of the "Superlatives & Hyperbole" PowerPoint in the Other Work section.

A Super Modest Proposal to Address the Over-use of Superlatives and Hyperbole

In his essay A Modest Proposali, Johnathan Swift satirically proposes consuming impoverished Irish infants, in much the same way one consumes sheep, to help reduce the population of the Irish poor in 1700's Ireland. Swift employs reductio ad absurdum to make his point, that poverty in Ireland needs to be addressed.

Rather than an 18th century audience, if Swift were were making his proposal in the 21st century, would he have to alter his message to appeal to modern sensibilities? Perhaps Swift would state that the epidemic of Irish poverty is an existential threat to all of humanity of the most deadliest (sic) proportions to get people to take notice. If Swift did resort to superlatives and hyperbole, he would be in good(?) company. Superlatives and hyperbole are rife in politicsii, the newsiii, even in everyday conversationsiv. As English is a living language, usages can and do change over time. Some superlatives and hyperbole I have, if not embraced, gotten used to. People using perfect when something is merely satisfactory or good I let pass without even an eye-roll. However, other instances of superlatives and hyperbole are disappointing. So what? What's wrong with super-sized content?

As their overuse is indicative of lazy composition, and may result in their being rendered ineffective, content creators should reserve superlatives and hyperbole for those occasions that merit them.

Consider the following sentence, "That pizza was awesome!" Merriam-Websterv defines "awe," the root from which "awesome" springs, as "an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime." While the pizza might have been the best pizza the person who made the preceding observation ever ate, it is unlikely that she experienced the range of emotions that awesome would suggest. What's more, it doesn't engage readers. A more compelling way to relate her experience would be to describe why the pizza was good. Perhaps something like, "The scratch-made sauce, the combination of thick-cut buffalo mozzarella and provolone cheeses, and the half-pound of dry-cured pepperoni on a hand-tossed crust baked to perfection in a wood-burning oven made for the best pizza I've ever eaten." Specific details engage readers. At least my mouth is watering.

In addition to the use of Awesome, other examples of over-and-inappropriately used superlatives and hyperbole include—Using the parking app is super easy. Super used in place of very is like fingernails scratching a chalkboard for me. When my bikini top came off after my high-dive into the pool, "I literally died."vi No she didn't, but she was probably very embarrassed. When I saw that guy slip on the banana peel, I totally lost it. Did she totally lose control of her bowels and bladder, fall to the ground convulsing, before losing consciousness? Or did she laugh hard at the man's slip-and-fall?

Diminutives, the inverse of superlatives and hyperbole, are also frequently used. Just, in the sense of "by a very small margin,"vii is often used justify people's behavior—I parked in the bike lane just for a second. Second is another diminutive whose use is so prevalent that people give me dismissive looks when I observe that the duration is much longer than what they suggest.

In their attempt to have their thoughts and experiences standout, people are over-relying on superlatives and hyperbole. Contrary to writers' objectives, totally-super-awesome characterized content gets lost in the white noise of superlatives and hyperbole that readers' are already ignoring.

Disengaged readers are one result of the overuse of superlatives and hyperbole. Another is the dilution of their impact. The overuse of superlatives and hyperbole is analogous to the overuse of antibiotics,

The overuse of antibiotics — especially taking antibiotics even when they're not the appropriate treatment — promotes antibiotic resistance. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to one-third to one-half of antibiotic use in humans is unnecessary or inappropriate… Approximately 2 million infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria occur in the United States each year, resulting in 23,000 deaths.viii

While overuse of superlatives and hyperbole probably won't result in loss of life, it may leave writers at a loss for words. Web searches for "most deadliest" or "super awesome" are indicative of the challenge writers are experiencing in their search for "super-superlatives." Content creators, particular on the 24-hour news channels, are having to create new usages of existing superlatives and invent larger hyperbole in an attempt to retain viewer engagement.

When people say that they "love," rather than that they "really like" something, or that something good is "awesome," it leaves them with no place to go when they encounter something that they truly love or find awesome—Realizing that they have discovered the person they want to spend the rest of their life with, their wedding day, the birth of a child, achieving a personal or professional goal after years of hard work.

The irony of the overuse of superlatives and hyperbole is that bland writing results. When everything is characterized as "Awesome!," everything becomes less so. What can we do as individuals to stem the tide of the overuse and misuse of superlatives and hyperbole? We can take a moment to think before we communicate with one another. It may be hard at first, but, with practice, selectively using superlatives and hyperbole will get super easy easier.

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ihttps://www.secret-satire-society.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Jonathan-Swift-A-Modest-Proposal.pdf

iihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEbdhGPgzoE

iiihttps://www.wfla.com/news/tampa-bay-one-of-deadliest-places-in-u-s-for-pedestrians-researchers-say/

ivhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/06/internet-hyperbole-charlie-brooker

vhttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/awe#h1

vihttps://thoughtcatalog.com/sylvie-quinn/2018/06/hyperbole-examples/

viihttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/just

viiihttps://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/in-depth/antibiotics/art-20045720