this is one of very few Vittles essays I have found a bit drab and unconvincing, more a lay of the land of white australian food culture than anything more insightful.
I was just responding to your comment :) I know what laconic means and that word jarred for me too. I thought the writer might be trying to find an adjective to describe a town in the same way we might say that it was 'sleepy' or 'bustling' which obviously doesn't refer to the bricks and mortar. Maybe the town is concise in words to the point of curtness / impoliteness? But that might be a stretch, I don't know, was just responding to your observation.
Gotcha. It jarred with me too, much as I applaud the eschewal of clichés. I think the writer meant the town was unremarkable but it just sounded wrong.
If a town can be sleepy (bricks and mortar do not sleep, as far as I’m aware) why can’t it be laconic? That’s the nature of figurative language, is it not — to personify the impersonal and animate the inanimate
I found the piece very iimaginative and interesting, in the way that the writer has been able to link food with a murder. Though living in another part of the world, I am a great fan of Master Chef Australia though I shun the US version, mainly because of Ramsay's abrasive approach. Hope he won't be a regular judge on the MC Australia version. As for the application of the word "laconic," may I suggest the writer's right to poetic licence, which many including Shakespeare, have employed to good measure.
this is one of very few Vittles essays I have found a bit drab and unconvincing, more a lay of the land of white australian food culture than anything more insightful.
Not sure the thesis stands up to rational scrutiny — and a town cannot be laconic. But I enjoyed the read.
The inhabitants didn't really speak to one another?
Not sure of your point? Laconic means speaking concisely or briefly. Townspeople might speak thus but not bricks and mortar.
I was just responding to your comment :) I know what laconic means and that word jarred for me too. I thought the writer might be trying to find an adjective to describe a town in the same way we might say that it was 'sleepy' or 'bustling' which obviously doesn't refer to the bricks and mortar. Maybe the town is concise in words to the point of curtness / impoliteness? But that might be a stretch, I don't know, was just responding to your observation.
Gotcha. It jarred with me too, much as I applaud the eschewal of clichés. I think the writer meant the town was unremarkable but it just sounded wrong.
Just a quick note: in Australian-English ‘laconic’ does have a slightly more expansive meaning than it’s original one
Thank you for enlightening me.
If a town can be sleepy (bricks and mortar do not sleep, as far as I’m aware) why can’t it be laconic? That’s the nature of figurative language, is it not — to personify the impersonal and animate the inanimate
This is getting a bit pedantic, or silly. A town can be sleepy in the sense there is no movement. In English-English, laconic requires speech.
I found the piece very iimaginative and interesting, in the way that the writer has been able to link food with a murder. Though living in another part of the world, I am a great fan of Master Chef Australia though I shun the US version, mainly because of Ramsay's abrasive approach. Hope he won't be a regular judge on the MC Australia version. As for the application of the word "laconic," may I suggest the writer's right to poetic licence, which many including Shakespeare, have employed to good measure.
I think Ramsey presided over a Beef Wellington challenge on MasterChef Junior.
Excellent piece, superbly written - one of the most original things I have read this year.