Literary Indignation, Post #6
Good idea… bad execution
If you’re reading this right now, you probably use the internet. Or maybe you’re an eccentric, old oil heiress who pays her stable of amanuenses an extra stipend of vintage nickels to print out and read aloud the day’s most thrilling digital content as a fun break in between sessions of transcribing your forthcoming memoir, I’m an Old-Ass Oil Heiress and I Can’t See. Either way, let’s assume you go online from time to time? OK.
Not ok. Try again.
I’d like to discuss one of the newest yet hoariest tropes in internet writing, a trope I would like to murder, if only I could find a tool designed to destroy nonsentient turns of phrase.
This tool exists and is called “editing.”
Peak’s charms are evident. “Reaching peak X” is the pointy-bastard cousin of restoring faith in humanity, nailing it, and slaying. It’s a quick way to slap a superlative on anything, which is appealing for people who want to grab attention and declare expertise, especially within a character limit. “Peak” doesn’t only mean “important” — it means relevancy is cresting as we speak. It has urgency. It implies a forthcoming plummet. Know this right now or don’t bother knowing it at all!!!!! is peak’s mantra.
It is also kind of the definition of “peak.”
The Language Log, a long-running linguistics blog, traced the origins of “peak” as slang to the phrase “peak oil” in 2008, tying it to writer John Cole’s use of the phrase “peak wingnut” while discussing online political skirmishes during that election year. “John Cole’s idea was that the level of extreme right-wing sentiment in online discourse has reached a maximum, and is poised to enter a terminal decline,” linguist Mark Liberman wrote. (Reading about that idea in 2016, when the Republican front-runner is posting anti-Semitic memes on Twitter, is existentially upsetting, but let’s carry on.)
No let’s actually change the subject of the article to this, because this is way more interesting and relevant.
It’s also dead-easy to use and appealingly vague: X can be literally anything anyone is talking about at the moment. Slap “peak” in front of any word and you have a thesis about The Way We Whatever Now, in the same way that “Uber for X” was a formula for introducing startups a few years ago.
So… sounds effective?
I wish “peak” was over, that it was free falling, yowling like Tom Petty as it approached a gaping abyss, into which it would disappear and rot alongside other internet catchphrases of yesteryear. But within the last 24 hours, we may have “reached peak engine.” Climb every mountain, I guess, but if I see another “peak X” headline configuration, I’m going to kidnap national treasure Jon Krakauer and hold him for ransom until this nightmare is over.
If peak is/was at a peak… then wouldn’t you expect this to happen quickly?
