This potpourri of satire on language use in Western culture will
trigger chuckles and guffaws from an eclectic readership.
In The Clan of the Flapdragon and Other Adventures in Etymology by B.
M. W. Schrapnel, Ph.D., the pseudonymous critic satirizes a variety of
subjects in and out of academe. These adventurous essays include lampoons
on writing, language, and literature, and the collection is a delightful
spoof of much in contemporary culture- especially areas of intellectual
pretension. Readers will be entertained by anachronistic allusions, improbable
parodies, whimsical etymologies, tongue-in-cheek word play, and stunning
purple prose- examples of just some of the liberties Schrapnel takes with
the language.
The eccentric Dr. Schrapnel includes a wide array of audience reactions
in the form of bogus letters from fictional readers, confirming
that language and literature are everyone's business. He also offers an
annual list of words that writers and speakers should use more often- a
lexicographer's equivalent to the endangered species list- and coins terms
such as prufrockery and grendelish.
