minor rant about academic writing

Academic writing is some of the most dogawful writing. Is it the point of people to put you to sleep before you figure out what they're saying so that you can't properly discuss their ideas (Jurgen Habermas I'm talking to you, even though I think you're probably already dead). Maybe they're afraid of their ideas being understood and open to attack. If no one knows what they're saying, then everyone can nod, pretend to be intelligent and agree with them.

And why in the world would you put long lengthy quotations in the middle of a book in Latin or Indonesian and not bother to translate it? Even if you're writing the book for an academic audience, I know lots of academics, and I don't think I know a single one fluent in English, Indonesian and Latin. The point of a quotation is to illustrate a point of your argument; so having a quote in Indonesian is fine, but a little translation might be nice.

I like sparrows.

ok back to writing papers.