Intello Academy: In context

The wankellectual exercise of The Context Project kicked off by lanzarote seems to be gathering momentum. Like Postform it risks dying the death of decay and abstinence and insufficient time on everyone's hands. So long as it exists however it must be encouraged. I was planning to keep a wide berth from the project... particularly since my translation skills are limited by my patience. Events at Auchan today while killing time until my new glasses got mounted have forced a turn of spirit. Whether as part of the project or whether through another blog of the j'accuse-murdoch blogging chain I HAVE to translate this book I found.

While perusing the books section of Auchan I came across "Intello Academy" by Corinne Maier, released in January 2006. I read the descriptions incredulously and I discovered that Maier has written a book describing the French form of the "wankellectual". Once again my lethargy has meant that someone else has printed a book on an idea that I had independently formed without outside help. It could have been MY book being published by Michalon. I will console myself by trying my patience and translating Intello Academy into our vernacular on a blog which will soon be set up.

Here is the descriptor from the back sleeve:

"Intello Academy est un livre ironique sur un monde intellectuel en pleine déconfiture qui, ô paradoxe, laisse le champ libre aux intellos. L'intello, c'est la version bas de gamme de l'intellectuel. Comme il n'y a plus beaucoup de penseurs chez nous, ou plus exactement comme ceux qui font du bon travail en langage simple ne sont guère écoutés, cela signifie que la place est libre pour ceux qui aiment frimer avec des mots.

Assembler des phrases toutes faites truffées de mots boursouflés est un privilège qui n'est plus réservé à quelques happy few. Vive la démocratisation des méninges, tout le monde a le droit d'être un intello, devenez-en un vous aussi. Vous rêvez d'impressionner vos amis, votre famille, vos conquêtes et vos patrons, de donner votre avis sur tout et de plastronner dans les soirées ?"

I am tempted to ignore the translation and to write the book about the Wankellectuals before it is too late.

wankellectuals never die... they just go to a trendy bar and regroup*

*The original goes: Mercenaries never die... they just go to hell and regroup