"The apotheosis of my five-year orthodontic torment was a sad admission from the orthodontist: After thousands of dollars invested in what felt like medieval technology, my braces had not only failed to ameliorate a complex situation but created a new problem for which, even today, there is no solution."
This is extremely flowery and pretentious writing (especially for an article about snoring and braces, and not, a literary review or something) + it doesnt even make sense!
'Apotheosis' = The glorification of a subject to divine level.
So.. the glorification of her orthodontic torment to divine level was a sad admission from her orthdontist ?!?!?!?!
There's alternate definitions to apotheosis and the first definition from google seems pretty fitting: apotheosis - the highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax.
The average capaciousness of a person's vocabulary has diminished in recent years, where people today pompously decry all but "marketing speak" as senesless and pretentious.
I do the same. In my case, an extended vocabulary would be counterproductive in business, as I work with people in a number of different countries. The dialects of English differ significantly across the globe. Also, people in some cultures will say they 100% understand items, even when they do not, so it is incumbent upon me in those cases to communicate as effectively as I am able.
Words have multiple definitions and "apotheosis" makes perfect sense there.
There's a good reason technobros (most, any, a few can turn a phrase) are not consulted as editors of writing meant to be enjoyed, not merely to inform. Complaining about "flowery and pretentious writing" is, itself, middlebrow crap (see? unpretentious and unflowery, no less) that leaches voice and delight out of a piece of writing--the act of writing is the performance of art as well as the performance of trade and letting words out to play is fun and good.
This is in an article about snoring and braces. The purpose of the article is to relay these new theories about such to the reader.
The writer is definitely sacrificing clarity in favour of an ornate, pompous and pretentious writing style imo.
There are genres (eg. literature) where word-play and creative use of language and so on are acceptable for the writer and the reader. But its entirely inappropriate for this sort of article.
Also, getting back to "apotheosis"...Almost any other choice (climax,peak,culmination,zenith) would have been more apt and clearer.
"apotheosis" is ambiguous. Its also a relatively obscure word most readers will not clearly know the various meanings of, and even the more appropriate meaning is not as apt as some of the words Ive listed.
Its even hard to discern its meaning from context as the entire sentence is such an overwrought mess, full of necessarily big words.
Thus, the only reason I can fathom the author chose this particular word is to attempt to appear superior.
Do you also think this article should have been written in extremely ornate calligraphy? With the letters forming little animals and demons like in an illuminated manuscript?
Maybe you find that idea ridiculous, which is my intention.
You might think that the particular font used is irreverent compared to the words themselves.
If someone used such an ornate font as to render the words unreadable that may seem self-defeating on the authors part.
That is analogous to using such ornate language as to render ones meaning unclear. It is the content, the information and ideas generated in the readers mind that are important, not the font used, or the words used.
