Uglier and uglier
Just when you think that you’ve seen the ultimate in ugly noun-verbs ending in -ize, like “incentivize”, another one appears, so horrible that it beggars belief, and in the Guardian, no less. Why would they allow someone to write like this?
Carter is, in some respects, difficult to narrativize because he could be both startlingly conservative – financially, or in his appeal to the deep south’s evangelicals – and progressive, particularly on human rights and climate.
“Narrativize”, presumably, means “to write the narrative about”. Why not say that, or simply, “tell the story about” Jimmy Carter? But a story is what actually happened. A narrative is what you want your audience to believe happened: your version of the story.
In simpler times, the word was mainly found in books about literature. Now, in keeping with the times we live in, where “truth” is to be disputed and fought over, you will see it in the political news every day.
As COVID-19 devastates India, Modi’s government tries to control the narrative.
A story is told; a narrative, controlled.
So why didn’t the Guardian writer use the noun rather than the ugly verb? She must have thought that it made her writing more effective. See also Nouns as Verbs.
