Dense and obtuse

Question

Hi FriendsI can't understand the meaning of this sentence:it operates on a dense and obtuse level of logical reasoning.what is the meaning of "dense and obtuse level" here?thanks.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

dense: 2. stupid; slow-witted; dull.

obtuse: 1. not quick or alert in perception, feeling, or intellect; not sensitive or observant; dull.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Anonymousdense

When a text is dense and obtuse, it has very complicated sentences and difficult words. Here is a paragraph that I would consider to be rather dense and obtuse. It scores over 18 on the http://gunning-fog-index.com/fog.cgi

What these four modes of distanciation have in common is dialectic: between event and signification, between intended addressee and actual addressee, between actual world and fictive world, and between prejudiced self and understanding self. It is van der Heiden's contention that these four dialectics are variations on the theme of just one: between disclosure and displacement. Distanciation is the form of displacement peculiar to writing, in which is played out a dialectic whereby what would be hitherto concealed -- the self whom the text addresses and who thereby gains a deeper understanding of his being-in-the-world -- is disclosed. Put this way, Ricoeur's simultaneous debt to and departure from Heidegger is demonstrated: for Ricoeur, fictive works, like Heidegger's poetic language, reveal the world at a more profound level, but unlike Heidegger (and Gadamer, who follows him), Ricoeur sees the text's being-written as being inimical to this revelation, rather than being an obstacle to the authenticity of being in language.

The following text scores 8.

The auctioneer stood on the street corner talking with friends. The tall waiter was at the Anarcho-syndicalist meeting waiting for an opportunity to speak. The middle-aged waiter was seated on the terrace of the Café Alvarez drinking a small beer.  The woman who owned the Luarca was already asleep in her bed, where she lay on her back with the bolster between her legs; big, fat, honest, clean, easy-going, very religious and never having ceased to miss or pray daily for her husband, dead, now, twenty years.   In his room, alone, the matador who was ill lay face down on his bed with his mouth against a handkerchief. Now, in the deserted dining room, Enrique tied the last knot in the napkins that bound the knives to the chair legs and lifted the chair. He pointed the legs with the knives on them forward and held the chair over his head with the two knives pointing straight ahead, one on each side of his head. “It’s heavy,” he said. “Look, Paco. It is very dangerous. Don’t do it.” He was sweating.

Dense and obtuse

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