What do people mean when they use the word pretentious? Why

it's not about literal errors of writing style, it's about the author's inner state and how it might be reflected in writing style

Fraudulent intelligence.
See, even my answer was pretentious because it's complete bullshit, but my very act of attempting to define it without knowledge defined it.

>>9538614
>>9538615
So it's about suspicions the reader has about the writer?
What triggers these suspicions?

>>9538626
To put on pretensions is to act in a way that is specifically intended to impress. It has nothing to do with the readers suspicions and everything to do with the writers intent. If the writer was earnest no matter what they write it is not pretentious and vice versa.
Writing to show how smart you are is pretentious for example. Most people sadly either have never learned what the word means or are so simple minded that they can't comprehend that smart/cultured/sophisticated isn't something that someone has to put airs on about.

Pretentious writing should be that which is tryingto look "deep" while actually saying very little or saying something obvious and cheap. For example, Coelho's Alchemist is a pretentious book. Or, it is pretentious when a writer references philosophy or an another piece of art but the reference doesn't really contribute to the overall point and instead is supposed to make the writer look well-read and smart.

To idiots, though, anything that they associate with actual intellectual ambition is pretension. If you read War and Peace you are pretentious in their eyes. I've seen people call Mike Oldfield's album "Tubular Bells" because it's instrumental and he didn't denote any shorter individual tracks, so you have two 20-minute blocks of music. It doesn't fit into the common pop-music mold so it's automatically bad and pretentious.

Both meanings are used, but by different sorts of people.

>>9538605
It simply means contrived in a way that attempts to commit social/intellectual imposture. Some people use it liberally as to describe anything sophisticated and/or beyond their undersranding. Such an accusation should be followed by an explanation and any criticism that is self indulgent enough to be satisfied with the sole utterance of that word is pretentious in itself and should be discarded as it shuts down conversation.

>>9538605
To have obviously unstudied ideas-- about people, subjects, whatever. And to air them, usually with stupid confidence.

Pretension is the pretence of intelligence, knowledge or depth.

>>9538605
I believe it actually stems from the word pretend. It means someone is insincere, posturing, acting a certain way that is not honest because of some ulterior motive. Usually just to come across in a way they are actually not.

>>9538969
I just read the Alchemist and I didn't find it pretentious. I don't think he was writing the book with the intention of other people finding it incredibly intellectual, quite the opposite, I think he was trying to write a simple and accessible novel that would inspire hope in others. The book was obviously marketed as being a fable about following your dreams. As for the writing itself, I thought it was charming and well composed. The only way you could view the book as being pretentious, is if you thought the book was supposed to be a serious philosophical discourse on the true meaning of life, and while that element is present throughout the novel, the intended effect of the book is much simpler than that, and I think the author and his writing are aware of this.