Bencheikh notes a decline in the level of discourse from erudite discussion to shallow divertissement: Poetry becomes for most of them [ sc. the scribes] an exercise in style, an agreeable occupation that lends itself to the most diverse occasions. It is the mode of communication par excellence, the mainstay of a culture; it reveals all of the attitudes these men take towards existence. But, what it gains in terms of sociocultural expression, it loses in terms of artistic exploration. Practiced too frequently as a habit and in the most banal circumstances, it dilutes itself in [its] daily [use] and is saved only by taking on the forms of mannerism. 19