This is probably true. I'm just saying that would be about the only way the writer's parenthetical "literary aid" worse. Seeing "(flying pigs)" was irritating to me, as well.
It reminds me of an article in our state's tourist publication, about a slave who wrote poetry - specializing in love poems for college students to woo their girlfriends. The article's author kept providing definitions of words the slave used in his poems and letters, even though the man didn't even learn to write until he was in his 50's; someone had to copy down what he composed orally.
Education has really declined!