Week 11 Blog Post

nobody’s going to save you. no one’s going to cut you down, cut the thorns thick around you. no one’s going to storm the castle walls nor kiss awake your birth, climb down your hair, nor mount you onto the white steed. there is no one who will feed the yearning. face it. you will have to do, do it yourself. - Gloria Anzaldua

Anzaldua uses anaphora (nobody/no one's/no one's) in order to convey the message that one can only free themselves through whatever means (but probably spiritual and mental). It doesn't seem to be an exact usage, but the idea she conveys with the similar words have a profound effect. This usage also denotes a pattern. In this quote, Anzaldua uses the metaphor of an archetypical princess who waits for her prince charming in order to tell her audience that we ultimately have to save ourselves. The last sentence seems to be an instance of of an implied chiasmus. (it) you will have to do, do it yourself.

Forget it, Jake. It's Chiasmustown.

So, I thought I’d take a chiasmus poll, because I was having a rather chiasmus-inspired evening last night.

I am currently in production for Sweeney Todd (Opens April 12!Hi, my name’s S. Hamless Plug.Free for Metro Students!) and I had a profound moment of philosophical-theatre-tacit-persuasion (merged words!). But the eternal, burning question remains: chiasmus? or -shmiasmus?

Stage Managers:
Represent tech to the actors and the actors for tech.

And later, on Facebook, I posted a chiasmus-themed status update:

To chiasmus or not to chiasmus, that is the question. But that is not a chiasmus.

The majority of my friend-base is made up of non-English-majors, and therefore give me blank stares when I use terms even as common as "rhetoric" so I wasn't expecting much of a response to this one. But to my incredible delight, a friend of mine from my hometown posted almost immediately in response:

Nope, just antithetical parallelism.

... Oh, and if given the option to chiasmus, to chiasmus is always the option.

A Glimpse of American Indian Writing

I found the following sentences in an article I had to read for my Eng. 3510 class. The article is called, Rhetorical Sovereignty: What Do American Indians Want From Writing? by Scott Richard Lyons. Overall, this article discusses the discourse of writing from an American Indian point of view; what it was like to learn how to write for American Indians after "The White Men" came to America and took over the land. The following sentences consist of both a quote from Standing Bear, A Native American whoexplains what it was like for Native Americans to become "civilized" and educated, and an explanation from Lyons who puts the "new technology" of writing into perspective and how American Indians would have to change everything they knew about language and representation of symbols:

"'Although we were yet wearing our Indian clothes...we were marched into a school room, where we were each given a pencil and slate. We were seated at single desks. We soon discovered that the pencils made marks on the slate' (Sioux 136.) Pulling thier blankets over thier heads to conceal both slate and the marks they would make upon them, a child's act of modestly, the children's first impulse was to draw scenes from their recently departed home life- 'a man on a pony chasing a buffalo, or a boy shooting birds in a tree, or it might be one of our Indian games-' and when finished, 'we dropped our blankets down on the seat and marched up to the teacher with our slates to show what we had drawn' (Sioux 136). Picture these children withdrawing into their blankets with a curious new technology, concealing thier texts from each other and the teacher until just the right moment, then emerging fromt thier blankets proud and eager to share the fruits of thier labor. They were, at least until this point, the same children, and the marks they made were earnest representations of their lives. Shortly, thereafter, however, this same technology would be used to change them..." (Lyons, 1128).

I like this whole passage and the ones following it in the article, because Lyons does a great job in using his reasearch and information to help us understand how the Native Americans' world was completely turned upside down and uses Standing Bears voice to help convey how learning to become "civilized" and educated was more of a nightmare to him and his people than it was anything else. I also like Lyons use of quotes to really capture the point he is trying to make on how Rhetorical Sovereginty is one: interpreted completely different today than it was in the past, and two: was used as a way to force Indians to make treaties with the "White Men" yet, later found the "White Men" betrayed everything they had agreed to. Lyons also uses running style and hypotaxis to make his writing concise and vivid, as well as, helping readers to understand the children's understanding of writing before they were stripped of their identify and made "educated". It is interesting to see how the discourse of writing has been forced upon Native Americans and having an education was not something they could appreciate in thier situation. Therefore, this piece really made me think about how I view writing and how it affects people all over the world. It also makes me fell sorry for the American Indians to be seen as "animals" so to speak, and be forced to live, speak, and wright the "right" way according the "White Men", our ancestors. It's kind of emotional and hearbreaking.

Spring Break Post

"O'Reilly Producer Interviews Spring Break Students on Obama: Hilarity Ensues"

This is the title to a video from the BIll O'Reilly show where the producer went to Florida to interview college students on what grade they would give Obama in certain areas of his presidency. The title is what captivates me. It drew me in. It was the combination of students plus spring break plus politics equals hilarity that made this work. The title covers so much. And the elements that the author chose to include seem to confirm that it will be funny like the it promises after the colon. If the title had just been something like "O'Reilly Producer Interviews Students on Obama" then it wouldn't have been so tempting. The video could be funny or could not be funny. Audiences wouldn't even know if the subject matter was supposed to be funny or not. Just by adding Spring Break" into the title, audiences would get a feel that they will see some crazy stuff since we all know what college students do during spring break in florida: drink. And being intoxicated while trying to answer serious questions is always comical. The bit "Hilarity Ensues" I think evokes suspense as well. Saying "Hilarious" wouldn't have been as formal, nor as suspenseful. Saying hilarity ensued conjures a visual of all hell breaking loose, like saying "chaos ensued." So I thought the author of this title was on his or her rhetorical game that day.

O'Reilly Producer Asks Spring Break Students to Grade Obama: Hilarity Ensues

In my imitation I just followed the rhetorical structure the author used; however, I thought pointing out that they were asked to grade him was more accurate than what the original title states. Using 'interview' seems too formal for this situation where he goes on the beach and selects students at random, asking them how they would grade Obama on gas prices. I think using 'asks' instead of 'interviews' would draw more readers in because it takes more of the formality out and gives it a more entertaining feel.

"who burned cigarette holes in their arms protesting the narcotic tobacco haze of Capitalism"

"They'll kill you just to take your feathers". 

No clue what this exactly is in reference to or what it truly is meant to mean.  It was said by Adawee The Wind.  I think he is talking about Colonialism and Imperialism and taking without restraint, thought, or care in general.  I like it.  Low style, some metaphor, simple period, and it reminds me of Howl, which is the greatest poem ever written.

English

"English is the only language that mugs others and rummages in their pockets for spare grammar"

A friend of mine told me this. Personally I like the sentence because it perfectly describes English as a language since we seem to have a lot of bits and pieces of other languages floating around in our own. The sentence is hypotactic in nature since the full thought isn't finished until the very end of the sentence.

Week: Mar 13--Mar. 20

My post comes from Susan Carroll's The Courtesan. I wanted to talk about her style via grammar because I think she is one of the best I've seen at it, so I'm going to use a few examples.

First, the way she uses ellipses is a rhetorical strategy of hers in an attempt to make the reader go along with the character at that time. She tries to bring the reader into the same actions and frame of thought using grammar. She uses an ellipsis in dialogue when a character trails off, when a character trails off in thought, or in exposition to create suspense.

Suspense finally resolved: In the book, one of the main characters has gone through a lot of crap to find out the name of a man who attacked his love interest, and finally, she delivers the name to the character and readers: "His shadow enemy now had both a face and a name...Danton."

Trail-off in dialogue: "Ask me for anything else and I will be happy to keep my promise, but as it is..." She trails off because she's bracing herself for Remy's anger.

Suspense: The main female character is the company of the man that attacked her years ago and she doesn't know it. Added to that, the drink is poisoned "It--it is all right," she rasped. "As you said, it is a foul night. Perhaps you should pour me another drink. Just one..." This ends the chapter and the next chapter goes on to the female character's hero, so readers are left wondering what is happened.

I don't think these ellipses are necessary to create these rhetorical situations, but I love that she does use them in the manner that she does. When I see the ellipses at the end of chapter, the sight of it just fills me with more suspense. It's a visual teaser to add to the mental teaser. Also, in dialogue, the ellipses let's me know it's a trail-off and therefore leaves no room for confusion, allowing Carroll to mimic real conversations that are choppy and scatter-brained, like real life, without having to explain any of that. For instance, she doesn't have to say, "Gabrielle trailed off" the ellipsis she used says it all. The same goes for her em dash use.

She uses this to signify cut-offs or interruptions in dialogue or in thought.

"This never was any place for you--"
"I saw Gabrielle." Miri cut him off. "She was crying."

In this example, Carroll tells in her dialogue that Remy was cut off, but by using the em dash instead of a period or comma, I already knew that. A comma would be too weak to represent an interruption, and a period could not represent one at all because a period represents an ending. So, I like that she uses em dashes for these reasons. Also, the ellipsis would be too weak as well to represent an interruption. It's perfect for those trail-offs she uses them for. Carroll also uses em dashes when she is narrating in third-person about what a character is doing or thinking and an interruption occurs; like, someone comes crashing through the door. By using these grammar marks for the reasons she does, I think she captures real-life instances of trail-offs and interruptions. Her prose in these scenarios flows well because of these grammar choices. Some authors would chose not have as many trail-offs and interruptions or would stumble around representing them with words, but she does very well with her grammar marks. See, grammar can be stylistic and say so much more than they're given credit for.

Picture people

Another forgotten post that sat in my journal...week of Mar.6 - Mar. 13

The Picture People (a portrait company) sent me a card for my son's first birthday that said, "You know what makes a party. The presents. The cakes. The giggles. The friends. But it's the memories that make it last. Now you can keep those moments forever with beautiful, professional photography that celebrates every birthday long after it has passed." And that's exactly how it was written.

This marketing attempt captivated me because, well, it worked. I wasn't thinking about having my son's portraits done at a studio before this card. I was just going to do them myself, but once I got this card I thought, Well I can't do them as good as they can. And they got all those cute props and backgrounds, and they do make a good point: the birthday can last forever with portraits...yada yada. What made this work so well, is the structural repetition that drove the image of a party into my head: "The presents. The cakes. The giggles." Then, they reminded me of how those all go away once the party is over, but memories, those last. And of course I wanted to keep my son's first birthday party going. Now that I saw professionals assuring me they could do that I wanted them to do it, no  longer trusting myself to do it. What if I don't get good enough pictures? They definitely will. So, it was a good marketing tool they used. Damn marketing people's rhetoric, making me spend money.

Presents, cakes, giggles and friends all disappear once the party is over, but memories last and pictures can capture those memories, letting the party live on through time.

In my imitation, I wanted to out-and-out say what they were saying, but still make the same point that convinced me.

News

Week Feb. 28-Mar 6.--I wrote this post in my journal but forgot to post it on here, eek!

"Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't."

This was posted by one of my friends on Facebook, and it captivated me because for one it's true, and two, I liked the contrast within the sentence; and that's what makes it work. These one-liners deliver the punch in so little space like they do because the author understands how to get a point across in little room and make it stick with the reader by providing that strong contrast: good evening news and negative news delivery.

News broadcasting is full of anchors that smile and act like everything is rainbows and butterflies as they talk about robberies and bombings.

My imitation sought to imitate the contrast and irony as the original did.

High Style

"Nobody likes science. You can tell by the fact that they teach it in school. There aren't any high school courses in pizza, pot smoking or car chases." - Joel Stein 2009

Look at that crescendo of syntactic complexity.  You have the subject-verb-object simplicity, then the same formula with a bit more, and the wow! look at that comma.  Should there be another though? Oh E.B. White help me! Truss? Anyone!?  Really though who cares, we all know it doesn't matter.  I like the low-style, straight to the point period-ness, and the subject matter.  Somebody probably like science, but EVERYBODY likes to smoke pot, eat pizza, and lead a car chase!  What if we Adios-panned it:

Nobody likes science, you can tell by the fact they teach it in school, there aren't any high school school courses in pizza...

Doesn't seem to be right... but I think it could be done this way.  I think the freighting idea is more at work.  Science sucks - here's how you know - here's how you really know.  Yes?

One for the Clause

"Tears are curious things, for like earthquakes and puppet shows they can occur at any time, without any warning and without any good reason." - Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events

Lemony Snicket is one for dependent clauses, repetition and nonsensical connections. I like this sentence because it's representative of his style - a term which here means the way he expresses himself through writing. He often repeats the same sentence structures, dependent clauses and even entire sentences verbatim. Sometimes writers use this technique and try to hide it because it's bad to be repetitive, but they want to give you some hint of connection. Snicket makes his repetition - a term which here means to say something over and over again - completely obvious by overdoing it. The effect is different because the technique does not assume the reader's inability to make the connection on his/her own. He does it almost as an aside to let us know that he knows that we know while making fun of the characters that don't know. His writing carries the same wink-wink nudge-nudge exclusivity as Truss's. He wants us to be a part of his club, and he accomplishes that by stylistically assuming we already are.

Something Blue by Emily Giffin

This is a passage from Emily Giffin's Something Blue, the sequel to Something Borrowed.  I particulary like this passage, along with many others, because of how Giffin writes her details. Her interesting use of combining periodic sentences and running sentences, as well as, her use of verb style helps to explain the scene of what is happening to the character. As she enters a room full of people, who are throwing her a suprise baby shower, Giffin writes the experience of being caught off guard well as she creates vivid imagery for the reader in order to understand how one minute she was thinking about the meeting she was about to enter and the next she was faced with a rush of chaos:

"And there before was the entire staff of Carolyn Morgan and Associates, all packed into the room, yelling 'Suprise!' and hurling thier heartiest congratulations at me from all directions. A gigantic blue box from Tiffany perched on one end of the lacquered table. An ivory frosted cake with pink gel writing sat temptingly at the other. My heart raced. Talk about your audiences! Talk about your drama!"

I love how Giffin writes this scene. It's almost as if you, the reader, are there in that moment and you can see all of these things appearing in front of you. Giffin does this a lot throughout her writing. She has a creative way of drawing the reader in and making you feel like you are the one going through the experiences of the characters.

Imitaion: This is not going to be nearly as good, but I will do my best:

I began to read my notes and prepared for the tidious meeting about to take place. As I opened the door and flipped the light I suddenly found my notes flying out of my hands. My heart began to race and butterflies began to form in my stomach as the entire staff of Carolyn Morgan and Associates shouted, "Suprise!" Before I knew it three girls were running towards me, flinging thier arms open. The room was filled with streamers and balloons, pink and blue linens covered the tables with pink and blue napkins folded so delicately. A small blue box with an elegant ribbion sat on one end of the table while. A three tiered blue-iced cake with pink gel writing sat on the other, calling my name. Talk about a suprise! Talk about your staff! Talk about your chaos!

From Sandra Hill's Rough and Ready

"… Her long hair, still wet from the shower, had been combed down her back in a wet swath. Hilda was sitting on the floor, her round, wet boobs still wet from the shower’s water. She dried off the water with a towel, which then became wet."
This passage is notable because it's hilarious. Really, it's a part of a romance novel, which I'm sure most of us know, is ridiculous. The author's usage of the words "water" and "wet" is redundant. I didn't put up the whole passage (which I found on Tumblr), because it was too long, but it's chock-ful of comedy gold.

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!"

-William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act V, Scene 5

Oh, God, I'm using Macbeth again (I'm writing a sci-fi novel adaptation of the play, so it's on my brain a lot, especially when I have time like I did today to work on it a little).

But look at this line! It's gorgeous! All those tacit persuasion patterns. The diácope of Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow; the alliteration: petty pace, day to day, dusty death; the natural isocolon of his meter (10 syllables, 11 syllables, 10 syllables, 11 syllables, 11 syllables); the epizeúxis (emphatic repetition) of Out, out; the polýptoton of tomorrow, day, and yesterdays.

What would it be like without all that lovely textual juice?

Tomorrow and the day after that and so on creep along slowly until the end of time, and yesterday and all the time before that is just getting us fools one step closer to death. Life gets snuffed out like a candle with a short wick.

Booooring. Thanks for making the English language sound awesome, Will.

Cane

"If you walked up the Dixie Pike most any time of the day, you'd be most like to see her resting listless-like on the railing of her borch, back propped against a post, head tilted a little forward because a nail in the porch post just where her head came which for some reason or other she never took the trouble to pull out."

I love this sentence. Maybe it's the hypotaxis. Maybe it's the complete disregard for so many grammatical rules. But probably it's the grace with which Toomer pulls this off, how easy he makes it look. It's almost dialect, but not quite. Still it has all the implications of dialect, like a verbal texture almost. I don't have a mimicking sentence just yet, but I'll work on it. 

I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise.

Here is a speech that I quoted in class.

"My friends,

"I had not intended to discuss this controversial subject at this particular time. However, I want you to know that I do not shun controversy. On the contrary, I will take a stand on any issue at any time, regardless of how fraught with controversy it might be. You have asked me how I feel about whiskey. All right, here is how I feel about whiskey.

"If when you say whiskey you mean the devil's brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster, that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally take the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean the evil drink that topples the Christian man and woman from the pinnacle of righteous, gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, and despair, and shame and helplessness, and hopelessness, then certainly I am against it.

"But;

"If when you say whiskey you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and laughter on their lips, and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer; if you mean the stimulating drink that puts the spring in the old gentleman's step on a frosty, crispy morning; if you mean the drink which enables a man to magnify his joy, and his happiness, and to forget, if only for a little while, life's great tragedies, and heartaches, and sorrows; if you mean that drink, the sale of which pours into our treasuries untold millions of dollars, which are used to provide tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitiful aged and infirm; to build highways and hospitals and schools, then certainly I am for it.

"This is my stand. I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise."

This speech was given on April 4, 1952 by Judge Noah "Soggy" Sweat. He uses only three pieces of punctuation, the period, comma, and semi-colon; each for specific reasons:

Semi-Colon - helps steady the pace because the pause created by a comma would be to short and that of the period too long. It also helps to separate the lists with lists. It also gives the meaning a sense of less permanence.

Comma - shows distinct but short pauses in the flow of speech. They are what separates the mini-lists held within the larger larger lists. These also have a sense of forgiveness and lack of permanence.

Period - Used sparingly and only for emphasis and to finish thoughts and lends a sense of permanence to the statements it is applied to.

He also makes effective use of euphony and cacophony with in the speech. Cacophony emphasizes the chaos the evil side of whiskey makes; euphony on the other hand lends itself to the flowing nature of the good contained by whiskey.

Within his last two sentences he makes use of great tacit persuasion; "I will not retreat from it. I will not compromise." are repetitive phrases and while I had not heard of this speech prior to being shown it in class I know those lines or lines similar to them. They are memorable and they make a clear statement about his argument.

Amended to Reflect Reflection not Eschatological Politics

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging
the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress
of grievances.

I think that I expected some noun style but this isn't really so.  It is a bit off though, not really verb style.  How about, "Congress shall not make a law in respect to a religious establishment, or prohibit such an establishment's  free exercise of religion".  Is that different?  There is certainly a periodic thang thang going on.  No chiasmus or isocolon for sure. But who needs a stylistically ornate government document?  Is there a Bureau of Style Ornamentation in Legislative Documents?  Middle style?  Or is it High?  I don't think it is Low.  respecting, prohibiting, exercise, petition sound Latinate (some are) but might be Frenchinate.  Oh well, whatever, never mind.

If ya scared, go to church.
If ya mad go, to the polls.

Blaam! Isocolon! (By the way, have you noticed to lovely letter O appearing in this word, more or less separated by one other letter in a sort of representation of itself? Look! (i)so-co-lo(n).  Magnificent.

A Tired Tool

From William Gibson's Neuromancer:
"A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading nightly."

I picked this line out a while back, only to file it into the back of my mind while I worked on my author analysis. But as I return to it, I find this sentence underwelming.

You see this structure a lot, and it's because of that dependant clause on its end. It's conditional in function, a modifier for the entire sentence. In  this sentence, it pairs the progressive verb with the time period in the main clause. In others, it's a hypotactic addendum to the primary source, it slows the reading if placed near the beginning and gives weight if added on to the end.

It works well for how simple it is. [Main thought], [connected thought] [verb]ing. It's just, I feel I've seen it everywhere, and there are better ways of writing this same sentence. There's a lot given to context, in the case of Neuromancer, it's atmousphere for the lead's world and is supposed to be brief. But if you want your condition to be experienced more than an afterthought, giving it its own sentence would be beneficial.

But another point of interest about this sentence: it is the first recorded instance of the word "cyberspace" ever. At least, Gibson is attributed with coining it, and Neuromancer is his first novel.

A Passage From Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart

Here is a passage from Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. This is one of my favorite passages because his use of verbs and adjectives really draws the readers into the nervousness of the murder and gives the reader the same nervous feeling as the murder describes his every move in the attack of the old man.

"It was the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage. But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime the hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and louder every instant. The old man't terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I say, louder every moment!-do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous: so I am."

In this passage, Poe's use of verb style captures the readers attention and draws them into the eerie feeling that takes place within the murder's plan. His verbs such as beating, scarcely breathed, motionless, hellish tattoo, quicker, louder, and terror are unique and are used to draw the reader into the story. Poe also uses the periodic style in this passage and throughout his whole short story to build the intensity and thrill in the murdering of the old man. The characters thoughts and plan is short and to the point. Poe does not write out the     character's whole thinking process in advance. Rather he writes the feelings and plan of the character as it is happening so that the reader's interest will climax along with the story.

From Toni Morrison's Sula

“The black people watching her would laugh and rub their knees, and it would be easy for the valley man to hear the laughter and not notice the adult pain that rested somewhere under the eyelids, somewhere under their head rags and soft felt hats, somewhere in the palm of the hand, somewhere behind the frayed lapels, somewhere in the sinew’s curve" (page 4)
Morrison's usage of "somewhere" in this passage is an example of isocolon.

The Guy from Will & Grace

"Flight attendants always ask, 'Are you someone famous?' I say, 'I look a little like [the] guy from Will & Grace.' And that's always what it is."

Better him than the guy from Dharma and Greg!  (Or are they the same person?)  And that's TWO shows I do not watch (or that is what I tell people... (I really don't)).  The tacit persuasion in this Tweet is that it implies Mr Stein is not famous.  And maybe he isn't except that he basically is (not Brad Pitt famous, but guy from Will and Grace famous).  There is also a not-very-interesting use of parataxis that implies this situation arises often, that his response and then the "that's always what it is" that is the end result of the situation, all implies an equality of importance.  The question, "you famous?", his reply, "nah", and the result, "that's what it is", are all on the same plane (no pun intended!), or playing field.  (Parenthesis!)

I feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth.

William Faulkner

I love this, Faulkner is so funny! this line was said by a character named Dewey Dell, which when translated means "Moist Valley". This line is Faulkner trying to scream to his readers about Dewey Dell's ample and thriving fertility! It is even more intriging that at this piont in the story the reader is starting to realize that Dewey Dell may be pregnant. The way he says so much without saying it...confusing the reader at first maybe but revealing secrets once he is understood...he masters the art of purposeful confusion. I envy this talent!