November 17, 2008, 12:10 pm by Brett

Visit iTunes U to listen!

, 1:57 am by Ian

The final reading response podcast is up. I feel sad and hollow knowing that this is the last of a bi-weekly tradition that started in… August?

Man, looking back at the first part of the semester and now, it all seems so vastly different. Okay, I realize most of that was due to the room change, but really, I think the new room changed everything. The setting obviously, but also the classroom dynamic, and even the interactions. Changing rooms was such a clear fork in the road, I wonder what it would have been like if we didn’t migrate to our little technology-filled room, complete with comfy chairs equipped with lumbar support.

Well actually, I liked how the semester turned out so much, I think I would rather savor the mystery. But still…

November 12, 2008, 11:16 am by Brett

*sigh* 

Being that there are only two Reading Responses left, and I must podcast one of them, this will be my final reading response posted as a blog. In lieu of such sad times, this response will be a review of my experience in our Senior Seminar with the Good Captain Doctor J-Bo and all my scurvy ‘mates.

If there is one thing this class has taught me, it is that rhetoric is a blast. What made this class so fun? Was it the logos the Good Captain Doctor imparted on us? Perhaps it was the ethos of all ye scurvy ‘mates: the irreverent antics of our First Mate A.W., the seriously seriousness of our Powder Monkey Robert, or the quality contributions of the Quartermaster Angela, the Boatswain Ian, or the rest of my fellow Deck Hands? 

This class had a profoundly pathetic appeal on me due to everyone’s contribution. As we boarded the Kairos 4320 every Monday & Wednesday to journey across our rhetorical seas, we learned about rhetoric’s history, impact, and importance in humanities travels through time and the cosmos. We learned about each other and how we feel rhetoric influences our individual lives. We learned about the artistic proofs, and after some trouble the five canons of rhetoric. We mapped the possible rhetorical aspects of the world’s cultures. We discovered all these things and each other through these blogs on the super world wide web of information that’s kind of like a highway where we travel the open unconjested road because everyone else is in gridlock traffic on the off-ramp leading to sex.

Yes indeed, this class has been near and dear to my heart all semester. Hands down, it has taken the cake as my favorite class in my two years here at Georgia State. No, I am not saying that for those illustrious brownie points. I am serious. This class has been a blast, and it has been a pleasure sailing these seas with each and everyone of you. 

May you all take your rhetoric to make the best of yourselves. 

Yo, ho, haul together,
hoist the Colors high…
Heave ho, thieves and beggars,
never say we die.

Arrrrrghghghhgghhh!

, 2:03 am by Ian

Hallo class. My second reading response podcast is up.

November 9, 2008, 3:50 pm by Ian

The reading response podcast is up. I sorta sound like an old-timey prospector. Also, I initially misread the title as Presidential Rhetoric, and so my first take of the podcast was a rambling rant of how Buck doesn’t talk about one iota of presidential rhetoric and that she’s a hack.

Anyway. Enjoy.

November 4, 2008, 2:57 pm by Brett

Not always . . . but maybe this time.

CNN has posted an article on their website about the polls of Dixville, New Hampshire. They have traditionally opened at 12:00 am on election day. Due to their small population, they are always first to close. This year, Barack Obama took 15 of the 21 Votes, ousting McCain and his 6 votes. While the small New Hampshire town is not a “bellwether” for the state or the nation, it is telling that the town leaned Democratic for the first time since 1968.

Another set of polls opening and closing minutes after midnight in Harts’s Location, New Hampshire broke its Republican loyalty as well. According to politickernh.com, Hart’s Locations’s awarded Obama 17 and McCain 10. Surprisingly, Ron Paul took 2 harmless votes from McCain.

Regardless of the results of these 50 votes, we must wait on the rest of the nation’s returns. The success of the candidate’s rhetorical tactics can hardly be reflected in two small towns.

November 3, 2008, 9:36 am by Brett

The following is a list of the canons of American rhetoric:

Delivery - This includes how one dresses. Fashion seems to shape our opinions more and more these days. It can make or break a movie star on the red carpet. Proficiency at reading a TelePrompTer is also a must 

Smear Tactics - Politics and public life seems to be less about the issues and more about how one can slam an opponents character. 

Run With a Cool Crowd - Unfortunately the popularity contest doesn’t stop after high school. In the world of fame, regardless if it is Hollywood or the Capitol, people give or take respect depending on who is rubbing elbows with whom.

Hire Speechwriters - Success in the public sphere is not determined by one’s own wit or savvy with a pen.

Marketing - The better one is able to spread the word (even when selling sand to a beach (with the right type of marketing it’s possible)), the wider the sphere of influence and persuasion becomes. This usually requires deep pockets.

– I know it sounds like I am not a fan of American rhetoric, that’s because it’s true. I am frustrated with the fact that there ever was a separation of logic from rhetoric. It is like a peanut butter jelly sandwich without bread. Rhetoric without logic leads to the canons I have listed above. This is why I propose a return to teaching progymnasamta from kindergarten through high-school. It is a lofty goal, but it will reap rewards for generations.

November 2, 2008, 4:21 pm by Tiana

I believe I have this book that the piece from Deborah Tannen comes from. It is used the in the English 3080 class. Anyway, as I read the section about arguments it really made me think about the ways that I generally argue with people I know and then the methods that I use with people that I do not know.

I can say that it is true that with the people I know, I tend to wait until I gear the weakest point that they can make and then step all over it. While it is an unconscious effort to help me win the argument I guess it is a natural part of trying to prove myself right.

When I argue with people who do not know me or sometimes with people I know, I tend to use more relevant facts. The more number I know, the better. I feel that the facts are the most important part of my argument; while with know people (friends and family) I tend to hit them where the emotion starts. I know it sounds wrong but it is easier to appeal to the pathos of people I already know.

I also considered the point where she talked about how people try to demoralize a person before they are willing to praise that person. I find this to be very true. There are many times when a new celebrity takes light or even an average person who is to receive an award, where an individual finds the need to tell everyone about the person’s faults rather than to focus on the good that person has recently achieved. It sucks.

It is unfortunate that it seems to be human nature to try to tear down an individual who is attempting to succeed or just otherwise a person who is making a valid argument that might refute the other’s calim.

October 27, 2008, 12:20 am by Ian

Reading through the Kennedy chapters on the various and ancient forms of rhetoric, I wonder what future generations may think of our modern rhetoric. I’m talking about far, far into the future where there is more conjecture than concrete fact. What I’m thinking about is a scenario where some space men go back to Old Earth and dig up a Newsweek, Kenneth Burke’s Dramatism and Development, and a YouTube video of a Michelle Malkin guest-hosted O’Riley Factor. What conjectures would they be able to construct out of our Western Rhetoric? Would the term Western Rhetoric even be a viable label?

 

I wonder if future theorists and thinkers of rhetoric would be able to break apart and deconstruct the way we argued. I wonder if they would find our form of rhetoric to be strange and difficult. For one thing, the sheer number of instances of rhetoric would be terrifying to research and label. For ancient Indian rhetoric, we base their idea of rhetoric on holy texts, edicts, and religious teachings. For us, would they be able to distinguish our modes of rhetoric? Considering that our society and its materials are able to persevere relatively intact, I must say that future rhetoricians may have a field day trying to find canons and reasons for rhetoric in magazines, rhetoric in bills, rhetoric as a talking head, rhetoric in a text message, rhetoric in an email, rhetoric in newspapers, rhetoric of our multitude of literary criticism, etc. In that everything is an argument and that there is so many types of rhetoric under that umbrella of Western Rhetoric, I wonder what we would want future rhetoricians to take away from our present rhetorical stylings. Interruption? Name-plus-occupation pathos? Talking over someone?

 

And it’s not just the many-headed forms of rhetoric in a multi-media culture, but would rhetoricians of the future distinguish rhetoric from the States from rhetoric from France? And within the States, could they see rhetoric stylings differences from that of the north and the south?

 

I am not sure what the exact point of this reading response was, but I guess as a human and as a rhetorician who reads about ancient rhetoric, I just want to know how our style of rhetoric will be seen and construed in the far future.

October 26, 2008, 2:09 pm by Brett

My reading response is posted on iTunes U. Track 33, titled, “Reading Response 27 Oct.” Thanks for listening!

http://tiny.cc/kKL9C

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