In this article, I offer an elaboration of performativity—amaterialist, naturalist, and posthumanist elaboration—that allows matter itsdue as an active participant in the world’s becoming, in its ongoing “intra-activity.”4It is vitally important that we understand how matter matters.
Barad aims to argue why and how "matter matters" in the world and why language has been given too much power in the development of society at the expense of matter.
Although thc standard models of rhetorical situation can tell us much about the elements that are involved in a particular situation, these same models can also mask the fluidity of rhetoric.
It seems like Edbauer is attempting to reverse what Quintillian did many years ago by compartmentalizing rhetoric, which in his mind would be a better way to understand it and practice it. However, rhetoricians have since argued that this has been problematic to the field, with which I think Edbauer would agree. In order to display a truer form of rhetoric, Edbauer wants to create a model that will showcase all of its aspects.
at risk.
hyperlink supposedly provided strong supporting evidence for a claim, but again, the text fails to provide any useful information
natureofthosecontextsinwhichspeakersorwriterscreaterhetoricaldiscourse:
We have discussed "context" itself in depth in this class, but I like thinking about the "nature" of context itself. Bitzer argues that a rhetorical situation is the nature of the context in which rhetorical discourse is created, and indicates that he will explore more deeply what exactly a rhetorical situation is.
rhetoricaladdressgivesexistencetothesituation;onthecon-trary,itisthesituationwhichcallsthediscourseintoexistence.
A situation determines the necessity of discourse; discourse does not give existence to a situation. In other words, proper rhetoric comes about as a result of a situation and is required to address certain problems, questions, etc. You don't speak just to speak, in order to engage rhetoric appropriately there must be a prior reason to do so.
current globalclimate models are not fit for the purpose of attributing the causes of recentwarming or for predicting global or regional climate change on timescales of decades to centuries, with any high level of confidence.
Itis an empirical fact that the Earth’s climate has warmed overall for at least the past century.However, we do not know how much humans have contributed to this warming and there is disagreement among scientists as to whether human-caused emissionsof greenhouse gasesisthe dominant cause ofrecentwarming, relative to natural causes.
Parallel universes then, is an inappropriate metaphor; perpendicu~ far universes is perhaps a more accurate visual description.
Suggests again that black and white rhetorics are not completely separate, but instead intersect and therefore influence one another.
Black rhetoric is not utterly divorced from white rhetoric.
This is an important point to remember—just as context and culture influence rhetoric, so too do diverging rhetorics influence one another and incorporate aspects generally considered a part of a particular rhetorical tradition.
I 1say that I know Jane Austen's intentions with the sentence, at least in its main lines. But can I really call what I know in this sense knowledge? It is clearly subjective, it cannot be proved by any deductive chain of reasoning or by any ordinary laboratory experiment, and it is obviously doubtable both in the sense that many readers will not see it and can doubt it honestly and in the sense that anyone who is determined to doubt what cannot be demonstrated can say he doubts it.
This sums up the beauty of literature--the different interpretations that each reader can glean from what the author writes. Booth argues that this is not knowledge, because it is subjective to each individual who reads and interprets the material; knowledge, Booth says, should be more widely accepted and generally uncontested.
t the goal of all thought and argument is to emulate the purity and objec-tivity and rigor of science, in order to protect oneself from the errors that passion and desire
Booth disagrees with the Enlightenment ideas of rhetoric, reflected by rhetoricians such as Astell and Hume, that the goal of rhetoric is to be as logical and rational as possible and disregard the importance of emotion, which he defines here as scientism.
hreshold of the existence of signs. Yet even here, things are not so simple, and the meaning of a term like "the existence of signs" requires elu-cidation. What does one mean when one say!, that there are signs, and that it is enough for there to be signs for there to be a statement? What spe-cial status should be given to that verb to be?
The existence of the statement proves that signs exist. However, they are not one in the same: first, one must determine what he or she means by "signs;" then, he or she must determine exactly the connotation of "to be" for something "to be a statement" or "to be a sign," because this distinction can change the meaning one assigns to what a statement or a sign is.
conditions necessary for the appear-ance of an object of discourse, the historical con-ditions required if one is to "say anything" about it, and if several people are to say different things about it, the conditions necessary if it is to exist in relation to other objects, if it is to establish with them relations of resemblance,
Foucault argues that rhetorical objects are contingent upon many conditions in order to enter the historical discussion. He also mentions that the time in history that a rhetorical object is being discussed influences what is said about it, because the cultural practices vary throughout time and influence those living in that time period and the way they think.
The completeness of any reference varies; it is more or less close and clear, it "grasps" its object in greater or Jes~ degree.
There is ambiguity within meaning in terms of the accuracy of certain symbols; e.g. some symbols are more accurate than others, but that is not necessarily clear at first glance. It must be studied and researched in order to determine what definition is the most accurate.
So that A may become non-A. But not merely by a leap from one state to the other. Rather, we must take A back into the ground of its existence, the logical substance that is its causal ancestor, and on to a point where it is con-substantial with non-A; then we may return, this time emerging with non-A instead.
The idea that in order to reinvent something, you must take it back to its basic form. Once it is in its basic form, you can better understand it; once you have an understanding of it, only then can you transform it into something else.
and if we consider that the same process must have gone on with the words of our mother tongue from childhood upwards, we shall clearly see that the earliest learnt and of-tenest used words, will, other things equal, call up images with less loss of time and energy than their later learnt synonyms.
Spencer states that the simple words we first learn as children are more efficient than the synonyms we learn later in life. There are less connections to be made with the original word that we use, and therefore using original language is more economic.
I rejoice, because I am persuaded that the rights of woman, like the rights of slaves, need only be examined to he un-derstood and asserted, even hy some of those, who arc now endeavoring lo smother the irre-pressible desire for mental and spiritual freedom which glows in the breast of many, who hardly dare to speak their sentiments.
She's ecstatic that women, like the slaves, will be able to fight for more rights and free themselves from oppression, even if that end result is still far down the road. At least people are starting to "wake up" to how subservient and lower class women are seen as in this time, even those most adamant on keeping those customs.
Until our inlercourse is purified by the \ \ forgelfulness of sex,-until we rise above the present low and sordid views which entwine themselves around our social and domestic inter-change of senliment and feelings, we never can derive lhat benefit from each other's society which it is the design of our Creacor that we should.
Grimke is saying that we will not live to our full potential, what God has destined for us, if we continue to live our lives in extreme separation between the sexes. Interesting point to suggest that society was living against what God manifested for humanity.
Wherefore, my respected friends, let us no longer talk of prejudice, till prejudice becomes extinct at home. Let us no longer talk of opposition, till we cease to oppose our own. For while these evils exist. to talk is like giving breath to the air, and labor to the wind.
Discussing prejudice ironically keeps it alive; it is only through action and relationships that prejudice can be phased out.
This sentiment is slightly concerning, though. If one never discusses how they may be prejudiced against, will they ever be able to recognize it and act appropriately? Can prejudice by solved through action and character alone?
f such women as are here described have t-.... once existed, be no longer astonished then, my s brethren and friends, that God at this eventful pe-5~ riod should raise up your own females to strive, ~' by their example both in public and private, to · assist those who arc endeavoring stop the strong current of prejudice that flows so profusely against us at present. No longer ridicule their ef-forts, it will be counted for sin. For God makes use of feeble means sometimes, to bring about his most exalted purposes.
Here, Stewart is arguing that in many past respected societies (Greek, Roman, Jewish), women were well-respected in a religious sense. As a reference to her earlier claim, that she was visited by the Holy Spirit and therefore had the temerity and the right to speak publicly on religious grounds. I do find it interesting that she said: "For God makes use of feeble means sometimes, to bring about his most exalted purposes." Her use of the word "feeble" is interesting, because it seems like she is ascribing to the expected gender roles/personalities, in that women are the "softer sex," and not perceived as strong or powerful.
Take us generally as a people, we arc neither lazy nor idle; and considering how Huie we have to excite or stimulate us, I am almost astonished that there arc so many industrious and ambitious ones to be found; although I acknowledge, with extreme sorrow, that there arc some who never were and never will be serviceable lo society. And have you not a similar class among your· selves'!
This is a nice summary of one of Stewart's main points: African Americans, of any sex, are just as capable, just as intelligent, and just as American as whites are. She concedes that there are some who are "idle," but counters that this does not just apply to African Americans, but also to whites (and by extension, all races). I wonder if this helped the reception of her speech: acknowledging shortcomings, but pointing out that these shortcomings apply to others as well, suggesting that all people are equal.
The cultural divide has two daunting consequences.
EFFECTS. (1) media careers come from college degrees; (2) political interns/congressional staffers come from college degrees. Discuss the implications here.
. One of the distinct pleasures in Pixar’s films is the pleasure of seeing the deepest of human struggles, timeless philosophical questions projected in and through remote forms of representation.
one of the pleasures of pixar movies
Pixar habitually leaves behind the playful in its adult address and gives sustained attention to dark musings traditionally minimized in the G-rated
giving attention to what would over wise in other "childrens movies" be minimized
Few sequences in contemporary cin-ema evoke the sense of isolation we get from the sequence where a panicked Jessie refuses to go back into “stor-age,
A scene evokes powerful emotional fears of isolation and perhaps a fear of the unknown.
WALL-E not only anthropomorphizes but Westernizes our robot hero and the loving sequences between WALL-E and the two loves of his life, EVE and his pet cockroach, are loaded with Disney’s signal sentimen-tality
This is what we as an audience are comfortable with.
the peculiar self-alienation—and particularly the alienation from the body—experienced by technologically immersed humans
Presenting objects with a utopian kinesthetic, they grant them just a bit more fluidity and less gravity than they have in reality. These films have therein shifted spectatorial possi-bilities—and enabled additional payoffs with repeat viewing (Belton 198).
The de-cision of Pixar to mirror the techniques of the cinema—to render things not in perfect focus but to invent in the realm of the digital blurry focus, shadow and darkness, is an important part of the emotional and philosophical make-up of these films, and links Pixar with “so-phisticated” cinema, making it a part of a cinematic canon in ways that margin-alized animation has rarely been.
Sharing with Toy Story the trope of mounting an overwhelming set of ethi-cal tragedies and concerns beneath the veneer of fun, kinetically-driven enter-tainment, the first several minutes of WALL-E underscore the literal massive-ness of Earth’s problems
Pixar films often mask serious issues beneath their fun, family friendly exteriors.
resonant with the his-tory of slavery. Jessie tries to convince Woody that he is “valuable property” (a virtue we don’t know quite how to take) and that although he will be sold away from his “owner,” this is a good thing because he will be sold as “a set” with herself, Bullseye, and Pete—mak-ing him part of a new family with which he was always destined to belong. There is much anxiety about being sold away from the “set”—and about being left be-hind. In the same sequence, Stinky Pete even asks Buzz if Andy “broke” him, a double entendre that takes on a disci-plinary resonance within the surround-ing discourse on ownership, auctioning and captivity.
Author makes note of the underlying issue of historical slavery hidden in "Toy Story 2", and issues of being human property (objectification).
If identification with the object is ex-hilarating, it is also, at moments, fright-ening. The Toy Story films and WALL-Ealso generate important, though embed-ded, insights on both human and inani-mate objectification
The author makes a connection to the audience identifying with an object, with human objectification and the fears associated with that issue.
Nostalgia is one of the central pleasures of the Pixar films, which not only focus on “classic,” vintage objects (the world worn, low-tech WALL-E and his collection of ephemera, and timeless classic toys in Toy Story), but also on a nostalgia for Hollywood
This could be considered the 'thesis' of this section. It lets us know what it will be about.
These films transform the interstitial space between man and his graven objects (robots and toys) into a virtue, exploiting its uncan-niness to provoke a distant kind of fear while maintaining an innocent and un-censorable narrative.
Thought provoking (and thought extending) closing.
While its uncertain jitters are less obvious than the uncontrolled movement of a child, there is a sense in which adulthood is less about gaining control than about steadily losing control. It is about, as Woody and Buzz discuss, managing to fall gracefully rather than to fly.
Well said.
Thus, these Pixar features exploit the tendency of the ratings system to judge the “adult-ness” of a film based on its sex and vio-lence quotient alone. They remind us of something that the rating system appar-ently doesn’t know: that sexual titilla-tion and violence are not the only wages of adulthood. They are only manifesta-tions of far deeper crises and struggles. The films revive a broad cinematic discourse open to child and adult alike about the strange, imaginary life of ob-jects and the complexity of the project of material being
Compelling closing argument.
The encouragement these toys offer each other to stop struggling and accept death undermines the hope-fulness of previous Toy Story texts, be-cause it reminds us that these toys will ultimately become maimed, broken, and tortured “junk.” It reminds us of the du-bious status of the object—and of the objectified—in a culture built around commodity fetishism. It encourages a kind of revisionist mental return to the previous texts, revising their innocent themes and visual pleasures against the weight of so dreadful a demise. What is more, it places spectators in the position of identifying with the toys in their help-lessness and in their reversion to junk
Powerful--and thought provoking--final claims.
Reflect-ing perhaps Western concerns about the artificial extension of life through ma-chines, the Toy Story series represents a fear not so much about life’s brevity as about its unendurable length amidst hardly bearable changes.
Bold claim. Smart reading of the films.
It may be that the single most impor-tant theme in the Toy Story series is ob-solescence
This seems important.
these films call spectators to meditate on consumer objects but not in ways that always directly moralize consumerism. Instead they prompt adult spectatorial identification with the consumer object.
Nice. Great point.
With optimism, these films suggest that these objects—and perhaps with them, their adult human viewers—can potentially exceed the limits of their frame and return to a position of har-mony with the surrounding beings and objects that define them.
Interesting assertion.
That is, Pixar’s films encourage adult audiences to both encounter and deny each film’s veiled dark content and its implications for them.
Note how Scott restates her point here; clarification is always important.
The professional aspirations for fe-male characters thus become an oppor-tunity for ridicule within situation com-edies.
females are assist characters to flower up the situation for the actual characters (males)
Dow demonstrates how the character’s qualities bring her career success while they also cripple her ability to sustain a relationship and start a family
cant have a successful love life while maintaining career success (stereotype)
Roles for female characters in early sitcoms were domestic ones, such as housekeeper and child care-taker
reinforcing previous stereotypes for females
“The point of the hegemonic perspective is not that television never changes—it clearly does—but that it is less progressive than we think. The medium adjusts to social change in a manner that simultaneously contradicts or undercuts a progressive premise”
The medium adjusts to social change in a manner that simultaneously contradicts or undercuts a progressive premise
The comedy allows the genre to address taboo subjects through the show’s hu-mor and story lines. While the potential exists for commenting on and possibly even changing how these ideas get rep-resented, the situation comedy instead mostly reinforces the hegemonic under-pinnings and thus the status quo
while trying to prevent stereotypes, it actually enforces them through the "taboo" through comedy. While laughing at the stereotypes they are actually enforcing the Status Quo
Overall, neither Amy nor Bernadette are accepted just as intelligent, success-ful women by the group. Instead, their intelligence is not a feature that defines these characters for themselves, but in-stead functions as a means to attract and maintain the attention of their men.
Intelligence does not define their character, but instead use it as motives or the way they shape their lives
The three main female characters do appear in the work situations at different times, but their locations remain primarily in the domestic ones.
Females stay at home.
Sitcoms fall into two broad types: domestic comedies and workplace comedies
Sitcom 2 category
The valuing of female attractiveness becomes the fourth theme. Steinke ana-lyzes filmic representations of how fe-male scientists are represented as attrac-tive, stylish, and fashionable (39). What the the naïve expert lacks in knowledge she makes up for in appearance (Flicker 312).
FEMALES HAVE TO BE ATTRACTIVE NO MATTER THEIR INTELLIGENCE
Traditional situation comedies fol-lowed rather rigid gender roles in that men were cast as the breadwinners and women as the homemakers. Follow-ing those divisions, men exercised the power over the family, while women catered to supporting men’s needs. The male’s power came not only from earn-ing potential but also from career gains and assumed authority.
Gender roles are displayed within comedies as women as caretakers and men as breadwinners. Takeaway: In the "Big Bang Theory" gender roles attempt to contradict, but show some reinforcement.
Female scientists also struggle to engage in romantic relation-ships. Flicker refers to the lonely hero-ine, or the woman who exhibits extreme competence in her work yet still suffers from the lack of recognition or romance (315–16). In the end, though, a female scientist only can succeed at home life or work life, but not both
Females have a stereotypical need for a man, a need for their love.
Even within these teams, the female scientists do experience chal-lenges and dismissals from their male colleagues
women seen as less then men even when superior in their field
A professional role refers to a char-acter’s job or occupation outside the home. Roles for female characters in early sitcoms were domestic ones, such as housekeeper and child care-taker as in I Love Lucy (1951–1957), The Brady Bunch (1969–1974), and Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963). These domestic restrictions limited the range of oppor-tunities and expression available in that these women received little power and supported others in their roles as wives and mothers (Dow, “Hegemony” 264). These representations shifted during the 1970s and 1980s when more situation comedies featured women with careers and relocated their settings to work-places.
Women professional roles change throughout the time, but lack sustainability. Takeaway: Throughout the paper typical women occupations are displayed differently than men.
plain how female scientists’ capabilities get downplayed while their ineptitude gets played up in professional settings, sometimes highlighting their lack of skills (359). Flicker calls these women “the naïve expert;” these naïve experts might make some contributions to sci-ence, but their emotions become part of the problems in dramatic arcs
Women become dumber because of their gender, also highlights their lack of skills because of their sexuality
scientists were more likely to be male than female and were more likely to be white than of other ethnic groups (761). They also found that scientists were more likely to be “good” (Dudo et al. 762), but these scientists still overall were not as com-monly represented as other professions
feminism and racism
The first theme to emerge is the domi-nance of males and masculinity in sci-ence (Steinke 35). This dominance leads to observations of the lack of female scientists in various media
Claim of lack of female scientists in media. Takeaway: In multiple occupations there is a lack of female characters and even in some of the real occupation itself.
he found that these characters exhibited features of intelligence but overall re-mained less attractive, sociable, or warm when compared to other television char-acters (Gerbner 41–44).
Intelligent people are viewed as less attractive because of their smarts
These appearances and audience reac-tions to them vary form genre to genre. Nonfiction programming includes news, talk shows, and children’s educational programs. Within nonfiction program-ming, scientists often appear for their expertise, but not all programs or audi-ences respect that expertise. For news, experts, including scientists, remain a staple part of these programs. While we might think that their increased use in news programs would affirm people’s views, instead, as their use in programs increases, the public trust in them de-clines
The way scientists and other occupations are displayed vary depending on the type of media.
surface some challenging and even undermining of these stereo-types do appear, those challenges re-main short-lived in light of the situation comedy’s goals to entertain while rein-forcing the status quo.
Thesis pieces
It concludes by suggesting that while on the surface there is some challenging and even undermining of these stereotypes, those challenges remain short-lived in light of the situation comedy’s goals to entertain while reinforcing the status quo.
McIntosh overall argument
occurred to him to claim a Latino identity
oh i didnt know that
Regulation through architecture is just as powerful as law, but it is less explicit, less identifiable, and less familiar to courts, legislators, and the general public
This is one of her main claims then in Part I. She'll provide evidence of this.
system in crisis.
We’ll start with extraction which is a fancy word for natural resource exploitation which is a fancy word for trashing the planet
improves the scoring of co-occurrences and enhances PolySearch2's ability to distinguish genuine associations from incidental co-occurrences that arise by chance
Okay, what is the evidence?