52 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2023
    1. A recurring theme in the authors’ feedback was that Wordcraft could not stick to a single narrative arc or writing direction.
  2. Dec 2022
  3. Aug 2022
    1. Anthony Costello. (2022, February 24). The risks of cognitive symptoms lasting at least 12 MONTHS were much higher in the infected group. 4.8x higher for fatigue, 3.2x for brain fog, 5.3x for poor memory, and an incredible 51x for altered taste and smell. We need data on children, but it could easily be similar. (17) https://t.co/JC1qYyW2Xc [Tweet]. @globalhlthtwit. https://twitter.com/globalhlthtwit/status/1496957266016313348

  4. Feb 2022
  5. Jan 2022
  6. Oct 2021
  7. Feb 2021
  8. May 2020
  9. Apr 2020
  10. Jan 2020
  11. Dec 2019
    1. Because keeping track of your tasks is an intensely personal thing, and people will reject anything that doesn't feel right pretty much instantly.
  12. Feb 2019
    1. false Taste

      What is false taste? Does this mean your taste isn't attuned to the collective, or that you are literally falsifying what you believe to be aesthetically pleasing?

    1. If the work be addressed to persons of a different age or nation, he makes no allowance for their peculiar views and prejudices; but, full of the manners of his � own age and country, rashly condemns what seemed admirable in the eyes of those for whom _., alone the discourse was calculated.

      So, taste becomes a way to understand what has the most mass appeal, and so helps us to understand the best way to appeal to a particular audience?

    2. Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplatesthem;

      Right--beauty is about a relationship to a thing or an opinion about a thing, not about the thing itself. Beauty has as much to do with the viewer as it does with the beautiful object. Recognizing beauty or having taste involves a network of actors in a given context. Does Hume believe that it is our job to consolidate these recognitions into one general rule for recognizing?

    3. the proverb
    4. Of the Standard of Taste"

      This reminds me of C.S. Lewis "The Taste of the Other" https://www.amazon.com/Taste-Other-Social-Ethical-Thought/dp/1573832685

    5. So advantageous is practice to the discern­ment of beauty,

      I originally read practice in this context as exposure, the idea that if you just study a lot of literature you'll develop a taste for the good stuff (basically the dominant model of lit studies). But now I'm wondering if Hume saw practice as actually doing the art. Like, instead of just studying poetry, I actually went out and wrote some poetry. My taste, then, would develop through a combination of external and internal experience; it would be practice of both input and output.

    6. Taste,

      I seriously thought we were talking about taste in the context of food. I mean I guess it's not unrelated.

    1. tothevolum

      The list seems to cater to taste (cf. Hume) and to variety. After visiting the newly built agora, there will be "some time of Refreshment" before moving on to legislative matters and affairs of the court; then we "may Rest [our] Selves" before hearing charitable orations, and so on. If one cares to hear something in particular, one may do so or take alternative pleasures ("if you regard not what Women say", "if you like not their Pastime").

      The selections seem a carefully chosen buffet or perhaps a finely planned 10 (or whatever number)-course meal, with each element serving to compliment but also counter-point those that come before and after.

      In seeing these particular examples of orations, perhaps we shall take away a sense of the general?

  13. Apr 2017
    1. He offers the example of how a perfume specialist “acquires” a nose through practice interacting with an aroma training kit.

      The inverse of the "Whopper Virgin" approach.

      Although I would say the next few lines have a nice parallel with Canguilhem tracing how anatomical understandings of human body parts, though generally a constant of the last 6000+ years, "evolve" from new technologies that we can apply to our own bodies.

    1. One wonders what the obvious "positive modification" ofthe military-industrial complex is.

      Making a lot of money? National pride? Belief in the superiority of liberal capitalism? A historical perspective that focuses on the difficulty the American military had mobilizing in the 19th and early 20th century? A sincere fear of the outside world and belief that strong military spending can protect them?

      I may be missing Vatz point, but I don't think Bitzer would define "positive modification" as an absolute unquestioned good, but that someone has to have some cause for desire. The MIC has a load of very obvious reasons behind it, reasons I might not personally agree with or be persuaded by, but it has a whole bunch of really obvious "positive modifications" that can be found.

  14. Mar 2017
    1. the idea that authors imagined ideal audiences for their works and readers generally were willing to take on the role assigned to them

      Could connect this with Ebert's earlier-discussed approach of rating a movie in terms of "what it's trying to be." Denies the idea of a linear continuity of quality with art, which sits at the heart of Blair's notions of taste.

  15. Feb 2017
    1. The predominant feelings have by use trained the intellect to represent them.

      Another connection with Blair, here. Though while Blair identifies a universal nature to attune to, Spencer sees a number of natures, but they are still naturally correct for their particular circumstance.

    1. but whether something is “reprehensible” is in the eye of the beholder.

      "Taste, in the sense in which I have explained it, is a faculty common in some degree to all men." - Blair

    2. How can we distinguish among the amusing eccentrics, the honestly misguided, the avaricious litigants, and the serious skeptics questioning a premature consensus?

      "True criticism is a liberal and humane art. It is the offspring of good sense and refined taste. It aims at acquiring a just discernment of the real merit of authors." - Blair

    3. People who believe in one conspiracy are more likely to believe in others

      Like Hume's individual "prejudiced" by previous taste-making experiences?

    1. In the course of time, the genuine taste of human nature never fails to disclose itself, and to gain the ascendant over any fantastic and cor-rupted modes of taste which may chance to have been introduced

      So part of the importance of discussing taste, judging works of art, developing standards of taste and individual taste seem to tie into the project of rhetoric as we've read so far this semester: to come closer to the Truth.

    2. employment

      Hume and Blair both value exercising senses/faculties in order to develop taste, and though this seems hard to argue with, long-term employment in using your eyes or your hands can result in things like loss of vision or arthritis. Does this in anyway factor into taste? Individual taste can become refined, but can it develop in other ways, good or bad?

    3. attending to the feelings of others

      So it sounds like writing, speeches, teaching, other forms of communication are supposed to elevate individual taste or establish some sort of standard in taste.

    4. The first question that occurs concerning it is, whether it is to be considered as an internal sense, or as an exertion of reason?

      Taste is different for everyone versus taste is universal, but everyone perceives it differently?

    5. Must we collect the voices of others, before we fonn any judgment for our-selves, of what deserves applause in eloquence or poetry?

      The "voices of others"? Surely not.

    6. True criticism is a lib-eral and humane art. It is the offspring of good sense and refined taste. It aims at acquiring a just discernment of the real merit of authors.

      Surely we are urged to follow in the steps of Roger Ebert (at least when critiquing movies). To find kernels of value in artistic works, to appreciate them, to learn from them, ought that not be the goal of a critic?

      We ban Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn from schools! Is there really no artistic merit of which we ought discern?

    7. This inequality of taste among men is owing, without doubt, in part, to the different frame of their natures; lo nicer organs, and finer internal powers, with which some arc endowed beyond others.

      So is he suggesting that a higher power (in his belief, as a Christian man, God) decides who has "better" taste than others? That taste is a predetermined concept controlled by the Divine?

    8. Providence seems plainly lo have pointed out this useful purpose lo which the pleasures of taste may be applied, by interposing them in a middle station between the pleasures of sense and those of pure intellect.

      According to Blair, taste is a nice mixture between emotions/feelings and reason. He also recognizes that both are important for an individual to achieve satisfaction.

    9. that there is some foundation for the prelerencc of one man's taste to that of another, or that there is a good and a bad, a right and a wrong in taste, as in other things.

      Perhaps we can link this to Campbell's idea of experience molding us and our ideas?

    10. a person might mechanically become an orator, without any genius al all.

      This is kind of a wander, but I wonder if you can run this backwards? Like, if you're looking for genius, don't look at the masterful orator, look for the girl who has lacking mechanical skill but still pulls it off. It won't be top-tier work, but she's able to demonstrate a natural attention to the universe's current of Eloquence.

    1. hear-ers

      Kind of connecting this section with our microresponse prompt. Taste would be rhetorical in that the taste of the audience would determine how an orator would appeal to an audience and how that audience would respond to the orator.

    1. comparison

      How one develops his/her taste, in addition to practice. Comparison is the next step to achieving superior "taste."

    2. Moreover, Blair enacts Hume's argument that good taste, based as it is on experience, can be learned.

      Again, this begs the question, "What is good taste, really?"

    3. Such people can provide us with the standards for criticism.

      But who determines those who have a superior taste? I assume knowledge has much to do with it, but diverse cultural backgrounds lead to different views of what is considered "tasteful." Two individuals could be equally educated in the same field and have wildly different standards of what is tasteful based solely on their background, culture, etc. Interesting to note that their rhetorical environment influences the way in which they think, albeit not actively, about societal standards and values.

  16. Jan 2017
  17. Nov 2015
    1. beaded bubbles

      Strange, distilled and aged wines do not normally have bubbles formed once poured. The only thing I can think of that would be like a wine and bubbles is champagne. Is this intentionally added?

    2. a beaker full of the warm South

      French wine I would assume, it would be something relate back to the "vintage" he mentions that is from somewhere South of England notable for its wine. So he is drunk currently.

    3. Tasting of Flora and the country green

      To taste like "Flora" or "country green" I think of how a strong smell can have a taste sit at the back of your mouth. I would not expect either of these to taste very good, at the most bitter. Perhaps that connects to the alcohol of the wine.

    4. hemlock I had drunk