36 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2017
    1. jeux d 'esprit

      "a lighthearted display of wit and cleverness, especially in a work of literature"

    2. We all need to have things pointed out to us, things stressed in our interest.

      This demonstrates the necessity in finding an audience and how difficult it can be to tailor subject matter to individuals in rhetoric

    3. I have a consistent impression that the broad resource of analogy, metaphor, and figuration is favored by those of a poetic and imaginative cast of mind.

      Relating back to the original forms of rhetoric, before the "modern-classic" subgenre that is mentioned in Modern and Post Modern Rhetoric

    1. "Never to quote or comment on anything in a book which you have not read from cover to cover."

      Did this man not go to college?

    2. bona fide

      singular of "bona fides"

      use traced back to the mid 16th century

      translated from the original latin, meaning "with good faith"

    3. Between a thought and a symbol causal rela-tions hold

      Relevant to the earlier point in this text about personal experience being just as necessary as anything else to make connections to rhetoric and texts

    4. '10 ........... ~ k-w ~r..J (!)00 a,,-..&,w1 +-l;lw ... 1111 OV\.b~ eo~u( ~ saying clearly what one wishes to say when there is an abundance of material; and conversation will seldom attain even the level of an intellectual pas-time if adequate methods of Interpretation are not also available.

      It is a clear skill to know exactly what someone wants to hear out of anything that could be said, but this will not amount to anything productive unless both parties recognize the merit in the discussion and not just in hearing what they desire

    5. the study of misunderstanding and its reme-dies.

      probably the most accurate description of rhetoric given yet

    1. Even in the nineteenth century, a woman lived almost solely in her home and her emotions. And those nineteenth-century novels, remarkable as they were, were profoundly influenced by the fact that the women who wrote them were excluded by their sex from certain kinds of experience.

      This really makes me think of rhetoric in terms of the ambiguity that we have been discussing and the importance of being unable to classify it as one particular thought. In this instance, certain rhetoric can become an escape during unpleasant times and provide something that even life could not

    2. Law and custom were of course largely re-sponsible for these strange intermissions of si-lence and speech. When a woman was liable, as she was in the fifteenth century, to be beaten and flung about the room if she did not marry the man of her parents' choice, the spiritual atmos-phere was not favourable to the production of works of art

      Unfortunately, these stifling customs are still present in many areas around the world, making me wonder what sorts of works of art have the capability to be produced if not for certain cultures and laws

    3. Lady Murasaki,
    4. Strolling around the campus, she is warned off the grass by an offi-cious beadle and barred entry to the library because she is a woman.

      A very clear parallel between Woolf and the Grimke sisters here

    1. The Midwesterners sought to base the new discipline in science

      "trying to pack things away into black boxes

    2. alternative

      (total cop-out)

    3. Although some professors who urged a focus on public discourse and argumentation expressed opposition to the current-traditional approach, that method prevailed and, indeed. continued to be the predominant approach to composition through the first two-third~ of the twentieth century-and on some campuses much longer.

      It seems as though this decision to mandate the "current-traditional" approach of rhetoric in the academic setting cut out a large personal aspect of what rhetoric originally had

    4. The themes or language and meaning, ethics and ideology. and argument and knowledge recur and overlap al each stage in the formulation of rhetorical theories during the twentieth century.

      Not to belittle anything that people did for rhetoric during the 20th century, but weren't these the same ideas present in rhetorical form during the height of the Greek philosophers? Is the difference in the theory rather than the practice?

      It reminds me of earlier point Raj made about the difference between rediscovery and reinventing; was this the rediscovery aspect?

    5. psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and literary studies.

      The first examples of ambiguity beginning to form in the what exactly the definition of rhetoric is?

  2. Feb 2017
    1. [onus probandil 811rde11 of Proof

      also, "the obligation to prove an assertion or allegation that one makes"

    2. trut/1

      Although, it may not be entirely relevant, this seems to be like a very interesting representation of the "Truth" that we kept alluding to after our first set of readings, but adapted to a more understandable scenario.

    3. senses;

      Much like Hume's discussion on the various forms of taste

    4. Of Rhetoric various definitions have been given by different writers;

      For since sounds are voluntary and indifferent signs of any ideas, a man may use what words he pleases to signify his own ideas to himself: and there will be no im-perfection in them, if he constantly use the same sign for the same idea: for then he cannot fail of having his meaning understood, wherein consists the right use and perfection of language (Locke, 817).

      Makes me think back to the subjectivity of what rhetoric and language can be; as long as one person believes it to be true, then it must be true

    1. Thus it ought to be no embarrassment to recognize the legitimacy of appeals to the feelings, especially in a cause about which one can have no doubts

      Pardon the heartache, but would this be a fitting example?

      Utilizing something emotional to invoke people to care about a certain topic?

    2. psychology.

      One of many times the fields of psychology and rhetoric overlap and blend

    1. When an alleged fact is debunked, the conspiracy meme often just replaces it with another fact. One of the producers of Loose Change, Korey Rowe, stated, “We don't ever come out and say that everything we say is 100 percent [correct]. We know there are errors in the documentary, and we've actually left them in there so that people [will] discredit us and do the research for themselves” (Slensky 2006).

      "Campbell makes a similar point about the dangers of paraphrase: Since we must be in doubt about the precise meaning of the original, any paraphrase must be consid· ered an interpretation."

    1. Previous to the nineteenth century, physicians classified diseases based on the observation of the pre-conditional symptoms known at the time

      Since the medical practices to reveal abnormalities was not an entirely accurate way to "read" bodies, could it be possible that the 19th century norm only became the standard because they couldn't examine bodies to their fullest?

    1. Whenever a man speaks or writes, he is supposed, as a rational being, to have some end in view; either to inform, or to amuse, or to persuade, or, in some way or other,

      This example of eloquence is one that I still see rather frequently being taught as a literary tool, speaking in reference to the questionable ways that rhetoric was said to be taught earlier in this piece.

      I agree very much with the common misconception of the term as fluff to poor arguments, but in the written form, it is often taught to still relate every piece of work back to the general idea to answer the "so what," something that may not be present in all forms of teaching, however

    2. 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?

    3. the grace and force of those ex-pressions which they used, when they sought to persuade or to affect.

      This thought reminded me of the discussion in class about how even babies are communicating before developing a sense of language.

      It seems to me that as long as an individual has an understanding of their own cultural ideas and contexts, they can grasp some form of rhetorical interaction with others; rhetoric seemingly always finds a way.

    4. This may explain why English departments focus today on analyzing texts that arc deemed aesthetically superior, and why lhcy devalue more practical forms of language arts instruction

      That moment when you choose to take teaching rhetoric in a new direction and everyone claims you undermined the importance of what rhetoric was

    5. Their style docs not suit modern taste and their theory docs not conform lo modem science.

      This paragraph reminds me of my microresponse of "what rhetoric will be." With Blair emphasizing the importance of knowing classic rhetoricians and their styles, his point of their styles not withstanding time illustrates the ever-changing nature and flexibility of rhetoric, while still managing to place that importance on where rhetoric came from, as well

  3. Jan 2017
    1. styleanddelivery[as]theonlytruepartsoftheartofrhetoric

      The emphasis placed on these two elements of rhetoric reminds me of the Greek use of rhetoric in politics as a way to sway audiences and public opinion through public speaking, something that relied heavily on these specific elements.

    1. After all, Archimedes was in need of nothing more than a fixed point to raise the world. Einstein equipped his observers with only a rod and a stopwatch: Why would we require heavier equipment to creep through the dark tiny conduits traced by blind ants?

      The idea of people requiring only the simplest of tools to make an impact on the world is one that makes me connect this piece to the one by Foucault. As this author states, it may be disappointing that the only tools necessary to tackle large issues are notebooks and the ideas within them, making them come off to me more as encyclopedias of past experiences to aid in future ones, or rather they are just a different representation of the self-writing that Foucault mentions.

    1. the refusal of a mental attitude turned toward the future (which, due to its uncertainty, causes anxiety and agitation of the soul) and the positive value given to the possession of a past that one can enjoy to the full and without disturbance.

      "Blueprints for the future are a fool's errand" - Ron Swanson

    2. In this sense it has a role very close to that of confession to the director, about which John Cassian will say, in keeping with Evagrian spirituality, that it must reveal, without exception, all the impulses of the soul (omnes cogitationes)

      To me, this idea of writing that speaks and reveals information to a "director" is the very basic idea for what first person narratives are.

      Furthermore, this idea of confessing to an audience through an interactive narrative translates to various media, as well. However, even though these confessions are seemingly necessary in textual renditions of narratives, they can often be misconstrued as more intrusive fourth wall breaks due to this change in media. This creates a very thin line between these confessions being additive to the narrative or if they take away from the overall intent of the author.

      To keep this idea going still, upon researching the definition of "cogitationes," the definitions were either of self-reflection, thoughts, or the act of thinking; something clearly represented through Foucault's writing, but a connection I found interesting, nonetheless.