getting hyper

Friday, January 31, 2003

Chris Christa Mike: Nerd Pride!
Yes yes today I finally managed to connect to this site after a month of Prof. Duemer's email languishing in the Twilight Zone. I couldn't get email for a couple of months due to a clientside proxy error. It took the OIT guy five minutes to fix the problem that I had coped with for a month. Oh well ... This brings up another point: The Internet has all kinds of files that nobody can access because they've forgot about them, the links are broken, etc. Nobody can see them, and they're not really tangible, just random electrons on a whirring disk somewhere.... Do such files really exist? or do they simply drift off into a state of ethereal nonexistance? What is a symbol when it isn't symbolizing anything?
posted by dave Friday, January 31, 2003

Thursday, January 30, 2003

Sigmund, I know what you mean. Although The Clouds kinda makes "rhetoric" into an evil thing, it does prove a good point: words are powerful. It makes me think of the movie, The Devil's Advocate. If you've never seen it, you really should download it (yeah, yeah copyright infringement, whatever). You can also look at what happened to Socrates. People argue that The Clouds is at least partially responsible for his death. Again, words are powerful. If you slander someone, it can hurt them worse than if you beat them up: black eyes go away, but oftentimes emotional scarring doesn't. I got made fun of when I was a kid for being a "nerd" (among other things), and as a result, I still have insecurity issues. Another good movie that relates is Gossip. I don't know if that one's on DC, but it was on TV a few weeks ago. And btw, Mamary was cool, word up to her.
posted by Anonymous Thursday, January 30, 2003

Just look at The Clouds by Aristophanes. Though the impression it gives of Socrates is not necessarily one hundred percent true, it still mentions the art of convincing people to take your side by use of words. Is this what rhetoric is, or is this some form of rhetoric? I believe one major factor of rhetoric is being convincing, so I'd say an important foundation for it is being persuasive and getting your point across. You should read the play, it's quite amusing. I own it if you want to borrow it.
posted by Anonymous Thursday, January 30, 2003

Wednesday, January 29, 2003

In class we discussed how the internet allows individuals to be published easily. This was fresh on my mind when one of my best friends from highschool sent me an IM telling me that here artwork was online. Indeed, an online publisher or mysical artwork had allowed her a page on their server for her drawings. I thought this was an interesting example of how technology changes not only text, but also all kinds of visual arts. Here is the link in case anyone is interested in looking it over.Jen's artwork.

posted by Marianna Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Alright, perhaps I was a little harsh on Lanham's book (by the way, I apologize for misspelling his name either here or on my own blog =<). When looking at it from Dramatic, point of view, it can be seen as addressing a particular group of individuals, with a particular intent. Lanham, appears to be an extremely cultured individual--having a plethora of literature, dramatic, musical, and artistic references at his fingertips. Thus the audience of his work is that of others who are also familiar with such arts. Secondly, his motive is to install a sense of anguish in the predictability and uninteresting nature of basic essay writing. The techniques he utilizes are those of the "Old School" almost as a sense of rhetoric in itself, proclaiming the need for literature to once again be refreshed. Thus, though the The Electronic Word might be difficult to understand in some areas, it does fulfill the objectives of Lanham, by creating a mood of traditional writing by which to compare the excitement of hyper-literature.
posted by Marianna Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Tuesday, January 28, 2003

OK, that does it. Hope needs to go Here, if she hasn't already that is.
Thats what you get for beating my *enters/exits dramatically.*

Enjoy : )

PS: I don't have a clue what you’re referring to Kyle. Perhaps you should seek psychiatric help.
posted by Dan Tuesday, January 28, 2003

*in the wall of the castle's great hall there appears a swirling vortex of color that gradually widens outward, revealing a portal through which a green, sunny, forested landscape can be seen....as the mists of the Time Portal settle to the floor a woman with flowing red hair dressed in green steps through and the gateway closes behind her....in a sultry voice she whispers to the room* greetings all....

kudos to the RPG imagination
posted by Hope Tuesday, January 28, 2003

Monday, January 27, 2003

*Enters Dramatically*

"Present!"

*Exits Dramatically*
posted by Dan Monday, January 27, 2003

Picking up on what Marianna & Sharon said, & responding to some of the difficulties a few of you have mentioned reading Lanham, here is a piece on the American philosopher Kenneth Burke, who, more than anyone else, has shaped our understanding of rhetoric. Ask yourselves what Lanham's motive is, in Burkian terms. There are a lot of Burke resources online--do a bit of looking around & post interesting finds here. An example: Kenneth Burke & The X-Files.
posted by Joseph Duemer Monday, January 27, 2003

There was just some weird little glitch in the timestamps for posts. Sharon's post should be above (more recent than) Marianna's. Blogger lets you control time, so I forced the post from the future to the past. Talk about relativity!
posted by Joseph Duemer Monday, January 27, 2003

Is anyone else finding it difficult to understand The Electronic Word (chp 3)? I understand what Ladem is exactly depicting, but am unable to connect the innate nature of humanity to better itself to the the computer-text revolution. Unless of course he is trying to say that text naturally wants to better itself and thus electronic text is the perfectly logical outcome. Even still, I don't find the greedy nature of humanity to correlate with "desires" of text. Text might be human made, but it can not desire or seek in itself to be bettered.
posted by Marianna Monday, January 27, 2003

A class weblog! How exciting!
I'm just really testing to make sure this works.
Or maybe testing will be a bad idea because then everyone else will want to test...

So I guess I will post a link to one of the coolest sites on the net:
Slashdot.
posted by Josh Monday, January 27, 2003

Sunday, January 26, 2003

On the subject of interpretation, HM has something interesting to say.
posted by Joseph Duemer Sunday, January 26, 2003

Wednesday, January 22, 2003

This is where we'll post information related to our class. I'll be sending out invitations to join this blog on Thursday 1/23.
posted by Joseph Duemer Wednesday, January 22, 2003