Persuasion

 2008!  wtf......

 From Aristotle to Jane Austen to Kenneth Burke, persuasion is a tricky thing, and its challenges can be the source of pleasure to many.

I think what my LiveJournal space provides me--the endlessly curious and chatty, and truth be told, boring man that I am--is a place to celebrate the hot and steamy sides of suasion.  The LiveJournal space compresses the space for ethical, logical, and pathetic appeals in ways no other medium does.  Not commercial or cable TV, not radio, not even letters of generations past.  Nowhere else is so compressed what has been for so very long comfortably compartmentalized:  the author, the audience, and the content.  The online journal is like no other hot mess made yet for human communication.  It's all the same here.....I need a new verse for Cole Porter's "Anything Goes."  So I feel like I have begun a journey into a virtual Vauxhall Gardens, and I am looking for others to join me on my journey.

Xtreme rhetoric shoots all over these LiveJournal sites, and I am glad to be among the party.  Some DC political science buffs might know Aristotle's ideas on the topic of persuasion.  The great philosopher thought that the character of men (perhaps women, but I am taking much liberty here) and the character of their governments went hand in hand.  To move men to action, to persuade them of something, one might study both men and governments together.   Sounds logical to me.  Others might know of Jane Austen's novel by that title ("If we can persuade your father to all this," said Lady Russell,looking over her paper, "much may be done.") and all the emotions and methods of persuasion that aren't so logical.  And the mass comm wonks and rhetoricians like me might know Kenneth Burke's contributions to the Aristotelian tradition in his 1950 A Rhetoric of Motives.  With all the logic, all the emotion, content has to round out to mean something....

And down this hole of Lewis Carrol proportions I have fallen--or been lead, pushed, or persuaded by LiveJournal expert, the one, the only Unbleached Brun--who is no stranger to things rhetorical by the way.

So off I go, with almost a new professional credential in rhetoric and composition up my sleeve, and I'm hoping someone will find me before I drink the poison.....meanwhile, as the ol' song says......

Times have changed,
And we've often rewound the clock,
Since the Puritans got a shock,
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If today,
Any shock they should try to stem,
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them.

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything Goes.

Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, Anything Goes.

The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos
And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes

When grandmama whose age is eighty
In night clubs is getting matey with gigolo's,
Anything Goes.

When mothers pack and leave poor father
Because they decide they'd rather be tennis pros,
Anything Goes.

If driving fast cars you like,
If low bars you like,
If old hymns you like,
If bare limbs you like,
If Mae West you like
Or me undressed you like,
Why, nobody will oppose!
When every night,
The set that's smart
Is intruding in nudist parties in studios,
Anything Goes.

The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos
And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes

If saying your prayers you like,
If green pears you like
If old chairs you like,
If back stairs you like,
If love affairs you like
With young bears you like,
Why nobody will oppose!

And though I'm not a great romancer
And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes...
Anything goes!

Today was truly great. I was lucky enough to spend it looking at and talking all about the art of Edward Hopper and J.M.W. Turner--whose name I kept confusing with Pre-Raphaelite painter William Turner despite the significant differences between them--with one of my dearest friends and confidants. Too, too many years had passed since the last time we were able to really sink our teeth into  art and tea.

But wait--there's more! After having our artistic sensibilities satisfied, we then had an extremely tasty high tea, during which we discussed other fun topics to which we could not do justice among the gallery crowds.  Teaching, as one example, was a topic of great wonder between us.  We truly wondered at ourselves as teachers (thinking of ourselves more as students), our students , and at the subjects we truly love.

But wait--there's even more! After tea, I had a chance to see my Live Journal mentors, Unbleachedbrun and Dartmouthryguy and grab some, well, grub for dinner at a local Foggy Bottom restaurant.

A day full of friends, art, and food--it is just tough to beat that kinda day.....

The year 2008 will have more than its fair share of new beginnings, but I hope they are easier beginnings than my efforts to decorate (for lack of a better word, though "salvage any shred of self-respect" also comes to mind) my tiny College Park apartment. As of this afternoon I do not have to rely on a friend's stud finder---but my new toy only showed me how few secure places there are in here for my AAarrt work. Thanks to a trip to Home Depot and Linen and Things I have my own stud finder, and picture hanging widgets, but too few studs in the house. So it seems, I have just enough rope to hang up this project INCOMPLETE! Interruptus even....

After a quick tour of more of the LiveJournal tools with my friend Mark, I had to delete the welcome page after days of it just sitting there--We're off to lunch or the mall or somesuch.....but more soon! Happy Boxing Day!