Nerd Lesson

Intro:



Fanfiction Sample: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10464547/1/Stars-and-Ducks

8tracks playlist: http://8tracks.com/djhall92/january-2014-inspired-by-holden-caulfield

A Final Defense

Throughout this blogging experience, I have tampered with the mystic arts of rhetorical theory. Now, the time has come to pay the price for this tampering. I will be judged on my works, evil and good, and repaid with a numeric grade. This is my final defense.

The primary goal of this blog was to engage rhetorical concepts. I proved my knowledge worthy of belief by incorporating and describing complex, developed reasoning, possibly sacrificing the interest of audiences uninitiated in the ways of rhetoric. Because of this, I tried to limit these explanations to the minimum, just enough so that the concept could still be understood. Sometimes this involved an easily-skipped, well-developed theoretical paragraph, and sometimes it amounted to a brief name drop for the sake of decorum.

While pretty much all of my posts fit snuggly into nerd culture, I think the artifacts analyzed were still pretty diverse in content, pulling from several different genres, therefore establishing myself, the rhetor, as one who has knowledge in many fields, yet one with a distinctly nerdy voice (or ideology? Maybe this blog is actually secretly all about arguing for the Cult of the Nerd, and by reading its theories, one is drawn further in until one cannot escape, and does not, in fact, realize that there is even anything to escape from, thinking instead that this is just the way life should be: wrapped in the false consciousness of comic books and spools of film).

In order to propel the audience into the proper frame of mind, I start each blog with a recognizable related to the artifact. This is an attempt to pique the audience member’s interest, and if it is something they care about, to get them to possibly understand the artifact the way I describe it, even if they didn’t want to. In the fashion of many of the Great Blogs, including The Bloggess, Tynan, and The Inky Fool, I try to incorporate an abundance of interesting dynamic features like lists and pictures in my blog to keep it interesting and unique, while also applying to blog conventions. I am not the best layout person, but I keep it consistent at the very least and stylish at the most. Another dynamic blog convention I included often was links to other pages that might give background information about something I am talking about to save space for more analysis. Links are enjoyable, as they are the bane of productivity in the Internet age.

Looking at the blog through Kenneth Burke’s “frames of acceptance,” which can be tragedy, comedy, or epic, I would at least halfheartedly argue that each of these frames would fit this artifact. By discussing parts of the heroic tales of such people as Spider-Man, Brandon Stanton, and our friend the sloth, the audience of the blog may feel a sense of adventure and invigoration from watching these individuals overcome hardship. The comic and / or tragic frames will be more apparent after the blog is finally graded. Both have been set up, as the heroes of this blog are all victims of fate. Ultimately, this blog attempts to provide a method of transcendence, with which this fate can be transcended and conquered. Tragedy and comedy are quite similar, until the end, when tragedy ends in death and comedy ends in marriages. Only once the blog is graded will fate determine whether it shall end in tragedy or comedy.

If it is a comedy, dibs on marrying Spider-Man!

Sublime Transcendentalism and Doctor Who

Doctor Who, one of my favourite TV shows of all time, chronicles the life of a time-and-space-traveling man called the Doctor. He is not exactly a man, but rather a Time Lord. The show was created in the UK in 1963, and after a few hiatuses and reboots, continues in the present. The most recent reboot, which started in 2005, is now between its seventh and eighth series and has achieved great commercial success, cultivating a much larger American fanbase than the show has ever had. The basic conceit of the show is that the Doctor travels about in his time machine, the TARDIS, usually with a human he met in London, one of his most common haunts. On their travels, the Doctor and his companion(s) encounter all sorts of characters, savoury and otherwise, solve problems, and save the universe.



The fifth series of the rebooted franchise was the start of actor Matt Smith’s role as the Doctor. Along with him, the Doctor also acquired some new companions, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, most often referred to simply as “the Ponds.” In the final episode of the series, the Doctor has essentially wiped himself from the universe in order to save it, taking all memories of his existence with him. Before he leaves, he gives one of his famous speeches that never fail to move me to tears. This speech, which he gives to a sleeping young Amy, is his attempt to make her remember him even though he will be gone from our universe.


The Romans were pretty in to decorum, what Craig R. Smith defines as “propriety in terms of meeting and creating expectations” (Rhetoric and Human Consciousness 125). Decorum, Smith says, was something that Cicero discussed, and with his notions, he “sent the speaker to find figures of thought and figures of speech… which would fashion the rhetorical situation” (125). One way to fashion a rhetorical situation is with the sublime. Smith includes the discourse of a book, On the Sublime, credited to Cassius Dionysius Longinus (131). On the Sublime taught that “the object of the speaker was to display the divine, model virtue, and / or prepare the soul for this mystical world. Ideally, the speech would lift the soul from the body, creating an ecstatic state” (Smith 131). One of the ways the rhetor can achieve this is through the enhancement of the imagination (Smith 131). Through exquisite imagery, the rhetor can create a transcendental state for the audience or for themselves.

The Doctor’s goodbye speech to Amy is a prime example of how well the sublime can work in a speech. In this particular speech, the Doctor begs Amy to remember him, even if she just remembers him as a story, as “We’re all stories in the end.” This poetic metaphor is entirely sublime, as it “stresses the spiritual over the material,” and it reveals the crux of the Doctor’s wishes. Since he knows he can no longer exist in our universe, he takes solace in the fact that he can transcend existence in the realm of imagination by becoming a great story of Amy’s dreams. This speech, though it is directed at Amy, really works to prepare the Doctor himself for the mystical world of legend and imagination. After readying himself throughout the speech for he ascends into this realm of ecstasy after a few last lines: “I think I’ll skip the rest of the rewind. I hate repeats. Live well. Love Rory. Bye-bye Pond.”

“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players:” Kenneth Burke & Sloths

Sloths are nature’s adorable, animate garden gnomes. Due to their excessive adorableness, they are capable of magnetizing the attention of creatures far more intelligent than them for hours without doing anything but existing. According to this very informative video, sloths move around three feet per hour. Because they move so slowly, algae can grow on them. This fact may be off-putting to some, but it mostly just adds to the sloth’s ridiculous charm. Despite the sloth’s laziness and odor, it is often still a favorite subject of human adoration.



Kenneth Burke, a man likely never compared to a sloth, was a leading contributor to rhetorical theory, contributing many concepts to previously established methods as well as inspiring many new ones. One such concept is that of the pentad, which Sonja K. Foss describes as being “rooted in Burke’s notion of dramatism, the label Burke gives to the analysis of human motivation through terms derived from the study of drama” (Rhetorical Criticism 355). Through pentadic criticism, a critic can uncover the who, what, where, when, and why in anything actively expelling a statement. These answers reveal themselves, and what is most important about the overall message, in the artifact by their interactions with each other. Again, symbolism is used in everything, and so everything can be viewed as a drama, which means it has the five aspects of the pentad:  act, agent, agency, scene, and purpose.

Like the sloth, Kristen Bell is absurdly adorable. The thirty-three year old actress is most famous for her role as the title character in the television show, Veronica Mars, but has not escaped the public sphere since the show ended in 2006. In 2012, she appeared on Ellen, the talk show hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. On the show, the two discussed the events of the actress’s previous birthday, on which her husband threw her a party and invited a sloth, sending Bell into a panic attack. A year later, after the video of Bell’s breakdown went viral, DeGeneres invited her on the show again, this time to meet another sloth.

Part One:

Part Two:

In these videos, these elements of the pentad can be seen:

Act:  showing adoration for sloths

Agent:  Kristen Bell & sloths

Agency:  her fame, adorableness, and low emotionally composed spectrum

Purpose:  to inform about the destruction of the habitats of sloths due to deforestation

Scene:  the talk show, Ellen

By viewing this interaction through a pentad, an understanding of its motive and the philosophical systems of the rhetor, in this case Ellen DeGeneres, can be acquired. In pentadic criticism, the most important element is discovered through evaluations of ratios comparing the elements to determine which element is most important in the ratio, as follows:

Scene-act: no

Scene-agent: no

Scene-agency: no

Scene- purpose: no

Act-scene: yes

Act-agent: yes

Act-agency: yes

Act- purpose: no

Agent-act: no

Agent-scene: yes

Agent-agency: no

Agent- purpose: no

Agency-act: yes

Agency-agent: yes

Agency-scene: yes

Agency- purpose: no

Purpose-act: yes

Purpose-agent: yes

Purpose-agency: yes

Purpose- scene: yes

These comparisons demonstrate that the most important factor in this artifact is the purpose, which is to inform about the destruction of the habitats of sloths (an endangered species) due to deforestation. Foss relates Burke’s theory that because purpose is the dominant element, the philosophy of the rhetor in this instance is mysticism (Rhetorical Criticism 363). Degeneres’s motive with this rhetorical piece is to incite in her audience empathy with Bell and / or the sloth and to create unity of purpose in the condemnation of deforestation. In using such cute agents, DeGeneres creates a greater likelihood of her audience caring enough to consider the harmful effects of deforestation. Perhaps a fraction of this audience might even do something about it.

A Marxist Mini-Critique of Scar's Rallying Cry

At the end of the 20^th century, the Walt Disney Animation Studio was in the midst of a Renaissance. Their new Broadway-style of films were consistently popular and critical hits. In 1994, one of the most enduringly popular of these films was released: The Lion King.

While The Lion King is filled with a lovely cast of characters, perhaps the most intriguing is Scar, the film’s antagonist. Scar is the younger brother of the king, Mufasa, and therefore next in line to the throne until Mufasa’s heir, Simba, is born, which is the event that begins the film. Immediately after this jubilant scene, the film cuts to Scar, brooding in a cave.

Thus, the conflict of the film is introduced: Scar wants power, and he is bitter about his lack thereof. As Simba grows, so does Scar’s contempt. Finally, his hatred culminates in a plan to dispose of the two standing in his way of power, a plan which he spells out to his minions, the hyenas, in the musical number, “Be Prepared,” widely recognized as one of the best villain songs ever.

Though it is structured in this way, Scar’s actual endgame is not to make the hyenas understand his plan, but to rally them to his cause so that they will provide their assistance. He does this by convincing them that his rule is in their best interest, as it will lift them to the top of the food chain by letting them rule with him. All that Scar desires from them is their undisputed loyalty: “Of course, quid pro quo, you’re expected / to take certain duties on board.”

A few times during his speech, the hyenas attempt to question Scar, but he shuts them down each time. As Scar reveals his visions of his own future station of grandeur, Shenzi, one of the hyenas, asks, “And where do we feature?” Scar cuts her off, blowing off her question, saying “Just listen to teacher.” Leading up to this, Scar has been establishing the entire hyena species as unintelligent, making it easier to marginalize them. The first three stanzas of his speech/song is entirely devoted to this, and he calls hyenas such things as “crude and unspeakably plain” and says their “powers of retention / Are as wet as a warthog’s backside.” By creating this “false consciousness,” which is described by Craig R. Smith as “controlling ideologies… [that] are not properly grounded in the social and productive condition,” Scar convinces them that they are inferior, effectively taking away their voices (Rhetoric and Human Consciousness 299). Smith states that the illusions of “false consciousness” “are an outgrowth of the material interests of those in power” (299). After he has the hyenas following him unquestioningly, he accentuates the point that because of their stupidity, they need him to lead them if they want to succeed: “The future is littered with prizes / And though I’m the main addressee, / The point that I must emphasize is / You won’t get a sniff without me!” While asserting that they are a worthless species, Scar promises them all the glory he will receive if they follow his plan for “the coup of the century.” After Scar demoralizes the hyenas, removing their agency, he offers them this salvation; they can follow him, and together they will rule the savannah.

Some fallacies in the argument against race-bending

Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe began in 2008 with the post-credits scene in Iron Man, super-hero movies have been a nearly constant staple at the box office. With all of these new movies, more actors and actresses are required to fill these costumes. Casting these actors and actresses is one of the most talked-about and controversial topics on the internet in relation to these films. There is endless debate about how closely the movies should reflect their source material. The controversy comes when the heroes’ races are changed, inciting an entire range of emotions; empowerment, indifference, and even rage.

The people enraged with the changes are the most vocal, so they will be the ones treated in this blog. Finding issue from minor characters such as Idris Elba as Heimdall in Thor to major characters such as the speculated Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm in the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot, these arguments mostly boil down to bigoted fallacies.

The arguments of this group are recycled over and over again [perhaps to incite ad nauseum, which “uses repetition to assert the truth in the belief that if something is said enough times people will believe that it is true” (Smith 115)] in the comments on virtually any article about casting, rumour or not, and so, the following quotations are not direct quotes, but are the general consensus of these arguments:

I.                   When Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall in Thor, backlash ensued. “How can a Norse god be black? Norse people are white!”

Fallacy: The fallacy here is composition, which “assumes that the whole has the same property as its parts” (Smith 115). Just because every Norse person is white, does not necessarily mean that everyone in their mythology is. Also, key word: mythology.

II.                When Jamie Foxx, an Academy Award winning actor, was cast as a villain in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, there was significant backlash, yet again. A common argument against this sort of race-bending is “Well if Electro can be played by a black actor, then why can’t a white actor play someone like Martin Luther King, Jr?” and "Production companies are only trying to be trendy by adding diversity." This is a straw man argument, which is “a fabricated weak argument of an opponent and then declares victory without attacking stronger arguments that are on the opposing side” (Smith 115). In these cases, the arguments they are attacking, that a white person shouldn't play Martin Luther King Jr.(which is obvious and true) and that trendiness is the only reason for diversity are not even really arguments made by the opposing side. This argument is invalid because Electro is not a character whose race is important, while Martin Luther King Jr.’s is. 

Currently, the rumours circulating that Michael B. Jordan will play Johnny Storm are causing plenty of controversy and bringing back all of these arguments once again. I personally find all arguments against this irrelevant because Michael B. Jordan is an awesome actor. The end.

For more thoughts on the matter, visit: http://www.racebending.com/v4/blog/ or read Malcolm X's "Devil-in-the-Flesh"

Truth and the Humans of New York

"I spend my time doing other people's stuff. I don't have time to do my own stuff. And if I have the time, I don't have the energy."
"So what would you do if you had the time?"
"I've always wanted to make a children's book."
"What would it be about?"
"It'd be about this boy who's waiting on a train to come into the station, and he announces to everybody that when the train comes, it's going to be on the ceiling. And then the train does come in on the ceiling. And he's got to figure out how to get it down."



The discussion of the concept of Truth is a common thread in most any philosophy, and the Sophists certainly had their own. In Craig R. Smith’s Rhetoric and Human Consciousness, Smith describes the general Sophist conception of Truth as, “a relativism, in which humans became the standard by which all things were measured, and [T]ruth was based on individual perception” (35). The relativism of Truth is not a solely Sophist concept, but they undoubtedly were the pioneers (in Western Civilization) of the “doubting what was conventional wisdom” (Smith 35).



Humans of New York is a photo blog which was started by Brandon Stanton. As he tells in this video, he moved to New York with the goal of taking 10,000 photos and making a name for himself in photography. Stanton faced opposition early on when some acquaintances doubted his whole scheme: “How delusional do you have to be to think that you’re going to be a successful photographer with no experience?” Stanton carried on with his mission anyway. In 2010, he began posting his photos on Facebook and since then, his blog has exploded with popularity.

Stanton’s main focus, as the title of the blog suggests, is the diversity and wonder of the humans of New York. With each photo, he attempts to tell at least a small part of each person’s story. Each picture is usually accompanied with a quote Stanton acquires from the subjects of the portraits to include their own voice. Stanton’s big motivator in this endeavor can be explain with his statements, “What I really hope to maintain is the culture of positivity of celebration and support that these people share” and  “We walk down the street and see all these people and we do kind of wonder about their stories. The celebrations and the victories; that’s what people are engaging with.” Though his focus is on people’s stories, Stanton is not necessarily on hunting down some universal truth. He instead is hoping to unify humanity and engage those things that encourage solidarity and charity.

For his photos, Stanton does not do research on the people he photographs, he simply takes the shot, asks a question, and posts. The people he interviews could easily be lying to him, but that in no way changes the affect they and their pictures have on those who follow the blog. Every photo garners thousands of likes and comments, all of people inspired by Stanton’s photos.

In Smith’s book, he talks about Gorgias and his object, which was “not to find the truth, because it is not communicable; his object… is to build a better illusion” (47). Stanton’s quest, to tell the stories of the humans of New York, is not something by which truth can be scientifically measured. In fact, it is probably riddled with fallacies and lies. Despite this, Stanton shapes these stories to inspire, bring people together, and decrease worldsuck. Like Gorgias then, Brandon Stanton is building an illusion, but his illusion is True. 

"My dad was just a working class Irish dude. He drank himself to death when I was fifteen, but he was a good dad when he was sober. I remember him taking me to a gay wedding on Christopher Street to teach me tolerance. And that was back in 1971."