WC

I asked my 101 class to blog about their most commonly used words last week. I think it went pretty well because they took it fairly seriously. It turns out we all use the word "awesome" way too much, which is funny because that word really works best on a scarcity principle. Anyhow, they're some interesting blogs, if you're bored.

The point was to get them to notice and focus on word choice. We read some (very) classical rhetoric for my class (Homer, Thucydides, Herodotus), and I noticed that all three are very aware of Rhetoric, even though their writings might be classified as literature or something else. So, I started thinking about how/if modern "art" pays such heed to the art of Rhetoric, and I decided that there is still a pretty large focus on word choice.

Specifically, I was thinking of Arrested Development, which I often do, and Gob and other character's constant misuse of words, and Michael's constant correction of them. The big one, of course, being "circumvent," which Gob pronounces "sirsumvent" and occasionally "sirsumvrent." The joke, in this case, is that Gob's use of words that he doesn't really know makes him look like an idiot.

There are also a couple of instances where Gob and Michael square off in speechifying, for one reason or another, much like what happens between the characters in the classics. Gob usually relies on his "illusions" as an often frustratingly effective rhetorical method to wow his audience, while Michael uses words and logic and stuff. Gob tends to win these showdowns, suggesting that the audience (usually the Bluth employees) is more interested in flash than Michael's sound business sense.

It's hard for me not to connect everything to Arrested.

Back to word choice: I had a brief conversation with my Lit class today about their use of the words "song" and "poem" in their first essay, which is an attempt to prove that a particular song is or is not poetry. They seemed fairly in tune with the difficulties of both adhering to the guidelines/suggestions laid down in the prompt and the benefits of toying with the two words. We decided there were really two paths to take: (1) use the words interchangeably, suggesting that there is little to no difference between the genres or (2) call the song a poem the whole time, suggesting that they actually believe that their particular song is poetry. I think either works, and the difference may seem slight, but there is definitely a difference. Admittedly, the whole class wasn't involved with the discussion, but my hope is that they all take such a deliberative approach to word choice in this and all their writings.

On another note, this whole "steroids era" of baseball is still fairly enigmatic for me. I don't understand why we, as a culture, are willing to dub it an "era" but are still surprised that major leaguers took steroids. There are two columns along with that first story that suggest that A-Rod is now "tainted" or "tarnished," but I disagree with the assumption behind those statements: that individual players should be individually affected by this. I think we've gotten past the point (or at least should be past the point) where we can just blame a couple people and get over it. It's not a couple people anymore. I think this personal accountability track can only end in the ultimate dismantling of MLB. Instead, I say let's blame the whole sport and sports culture and accept that everybody took steroids. Because (to quote Syndrome) if everybody's special, no one is, and we can get back to playing baseball.

QotD:

How will the "steroids era" end?

My take: Despite my hopefulness in the preceding paragraph, I imagine it will end in a number of arrests, an empty decade for the Hall of Fame, and a significant dip in both talent level and popularity for the League, proper. In fact, I feel like Roger Clemens, instead of fighting so hard to protect his "innocence," should have pushed harder to get into prison before W. left office because then he could have at least been pardoned. And anybody that thinks Barry Bonds won't be convicted is bonkers.