Analyses, Arguments and Audiences

 

Like any audience, writing for an academic audience requires careful analysis and assessment. In order to structure and form an effective argument, you must first find sources that the audience will recognize and respond to. For example, if you were writing for a group of elementary school students, you would be sure not to cite The Universe In a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking. Citing such a source would be futile. Likewise, it would be unwise to cite Goodnight Moon when addressing an astrophysicist. The material must always be appropriate, accessible, and specific to the audience for which it will be used. The first step to achieving this goal would then be to identify the audience at its most basic level, with regard to your argument, and who you are trying to persuade. Academic implies a more educated demographic, but educated in what? Similar to the analogy above, an author would not want to use sources from scientific or political sources for a paper intended for those whose education centers around linguistics. Therefore, the source of the source is paramount in researching a topic for an individualized audience. The origin, credibility, and recency of a source must all be analyzed and taken into account during research. A thesis from DeVry may not possess as much weight or validity as a dissertation from Cambridge, depending on the audience. Similarly, the structuring and analyzing of a topic must also reflect the audience. If the composition of an argument lacks logic and order, the audience will not respond to the asserted claim. Only careful planning, intensive research, and in-depth analysis will allow an author to reach their targeted audience.

Hear None, See None

“Unromantic Love” - J. V. Cunningham

“There is no stillness in this wood.

The quiet of this clearing

Is the denial of my hearing

The sounds I should.

There is no vision in this glade.

This tower of sun revealing

The timbered scaffoldage is stealing

Essence from shade.

Only my love is love’s ideal.

The love I could discover

In these recesses knows no lover,

Is the unreal,

The undefined, unanalysed,

Unabsolute many;

It is antithesis of any,

In none comprised.”

Through analogies, wordplay, and irony Cunningham attempts to illuminate the true and false nature of love. He contrasts the love of the ages, as described by Yeats and Browning, to the love that he is familiar with, an “unreal... undefined, unanalysed, unabsolute,” and, ultimately, an “Unromantic Love” (lines 12-14). Cunningham describes love as a thing that negates or contradicts reality. Human perception gives love an air of illusion and imperceptibility. Like a silent forest that actually stirs with sound, or a “vision” so embalmed in light that it becomes sightless, love eludes the senses and seems to occur devoid of purpose (lines 1-8). In Cunningham's world this irrational, unknowing love “is love's ideal” (line 9). In this poem love occurs in the material and physical world, yet is intangible and abstract as sight and sound. In this sense Cunningham speaks to the stereotypical depiction of infatuation and the blinding naivety of love; love as an experience, as opposed to an object. The irony comes into play as Cunningham identifies and explains love within a poem that labels love as being “undefined,” and “unanalysed” by literature. Here Cunningham clarifies the folly of men, to be both the subject of and subjected to the quandary of love.

Human Emphasis on Identity

 

Identity is a question that constantly eludes and baffles humanity. This internal conflict represents something that distinguishes humans from other life forms. Not to say that dogs and trees don't have identities, but from my personal experience they don't seem worry too much about existential matters. However, from each spatial and temporal location the issue of identity has troubled mankind. To the point of absurdity, every culture consults scholars and expert sources to determine what it means to be human. A wonderfully surreal, not to mention true, example of this would be the current social environment in China. A former history professor of mine was called to be the keynote speaker at a symposium on Chinese culture and identity in Beijing and Shanghai a few months back. My former professor happens to be one of the foremost authorities on German philosophy and culture. As China is moving from Communism to a more relaxed state, the citizens of China are facing with an identity crisis of sorts. In the past few decades the government abolished religious worship and abandoned historical doctrines. Communist ideals and patriotism replaced individualized and esoteric rituals. Now that the nation has started to reject the Communist mentality, they must decide whether or not to resurrect old cultural values, such as Confucianism, or look to other cultures as inspiration for creating a new order. The Chinese, respecting the order and asceticism of German culture, asked my professor to inform and guide them through this ongoing process. It came to the point that the common language shared between my American professor and his Chinese counterparts was German. In this case, the almost ludicrous distinction and importance that mankind attributes to identity was certainly apparent. Instances of similar magnitude continue to occur throughout the world, especially in this age of globalization. In an era when a person from across the world can communicate instantaneously with someone from another country in a different timezone, the divides between ethnicities and cultures grows ever thinner. Many Western countries feel the poignancy of this universality, as the global community looks to affluent countries to not only guide the way, but also intervene around the world in times of upheaval. As global citizens begin to speak the same language through technology and education, homogenization creates an abundance of issues relating to identity. This has brought about a sort upsurge in the study of social sciences, politics, and diplomacy as nation borders fade with the creation and proliferation of the Internet.

Personal Spacing in Argumentative Writing

 

Many people tend to reduce vastly complicated issues to the personal level, or, vice versa, blur topical subject matters into vague, all-encompassing problems. Both render material into unacceptable or alienating forms by either oversimplifying or overcomplicating the topic at hand. To combat the horrors of organizing and structuring research or a composition, dividing a larger topic into subsets of correlative information can help to manage statistics, ideas, claims, and thoughts. Social, political, and historical filters help to focus and delineate information in a comprehensible and digestible manner. Instead of attempting to offer some grand insight into the scope of an immense issue, or sharing some irrelevant personal anecdote, separating a topic into manageable sections can help to create something that is truly critical and enlightening to a specific audience. Dissecting a subject into these categories can also help the writer structure their argument into different facets or points. This creates a more focused and effective argument on the whole. Also, considering the different ways a topic may relate to the world may broaden a writer's perspective. An author may not have acknowledged the social, political, or historical aspects to a topic prior to conducting research. Analyzing these broader features can attract a wider audience or just lend to the legitimacy of the writer. Ultimately, these subdivisions of an issue can give an argument the proper level of analysis to be able to approach and convince the audience.

Trial By Beauty

“Blandeur” - Kay Ryan

“If it please God,

let less happen.

Even out Earth's

rondure, flatten

Eiger, blanden

the Grand Canyon.

Make valleys

slightly higher,

widen fissures

to arable land,

remand your

terrible glaciers

and silence

their calving,

halving or doubling

all geographical feature

toward the mean.

Unlean against our hearts.

Withdraw your grandeur

from these parts.”

The immensity and profundity of the world that surrounds us cannot be expressed. Yet, somehow Kay Ryan comes close to understanding it all through the simple way in which she describes the sculpted landscape. Despite what poetryfoundation.org might assert, I don't think this is so much a call for “sensory deprivation,” or the declared desire for “less.” Ryan rather seems to describe the sort of pain and suffering that comes with such natural wonder and beauty. Evidenced by the line “Unlean against our hearts” (18), Ryan intimates some deeper relationship between the individual and the presence of God. Ryan implies a sort of heartache, or weight on the soul that correlates with the evidence of esoteric workings in the universe. Ryan writes as if the absence of God in daily life, accentuates the pain of seeing such “grandeur” in nature. If only the world was as “bland” and unextraordinary as sitting at a cubicle from nine to five, then the lack of meaning at a personal level would seem less poignant. Ryan also addresses human placement in the world. With the world constantly transforming, “calving, halving or doubling” (14-15), humans seem trivial when put in the context of geologic time. In this sense, Ryan's work takes on a very existential tone, as she pleads for less in the world to assuage her own feelings of purposelessness. No matter the literary analysis, this poem certainly possesses a tone of angst that appears so often in modern and post-modern works of literature.

For Shame

 

Audience is central to any argument. If no one is willing to listen, than what's the point? You may have discovered the answer to one divided by zero, but if no one is there to acknowledge your genius, then it's like the solution never existed. This predicament poses a similar dilemma to that of the age-old thought question "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Perhaps, the author is the sole audience of a diary entry or some other form of personal reflection, however, most people write to be heard by others. I generally belong to the “diary entry” type of composition. I find that, at my stage in my writing career, I don't need to be noticed by anyone. Nonetheless, it is important to understand the fragile relationship between author and audience. Especially when writing for more former or scholarly audiences, it is essential that an author recognizes what is acceptable within the academic community. As opposed to some underdeveloped forms of argument, when approaching the daunting task of addressing an intellectual audience, it is imperative to acknowledge more than one viewpoint. Whether using a Rogerian or Toulmin argument style, opposing perspectives should always be addressed. Research should also be conducted in an unbiased way, and information should be collected from credible sources. This means that preconceptions and opinions should be abandoned before researching a topic, and that the argument should form naturally as a result of the evidence and information you have gathered from both sides of the spectrum. If all of these prerequisites are met, then the chances of reaching an academic audience have certainly increased. However, if all else fails, it's always fun to throw out the rulebook and write for yourself.

Narrative in the Material World

 

To a great extent this blog is dedicated to the existence and importance of narrative in our daily lives. Narrative shapes history and defines culture. In many ways the falsehoods of fiction have molded the supposed truth of reality. Fictions forged in uncertainty and myth have far outlived any accurate documents of the past. The stories of the Bible or the Vedas read more like folklore than primary sources. The controversial content of religious compositions about as much validity as the Grimm Brothers' anthology of fairy tales. A man that divides five loaves of bread and two fish to feed 5,000 people sounds a little like Hansel and Gretel to me. Or the tale of a woman who was kidnapped by a ten-headed man, only to be saved by the blue personification of a God, sounds a bit like Rumpelstiltskin somehow. By drawing these obtuse parallels, my goal is not to demean the value of religious belief, but rather to emphasize the influence of narrative on the human condition. The narrative qualities of these sacred texts have ensured their continued existence. Narratives have defined cultural norms and values for centuries, and even spawned brutal war. It is this fascinating relationship between narrative and its effect on humanity has inspired the topic of my upcoming research paper. As I continue to delve into this area of apocrypha, folklore, and narrative, the boundaries between fact and fiction have become increasingly ambiguous and illusory. While many aspects of the Bible have been supposedly verified by scholars, other events retold in the numerous books of the Bible remain too divergent to accept with any amount of confidence. Others still are too imaginative to accept as historical fact. Despite the overwhelming doubt that surrounds cultural narratives, their affect on the human mind is transparent. Some academics now believe that the creation of storytelling transpired as a result of an evolutionary need to further the species. From a political perspective, others believe that narrative served as an opiate for the masses, a tool that would unify a population while setting up the moral code that would assist authorities best. Whether the creation of narrative was initially cynical or simply necessary, its impact on humanity is undeniable.

This Be The Truth

“This Be the Verse” - Philip Larkin

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

By fools in old-style hats and coats,

Who half the time were soppy-stern

And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don’t have any kids yourself.

After reading this tidy sum of lines and verse, I was surprised to find out that Larkin was almost nominated to be The Poet Laureate of England. While I found the poem to be refreshingly honest and witty, I was almost sure that scholars would not respond well to his sort of candor. As he plays with traditional form in poetry, Larkin almost mocks the flowery idealism of past poems, outright rejecting the idea that a solution is within grasp. The format resembles that of a sonnet, without the last two lines that are typical in most Shakespearean sonnets. Generally these last two lines provide some sort of resolution to a problem that has been set up in the first three sections of the poem. Omitting the last two lines of the sonnet almost alludes to the fact that the problem, of which Larkin has outline, has no obtainable solution. While he provides a pithy alternative, despite the hilarity of the sentiment, it is still rather bleak and unrealistic to ask men to die “early” and abandon the survival of the species. With this nihilistic, postmodern, and indifferent content, Larkin's themes become apparent. Obviously the product of a war-torn world, Larkin's brutal honesty and strong voice reflect the public's desire for more upfront and identifiable work from poets in the years following the atrocities of WWII. His subsequent popularity demonstrates the need for truth and sincerity in a society disillusioned by violence. Devoid of hope, Larkin's poem continues and informs the rise of existentialism within science-saturated societies. Although Larkin offers no positive antidote to this prolonged ennui and misery, he does not demean the intelligence or situation of the audience. The clarity Larkin employs to illuminate this problem comes as a relief to those who have been used to having their emotional suffering swept under the rug. In that sense, Larkin's work is transcends the realm of indulgent art and serves a more utilitarian purpose. Audiences clearly relate to the simple lines and colloquial language. The themes are universal, and the blatant descriptions of social disease become almost prescriptive.

For the Ages

Inspired by Philip K. Dick's own transcendental experiences, I have been recently contemplating the function of folklore and narrative within human societies. The interplay between fact and fiction and their influence on human action and belief has also intrigued me enough to commence research on the topic. Why are folklore and narrative so vitally important to humans, to the point that they would kill and die for intangible fables and legends too polluted by time to be verifiable? To me it is part of emotional and spiritual human identity. It represents the hope and memory of innocence every man yearns for. Ironically, in our attempts to retain and sustain these themes, stories, and traditions humans sometimes sacrifice this innocence to assert the importance, value, and indeterminable truth of folklore. Despite the transparent differences that separate cultures, there are also fundamental similarities between the warring societies that are so desperate to preserve their individuality. This irrationality fascinates and propels me to conduct further research. Historians also place great importance on certain stories that contain little irrefutable facts about human history. For example, historians have used the canonized books of the Bible for centuries in order to understand that era of human existence more fully. However, the Apocrypha is often disregarded by historians, when it possesses as much legitimacy as the canonized texts. Why have these stories been passed down from generation to generation? What role does narrative play in the survival of fittest? These are but some of the questions that have been going through my mind as I endeavor to illuminate this topic. This strange and esoteric relationship between folklore and narrative and human existence has catalyzed my search for more information.

A Unit In Review

Through the course of examining and re-examining the work of Philip K. Dick, I have been able to discern but a few more things from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, that I did not already recognize upon my first reading of the text. Possessing a basic knowledge of Dick's tormented existence, I could understand most of allusions and symbolism behind what is possibly his most famous work. However, a deeper comprehension of his childhood, his numerous wives, and spiritual experiences only helped to cement my assertions concerning the novel. For example, Philip K. Dick's Exegesis secured my beliefs that Dick was largely affected by not only apocryphal understandings of Biblical events, but also by Buddhism and Hinduism. These religious tendencies are evidenced by the allusions to the unity and sanctity of life via the empathy box and Mercerism within the novel. Learning of Dick's visions of St. Thomas and Jesus also influenced my interpretation of the text, as it reaffirmed the initial connections I drew between Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, A Course in Miracles, and Disappearance of the Universe. Dick's Exegesis also rejects the normal perceptions of reality, time, and consciousness. Playing off the idea of artifice versus authenticity by creating both android and human characters, Dick reasserts these same concepts. This elemental understanding of the novel coincided with a parallel study of the manipulation of memory and truth, which only enriched my experience with the text. Ultimately, reading and analyzing Philip K. Dick's work seemed almost intuitive and overwhelming at the same time. The consequent review of the prose left me in admiration of the novelist who could take a depreciated genre and elevate it to something awe-inspiring and truly profound.