[Previous entry: "bling bling"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Some Wednesday Zen"]

03/17/2004 Archived Entry: "Rhetoric of Cool - manipulation"

Back to the Rhetoric of Cool manuscript this morning for a little rethinking:
Maybe I'm driven to this because of recent comments on WPA-L regarding Literature and Composition (why on earth am I suddenly in the position of defending lit on this listserv?). But anyway, two chapters of the manuscript deal with how the Beats and noir teach the Rhetoric of Cool specific strategies for electronic writing (because of how these genres fall within the 1963 juxtaposition I create).
One issue I take from noir is manipulation.
Jim Thompson's usage of the con in the 1963 The Grifters as a rhetoric of manipulation runs counter to typical textbook advice like this from The St. Martin's Guide to Writing:
“What is wrong is manipulating readers with false or exaggerated appeals” (Axelrod and Cooper 462).
But, as I will also show when I get to technology and Engelbart and Sutherland, manipulation is an electronic rhetorical strategy. Even more so, that manipulation becomes violent as I move to Chester Himes' work: murder, abuse, beatings, all are used for producing information. “Reasoned argument requires more thought than quarreling,” The St. Martin's Guide teaches (201), but it has to involve quarreling, violence, manipulation, and destruction at times. By the end of this chapter, I get to King's "Letter From Birmingham Jail" and this quote:
“The purpose of our direct-action program is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation”
becomes all the more relevant because King's idea of rhetorical extremism fits well with cool, but not with textbook advice which turns King into an appeal for rationality.