i am flightly like a butterfly

[schmerica]

I have a poll! Do you have a poll? I bet you don't. SO THERE.

In conclusion, I am having a weird note.

[Poll #613559]

Comments

[cereta.livejournal.com]

In fairness, my definition of rhetoric is a little skewed by having a degree in it and all ;), so I picked the closest one.

"Rhetoric is the art of discovering the available means of persuasion in the given case." - my man Aristotle

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

I've taken classes in rhetoric, but the way I think of it in my head is probably somewhere between the first and second ones -- like, primarily the tools of persuasion, but also in a more general sense as how you speak and present yourself to an audience.

[cereta.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes! Well, and if you view all language as persuasive in the sense that it all aims at a reaction of some kind...yes.

I, um, can go on about this, just warning you.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

*grins* Actually, I bet you would do it much more interestingly than all the ancient Romans in my anthology of hugeness!

(Actually, all those texts were fun, in their own way, but they seemed to suffer from the fact that none of the rhetorical arts they were explaining made any sense at all in the English translation and required you to know Latin.)

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

(And, really, either way I find it a pretty amusing choice to use as an accusation in the middle of the flame, which was what sparked the question.)

[cereta.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. I blame Plato, myself.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Heeeeee. Possibly? Except, uh, from the rest of the flame in question, I seriously doubt that much thought was put into it.