Comments on: On Booth 3

By: Wealth Bondage

Wealth Bondage — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 00:16:35 +0000

How to Write like a Liberal Sack of Garbage
Posted by The Happy Tutor Liberals in the broadest sense are those who write plain and candid prose on the assumption that those to whom they write, or in whose presence they write, are gentelman and ladies who share a common commitment to fairness, tr…

By: Wealth Bondage

Wealth Bondage — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 05:39:39 +0000

Writing Well under Political Oppression
Posted by The Happy Tutor Writing well under oppression. Excellent post on the rhetoric thereof, drawn from Wayne Booth and Roman examples. Vitia is a subtle thinker on these subjects. He understands but does not yet undertake coded or esoteric speech,…

By: Tutor

Tutor — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 05:18:27 +0000

Strauss om Writing under Tyranny? St Mark on parables? Doublespeak, or esoteric speak, is a fascinating topic today, as we learn to speak under conditions where speech acts have consequences inside language games we don’t control, but that enclose our speech from the outside.

You are so good on these rhetorical topics, particularly with your ease with classical sources. Wish I had your learning and your ability to make these connections.

Fables? Just so stories? Uncle Remus?

I glumly think that Paul de Man, for example, learned to write doublespeak under the Occupation and that it gives his writings an unholy power even today, or more so than ever.

Booth, though I have not read him in years, seems so healthy minded and a unselfconsciously a gentleman liberal of the plain and candid style. You too are writing still in the plain style of the honest man about esoteric speech, but you are not practicing it. What is your thought on that? Has your practice not kept pace with your theory and appreciation?

The “turn” comes when you not only understand, but undertake speech coded for more than one audience. It comes like a fall from grace, or from Eden, into a world of hurt.