Just when you think you're starting to understand something and really like it..bam. You get a post like minimumwrage's that is witty and well-thought out and you feel like you've missed something! No disrespect to the previous post, kudos in fact.
I'll go with my gut and still say I liked the Ramage reading. His use of elitist vocabulary was a little much at times; but, I did find myself laughing at him. Example: comparing rhetoric to a slow cooker. There are no negotiations in using a slow cooker, my friends. Sure, you can cook a million things with it, but that appliance owns you!
I guess after a semester of Literary Criticism reading folks like Derrida, Ramage can seem like a relief. His approach was interesting and caught me off guard. To begin the first chapter of a book entitled Rhetoric with four reasons on why rhetoric is the manipulative, fast-talking device that made QVC and Home Shopping Network what it is today, made me stop and say, "Well then why did you write a whole book about it, Ramage?" Obviously, this question was answered with a plethora of other points and strategies I enjoyed.
My favorite section of the Ramage reading was the mention of existentialism. He begins by grouping "multiculturalism" under the existential philosophy. (Yea, this is where the giggles began. ) I had never heard that before. Multiculturalism is always presented as a positive idea, with words like acceptance,unity, and incorporation following soon after on its coat-tails. However, Ramage presents multiculturalism in regard to rhetoric almost singularly and solitarily by grouping it with existentialism. "Every individual is free to pursue their own course according to the particulars of the situation. What was right for one person yesterday...is not necessarily right for this person today..." To me, that says "You're on your own. You don't owe anyone anything. What you do or say will effect noone but yourself." Later, he brings up existentialism again in regard to rhetoric when he writes about how many authors' characters begin to develop a mind of their own, or "seemingly write their own dialogue." "So it is with "the way" Roethke is talking about. Every one of my freely made choices in life...brings in its wake limitations, responsibilities, and commitments that bear heavily on future options. But the environment that limits my choices is also a place I've had a hand in creating. Am I 'finding' my way or am I going where I 'have' to go?"
Is rhetoric just a series of never ending questions and strategies that leave us feeling dizzy? Or is it more like a filter or sorts that will bring us to the right truth for the right circumstance? I don't know, if I did, I guess I'd be one of those Serious People.

Anyway, I'm Lauren. I'm from central New Jersey and I'm a junior sec edu major here at KU. I like black and white photography, reading, running, poetry, veg-cooking, movies, and classic rock. That's my dog, Riley. He's one of those Rhetorical folks, too. I don't know too many Serious People.