Ramalama....Ramage

The sound of my space heater violently kicking on jars me from my reading and lifts my head up like a deranged lunch lady sadistically scooping up mashed potatoes to be placed on the plate of the next adolescent victim in line for something called a lunch. "Oh yeah!" Time to do a blog entry.

At first I'd think my random introduction would be a bit much, but after a second evaluation I begin to understand that not only does it not matter because I have Promethazine flowing through my veins to aid my bronchitis, but this is the manner in which this entire book seems to be written. It no secret Ramage enjoys using random "exciting" examples to further our understanding of Rhetoric all the while not fully explaining its book definition from the get go. This was the first ditch to evade when getting used to his approach of writing and informing.

After coming to terms with the fact that the text wasn't going to throw questions with answers at me, I began to settle in and take it for what its worth. There is a lot of meat here, minus the beef and pork aspect of things. Ramage obviously knows his stuff, now I just need to take his "stuff" and organize in such a way that I can access it and use it correctly when I need to. This has probably been the hardest part of the reading. Maybe its just that I'm looking into everyone of his ridiculous examples too much in hope of gaining something that isn't noticeable from the surface. Regardless, there is still a fair amount of meat, not poultry either, or fish, that I acquired a liking and respect for. Just to name a few...

1. " I find my way by going where I have to go." He steals this line from Kenneth Burke. For some reason I find this fascinating. Maybe its just the fact that I can relate to it and because we used the "driving but not remembering" example in class and this tends to happen a lot to me. Or its the fact that even though some of us try to "live outside the box," par say, our findings and discoveries are still restricted to only things that we already know. Who knows? He then begins to talk about Act and Motion and more examples arise as well as my confusion level.

(somewhere in here lies slow foods and a pile of other jargon)

2. How to Be a Harley Guy. I enjoyed this thoroughly. Is a Harley necessary? no. Is it good transportation all year around? no. Is Ramage possibly running out of examples? never. Even though the Harley comes with this preset image that one is supposed to carry and proudly display, the person under the helmet is usually just your average joe. Knowing how much Harleys cost, its no wonder. Rhetoric and Idenity and Harleys? Who would of knew.

3. The best of both worlds. Rhetoric is not possible in a perfect world or the polar opposite. It finds itself able to work nestled in between the two. Rhetoric requires something to expose or examine and in a perfect world there is no loose ends to rip at and in a doomed world it doesn't matter.

Looking back on what we read thus far. Sometimes it was painful, sometimes it was interesting, and sometimes I just wanted to burn it, yet I don't think anyone can honestly say that they didn't gain anything from it. Even if you are still lost in the ideal of Rhetoric, which I still am, theres plenty of random examples to through your train of thought off and get you thinking about something totally out of context.

Oh and Benny, give him your money.