I consider "The New Grub Street" and "Hunger as Ideology" to be both primary and secondary sources for this class. We can read the texts as primary sources by examining the rhetoric and analyzing the arguments, and we can also see how Bordo and Shea make connections and analyze the texts of others. We learn a way to read other primary texts from them. The texts also may serve as a kind of model for the essays we will produce for the comparative analysis and the research project.
Discuss how the two authors both analyze rhetoric AND employ their own rhetorical strategies. Your posts should be thoughtful and run 500-750 words.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In the piece “New Grub Street” the author analyzes other author’s rhetoric and counters it with his own arguments. When one author claims that it’s important to buy meat from a local farmer, he argues that more land is wasted to produce local meat (in small quantity) than used for mass produced farms. He argues that those fighting for local meat, organic food and other idealistic food sources are bias and prefer to live in a bubble, than face the reality that their way isn’t better. While the author comes off bias in his views, he doesn’t hide it and shows the reader both sides of the argument. This even-handedness adds credibility to his work. The author also draws on a variety of current “experts” in the movements he is contradicting. By highlighting the views of multiple experts it appears that he’s not picking on any one expert/author, which makes his opinion more palatable.
ReplyDeleteThe author of “Hunger as Ideology” uses a lot of hyperbole and interpretations to state her case. Where most people see a simple man eating food in an advertisement, she sees a hidden representation of a woman, who wants to eat and can’t. While her interpretations support her claims, the reader has to accept her interpretations, which isn’t always easy. I guess one of my problems with this piece is that it’s a chapter in a book and we don’t really get to see where she’s coming from through her introduction or build up in subsequent chapters. Because of this ignorance to previous claims the chapter reads more like propaganda and philosophy, which in turn reads very dryly. The author also looks through a larger looking glass when locating her sources. Unlike the “New Grub Street” author, she favors historical texts to explain why things are “currently” the way they are. This reflection on the past and its comparison to the current is interesting, but not concrete.
In “Hunger as Ideology” Bordo pinpoints how ads have marketed towards women and their troubles with food. Bordo focuses on how the women in the ads are portrayed as the ideal sleek European and how Americans perceive that. By having so many women in ads that are beyond natural boundaries this image becomes the norm and what people see as true beauty. I found it interesting how Bordo spent a lot of time explaining the phrases in the ads. She shows how ads slyly point out women and their flaw with food controlling their lives. Bordo’s rhetoric is one in which we can all follow. Even if the ads are slightly old I found myself relating to ads of today and how they attract the female audience. She kind of paints a picture for the reader by describing what is happening in the ad’s rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteIn Shea’s article “The new Grub Street” he looks specifically at Michael Pollan’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and how people perceive it. Shea writes about how Pollan’s writing is “enough to persuade this reader to think about some alternatives” and how Pollan tries to appeal to his reader’s emotions on the health of the Earth, themselves, and other living things. Shea himself questions what Pollan is writing and why is it so bad to eat non-organic foods. Shea pumped this article full of quotes and stories from journalists around the country; He is trying to show that he isn’t the only one who is questioning this idea. It seems like every time he states something that Pollan wrote about he provides ample support on the other side of the story.
These two writers give us an example of how to clearly construct an argument for, the purpose of, educating readers. Using tone, respected sources, exposition, and emotion, they make their points obvious. At the same time, the writers use the ability to leave some questions unanswered and give room for interpretation. This gives the audience the ability to become a part of the debate vs. feeling like a spectator at a tennis match.
ReplyDeleteBordo’s chapter gives us insight into the use of rhetoric coupled with images in advertising. She carefully show’s both the first impression and then the underlying, intended meaning, for each example. Bordo’s academic career and publication are proof that these observations are more than merely “interesting” ideas. In adding the historical context to her arguments, Bordo shows how our modern societal norms are extensions of the historical societal ideals. This gives credibility to her arguments, and this prompts even the most progressive individuals to pause and ask, “How far have we really come?” Interestingly, she is able to write this piece without giving the chapter an overbearing academic feel. This allows her audience to follow her arguments and understand her position. This also gives an aspect of emotion, thereby using both pathos and logos to convey her ideas.
In contrast, Shea is comparing different texts. He to takes a critical eye to competing ideals on the meat issue. Whereas Bordo writes about the ethics regarding the consumer, Shea writes about the ethics regarding the industry and the meat, or the animal that produces it. He takes on the challenge of finding a middle ground in a literary war. This makes sense when you add his philosophical background to the picture. In reading his article, you get the sense of being led through a minefield by an educated guide. This is important because the reader needs to see the various biases of the writers Shea is talking about vs. Shea’s own biases. In order to understand the debate Shea is dissecting, the reader relies on Shea to put a minimal spin on the facts.
Both writers use pathos and logos in their appeals to the audience. This creates a unique environment where the reader feels empathy for the subjects and can clearly understand the writers’ arguments. Each writer takes the time to use a high level of exposition to guide the audience to their points. Both use references to previous respected works to give definition to their ideas. Again, this gives the reader the background to understand the subject of each piece.
The main difference is Bordo’s piece is clearly
opinionated, whereas Shea, while showing some bias, largely tries to stay objective. Both styles work for the purposes of the writers that use them. In Bordo’s case, the opinionated style allows her to show the reader what she sees. For Shea, the objectivity adds credibility to his piece, in effect letting his audience see the dynamics behind the meat debate. While, the writers could have substituted other styles for these pieces, the choices of tone and style were appropriate, if not necessary, for the purposes of the writers.
In “The New Grub Street”, Shea is trying throughout the piece to prove how organics aren’t all they’re talked up to be. The typical organic crowd: legitimate income, well established, possibly figures of authority in their own companies, is who Shea reaches out to from this publication. As Jenny said, this article is crammed full of quotes to show all the other journalists who back his ideology and that maybe Pollan’s “The Omnivore Dilemma” isn’t necessarily the “golden rule”, although followed by many. You have to be realistic as Shea is in this article; local markets just take up to much land and resources, whereas you can do all the things many local livestock farmers do inside one slaughterhouse. He does firmly support this thinking, but unlike many authors he does commit to showing both sides of this ongoing debate. He’s just saying what environmental and activist people don’t want to hear, but it quite possibly is the truth.
ReplyDeleteWhereas Bordo in “The Hunger as Ideology” shows how women are, in a way, controlled by the media. Men as well, but I’d say women take these “be trim” and sexy ads a little more to heart and want to do something about themselves to fit in to this ideal image that is perceived. I do believe how she pointed out how women sort of allow food and these ads to control their lives to be true. Whether it’s controlling it by eating too much and then having these ads make them decide for a change, or just not eating much to please themselves so they model this ideal women that is put out in the media. Both of these authors here point out what people don’t necessarily want to admit to. The media, in fact, does control how some people act and what they do day-to-day, whether men or women.
In "New Grub Street", the author Shea, seems to present the idea that the uproar of the organic market isn't always as organic as it may seem. Shea, talks about how the book written by Micheal Pollen, "The Omnivore Dilemma" is not to be taken quite as the bible for people concerned with our food, and or meat consumption. He asks the question, when have people become so concerned,and quite possibly the manufactureing of our food and the factories that encompass the manufacturing are doing a poor job on every facet, but maybe meat production is not the only to blame. Shea brings in many other publications to make his points more concrete, such as his satyre and comments on the debate between Pollen, and Macke. This makes for an interesting read, and one that is full of different points of view as well as the writers and it allows the reader to digest both sides.
ReplyDeleteThe chapter in Bordo's book,"The Hunger as Ideology" lets us analyze what women see in advertisments, and takes into account a deeper perspective of what the advertisement truely represents and means. Bordo shows many ads that have model women, who are all thin, and have a trim body, however they are advertiseing desserts in many of the ads, Bordo presents these ideas in a very interesting way. Starting out with the French ad and what was said, she then goes into the psychology of how women want to be able to not think about food any more than they do picking out an outfit for the day, or doing laundry. Bordo talks about the historical view of beauty and how it has changed, I found it very interesting how she tied in the historical and cultural views in order to make her point that the ideal sexy woman is not a common body shape among women at all and only very few women achieve that and most are always hungry. The hunger aspect is also depicted in her commentary of ads, she talks about the way that women want to not be hungry in order to acheive thinness and how looking at ads of thin women eating are like a tease to our psyche as well as our bodies. The media puts food in front of women as well as thinness and it is extremely enticeing for the women when she reads the ad, especially the low sugar, no fat jello ads that were depicted in the chapter.
In “Hunger as Ideology,” Susan Bordo analyzes a series of ads and images that depict women’s relationship with food and their struggle with body image. One ad campaign she analyzes is the Sugar Free Jell-O Pudding. To some it might seem like a harmless ad for jell-o, but Bordo picked it apart and her theories made sense. The words usage was particular and did seem to come across as “I am allowed to eat desert, its only eight calories.” She points out that the dialogue, “If I’m not eating dessert, I’m talking about it. If I’m not talking about it, I’m eating it. And I’m always thinking about it,” sounds like the “obsessive mental state” of a compulsive eater. The woman depicted in the ad does not look like the typical compulsive eater; rather she is slim, confident and happy. She is upbeat and honest about her constant hunger, unlike most compulsive eaters who are depressed, insecure and prefer to eat alone. In analyzing this rhetoric, she clearly has developed her own rhetoric style. Following her analyzing this text, she herself compares it the carefree woman in the ad, to a teenage boy’s continuous hunger, that its almost annoying, just like the woman, “this teenage boy” suffers no consequences to the overeating.
ReplyDeleteShe then analyses similar ads in relation to men. Contrary to the negative image of a woman loosing control when eating a huge helping of food, a man’s “lack of control is portrayed as appropriate, even adorable.” One ad in particular is the Haagen-Dazs ad, showing a man diving into rich chocolate ice cream. The idea of a man diving into the ice cream is too indulgent for a woman. She suggests that this ad is still geared toward women; the man diving instead of a woman is an attempt to displace them. Even though it’s not a woman in the ad, women will relate to the man and want to dive into the pint of ice cream themselves.
In “New Grub Street,” Christopher Shea, takes a lot of information from various sources, analyzes it, and puts forth the two sides of the debate, organic small farm vs. mass produced super market. He supports both sides with perfectly integrated quotes from reliable sources. Although he is presenting both sides, he does so in a way so that his opinion is clear. Through his rhetoric strategies and diction, he slyly leads the reader in his direction.
Bordo’s article seemed to go into much more depth than most writers on the rhetorical strategies used by the advertisements she analyzed. Every sentence and wording that was employed by the ads was analyzed in depth, whether it was suggesting gender stereotypes in relation to food or underlying sexual meaning. I thought that her article began to really take things to the next level when her discussion started relating the advertisements to each other, exploring the trends that began to emerge across them. In my mind, this is where her argument really began to gain credibility. I first was somewhat skeptical of her reasoning when she made claims of advertisements meaning certain things, but when presented with a trend that holds across multiple sources, the argument is hard to ignore.
ReplyDeleteChristopher Shea’s article, entitled The New Grub Street, took a different approach to informing the reader. Shea’s approach involves the integration of many different sources and references, giving the essay a distinct air of credibility. He does a very good job of finding the appropriate level of quotations, making sure not to overdo it, while integrating them all into an essay that presents both sides of the argument. In the essay, Shea also addresses the specific readership with the level of exposition he employs. He assumes a certain level of understanding from his audience, while still clarifying and explaining ideas or people they may not know.
Both readings are good examples of methods of using rhetoric to communicate their topic, though one definitely resonated with me more than the other. Christopher Shea’s essay just seemed more reasonable and scholarly than Bordo’s article, which made me much more interested in his than hers.
i didnt like the article "The New Grub Street". i didn't like the way the article started. I didn't understand what the author was talking about in the beginning. I feel that the author could have done a better job at getting his audience more familiar and comfortable with what was going on and what he was talking about. i also don't see why the information that was given is important. it doesn't do anything to get readers attention and make them want to learn and read more about this topic. something else that i notice about his article is that he has a lot citations which throws the readers off a little because at time i think what he putting inside of parenthesis is important information. but this can also be a good thing for some of his other readers because they may feel that he knows what he is talking about. adding the citations at the end may bring credibility to his work. overall i just feel that this article is so boring. to me its not giving me any kind of excitment or anything to keep me interested. after about the second page my eyes were hurting and i had to take a break. i feel that the author could lose a lot of readers if he continue to write as he does.
ReplyDelete