The Rhetoric of Gun Violence

Luckily, I stumbled upon a very cool article relevant to this year's curriculum in AP English. The article I found, In Public ‘Conversation’ on Guns, a Rhetorical Shift, discussed the frequency of use of different terms for gun control and related it back to the societal and political implications of the changing usage. Nate Silver, the author, is well known for his aptitude at statistics and applying it to social issues. He predicted the outcomes of the 2008 presidential elections almost entirely correct, and correctly predicted the winner of all 35 senate elections that year. He is a pretty qualified guy to be writing this article. The context of the article is the recent elementary school shooting in the last week, which prompted many people to talk about the issue of gun control. His purpose is to suggest that the connotation of the terms now used for gun control (which has now turned to "gun violence" or "gun rights") implicates a new surge of political charge behind the statements made on the issue. The audience is a mature and unbiased audience who is interested in the rhetorical analysis of the conversation on the issue instead of focusing on what should be done about it. It was interesting to see such an insightful perspective without trying to sway someone one way or the other. The most effective rhetorical strategy was arrangement, because having arranged it chronologically really emphasized the change in the views of gun control over the years and how divided our country has become on the rights on own a gun versus the risk of giving those rights to everyone.

The Old Guitarist

This week's analysis is of "The Old Guitarist", by Pablo Picasso. This piece has intrigued me for ages, so it was one of my first choices for a visual piece to take a close look at. Picasso is a world renown French artist from the 20th century, and is one of the most influential artists of all time. He is best known for his co-invention of collage and work with the style of cubism. "The Old Guitarist" is still one of his most famous pieces, despite not being in his trademark cubist style. It is a blue monochromatic picture of a haggard old man playing the guitar. The context of this piece was that it was painted in Picasso's blue period, a time where Picasso developed a somber and blue monochromatic style that depicted his depression. His close friend had just committed suicide and on top of that he was very poor. Both tragedies are obviously depicted in this piece, as the man is so skeletal he seems to be starving. He is also sad and posed in a way that depicts despair. Picasso's audience is anyone who appreciated 20th century impressionist art. The subject of the painting is the guitar, greatly emphasized by the contrasting brown to the blue tone. This leads the audience to see that the guitar seems to be the only means of the old man clinging to life in his state of depression. This leads me to the believe his purpose is to depict the life of an artist, clinging to a means of self-expression in a time of such tragedy. His color and subject emphasis is very effective because it evokes the same sense of depression Picasso was feeling in the audience, and the subject provides an effective metaphor for hardships Picasso was dealing with.

The Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas

This week's article is an NY Times article about the new science museum in Texas. The Perot Museum of Nature and Science is an architectural marvel that emphasizes the idea of science leaving you perplexed, in a state of wonder, and entertained. Edward Rothstein is a critic and composer, receiving his BA from Yale University. He is awarded for his music criticism and is known for relating music theory to scientific concepts. He is extremely qualified to evaluate both artistic ideas and concepts like architecture and science itself. His purpose is to highlight the way that the science museum's architecture captures the potential of entertaining science and capture science's intriguing quality in architecture. He uses imagery and exemplification to explain this concept, by describing a building built in miniature worlds and galleries that organize the matter in a way that the audience can understand the flow and relationship between subjects in a gallery. His audience is for anyone who has architectural interest or who is interested in a new way of portraying science to a young or naive audience. His imagery and exemplification was a proper way of conveying his purpose, but it is not effective because he did not really describe the building very well in a way that the audience can picture how unique the architecture is. He focused a lot on the cool subjects and activities visitors can engage themselves in, but  doesn't really show how the building's structure itself emphasizes how intriguing science is. He seems to lose sight of his focus.