Students, below is an example of the kind of position paper discussed here; it is of average acceptable length for the assignment. Use it as a model for the kind of writing you are asked to do in my writing classes, but keep in mind the limitations on its applicability due to the differences in media between the model and what you are expected to submit to me.
My study of Japanese martial arts began when I was in sixth grade. On a field trip, I had been beaten fairly badly by classmates, and my family and I determined that I would thereafter have the means to defend myself from assault. A friend of the family had made a long study of Korean taekwondo and Japanese classical jiujutsu and offered to take me on as a student in the latter discipline. In the years since, I have studied Kodokan judo and Aikikai aikido, finding the latter particularly enjoyable. In no small part, this is because of the difference I have observed among students of jiujutsu, judo, and aikido. The first seek to be able to render others unable to attack again, the second seek victory in competitions. Students of Aikikai aikido, however, tend to pursue something different. The art attracts students who wish to enact a just and ethical peace in the world.
Aikido is a relatively recently developed Japanese martial art. The English-language website of the Aikikai Foundation, which is hosted at the world headquarters of organized study of aikido, notes that it was "created during the 1920s by Morihei Ueshiba" and was "Officially recognized by the Japanese government in 1940." The grandson of Morihei Ueshiba, Moriteru Ueshiba, is the doshu or head of the art and of the Aikikai Foundation, as its website notes, so it is only in its third generation,making it quite young. The United States Aikido Federation, the major governing body of aikido study in the United States, reinforces the idea of aikido's relative newness, noting on its website that the first aikido dojo was established in 1927. The time of its creation coincides with a series of world events that point up the problems of ethics and justice attendant upon attempts to dominate groups of people, those leading up to and at the beginning of the Second World War. During that time, several nations were engaged in the systematic subjugation and destruction of peoples based upon perceived ethnic and racial differences, actions far from respectful of individual dignity and so neither ethical nor just. Those problems were doubtlessly in the mind of the founder of aikido, commonly called O-Sensei, as he set up his school, and they therefore almost certainly exerted influence on his teachings. As such, a desire for peace, which cannot exist save in the presence of ethical justice, is tacitly embedded in Aikikai aikido, and so it is those who seek peace who are most likely to study the art.
Moreover, the enactment of an ethical and just peace is an explicit goal of Aikikai aikido. Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere is a standard textbook on aikido practice, and one written by two early United States students of Aikikai aikido (9). The authors, Westbrook and Ratti, speak explicitly to the "ethical imperatives" of the art (33). They note that the "ultimate in ethical self-defense," and the "goal of all aikido self-defense arts," is in neutralizing an unprovoked attack in such a way that the attacker is left alive and without serious injury (34). The textbook is an influential one, reaching even outside of Aikikai aikido, and it overtly links the pursuit of peace--the neutralization of aggression--with ethical concern for others and an immediate, personal justice--the just and appropriate defense of self against attack (20). Consequently, it embeds in much study of aikido an aspiration for an ethically just peace, and those who continue to study the art do so in recognition thereof.
Further, the Aikikai Foundation remarks that because "contemporary values stress respect for human life, Aikido is a highly relevant form of the Japanese martial arts." This necessarily implies that aikido is respectful of persons, which concern is inherent both to ethics and to justice. More explicitly, the US Aikido Federation notes "Aikido strives for the ultimate goal of peaceful resolution rather than defeat," that its performance works "to subdue and neutralize attackers without serious injury," done "without belittling others, without the intention of harm or fear of injury," but under a "premise of mutual respect and caring." In emphasizing resolution rather than victory is a direct call for peace and tranquility. In the goal of not inflicting serious injury is a recognition of the right even the errant have to the integrity of their own bodies, which is a remarkably high ethical standard with which to treat an attacker. Similarly, in working not only to respect the other participant in the act of aikido (both by refusing to offer insult and to appreciate the potential of the other to enact harm), but to work to the betterment of that other--for what else is caring?--there is a degree of compassion that underlies the highest principles of just conduct. Each is a fundamental goal of the art, and so each is presented as something towards which students of aikido are expected to strive from their earliest days on the mats of the dojo floor. They are not easy things towards which to work, and so those who practice the art are necessarily those who have a strong desire to enact a just and ethical peace.
Without such a desire, it is not likely that the student will remain dedicated to the art. Yet Aikikai aikido tends to attract people who remain in study for decades. A number of those at my own dojo have been on the mats for thirty years and more. They would not have done so were there not something peculiar to Aikikai aikido to attract them and retain their interest through injury and child-rearing, relocation and economic worry. The physical techniques of Aikikai aikido have antecedents and direct parallels in other martial arts (Westbrook and Ratti 30-31), and many of those arts are far more widely studied and accessible. The uniqueness of Aikikai aikido is in its ethical imperatives, and so it must be in them that the students of the art find what they need to sustain themselves.
It is admittedly true that the initial intention of a thing does not always continue to guide it. Jude Roberts, for example, argues at length that law is easily turned to ends for which it was never intended--and which can, in fact, be antithetical to the desires of those who frame the laws. If so revered and solemn a thing as a nation's law can be directed away from its original intent, many other things may, as well, and it follows that a martial art may be similarly shaded away from its first thrust. In fact, there are many sub-schools which have broken away from their origins. Students of Aikikai aikido, however, overwhelmingly follow the ethical path established by O-Sensei. My own study of the art has been influenced by senior practitioners who have told me that those on the mats, practicing the techniques of aikido, are all brothers and sisters, united almost as family in the pursuit of what the art can yield. Although members of a family might come to strife, the family itself ultimately seeks harmony--and it is in harmony with the world that just and ethical peace is attained.
In addition, one of the foremost instructors of aikido in the world, Yoshimitsu Yamada, remarks on the New York Aikikai's website that "one of [the] goals in studying aikido to emulate as much as possible [O-Sensei's] admirable characteristics," among which are compassion and the elimination of selfishness. Both regard for others and a willingness to act in the interests of others rather than the self are often held to be primary ideas of both ethics and justice, and enacting them is likely to produce an active tranquility that can easily be called "peace." Yamada continues to be in a position to influence thousands of students, both directly through his own worldwide teaching (the New York Aikikai's website reports his seminar schedule, which takes him across the Americas and Eurasia) and through his own students having opened dojo of their own (as noted in biographies of the teaching staff of the New York Aikikai). Accordingly, his views guide much of the practice of aikido, and since his views explicitly speak to adherence to O-Sensei's vision, that initial vision still guides aikido. Aikido, at least in its main thrust of the Aikikai style, therefore remains tied to the desire for a just and ethical peace, in its statements and in its students.
It is not the case that, in its techniques, Aikikai aikido is more or less effective than other Japanese martial arts--or other traditions of martial arts. The fact that the traditions have been transmitted for decades and centuries speaks to their effectiveness as techniques, as means to manipulate the human body and equipment to end individual physical conflicts. The chief difference is in the intention behind the performance of the techniques. Classical jiujutsu seeks to render the opponent incapable of further attack. Judo seeks to render the opponent defeated, usually in a supine position in a prescribed tournament setting. Aikikai aikido seeks to make the opponent not an opponent, to neutralize aggression in the interest of permitting people to find and maintain their best selves. The enactment by more people of their best selves will lead to the improvement of the world in which they live, an improvement which is promoted through a peace founded on ethical concern for others and a justice born of compassion. Aikikai aikido serves that end, and its study by those who seek that end is well worth increasing, to the benefit of all.
Works Cited
~"About Aikido." United States Aikido Federation. United States Aikido Federation, 2013. Web. 17 June 2013.
~Aikikai Foundation. Aikikai Foundation, 2005. Web. 17 June 2013.
~New York Aikikai. New York Aikikai, 2009. Web. 17 June 2013.
~Roberts, Jude. "'Circumcision: everyone's talking about it': Legislation, Social Pressure, and the Body." Journal of Gender Studies 20.4 (December 2011): 347-58. EBSCOhost. Web. 5 June 2013.
~Westbrook, A., and O. Ratti. Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere. Illus. O. Ratti. Rutland, Vermont: Tuttle, 2006. Print.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Sample Paper Proposal: Searching the Hoard in _Words like Coins_
Students, an example of the research proposal discussed here appears below; it is at the short end of acceptable length for the assignment. Use it as a model for the kind of writing you are asked to do in my literature classes, but keep in mind the limitations on its applicability due to the differences in media between the model and what you are expected to submit to me.
An increasing amount of scholarly attention is being paid to what is termed "genre fiction," or stories that do not tend towards verisimilitude, but instead adhere to norms that do not correspond with observed reality. Among the genres of such fiction is fantasy literature, whose most notable work is Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and which is abundant on bookstore shelves. Tolkien is far from the only author in the genre, however, and although there are many writers of poor quality who publish fantasy, many others are quite good. One of them is Robin Hobb.
Much of Robin Hobb's fantasy writing depicts the milieu of the Six Duchies, a fictive kingdom very much in the Tolkienan tradition. In addition to the novels of the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies, she has set several short stories and other works in that fictional nation. One of them, the novella Words like Coins, serves as a commentary on the craft of writing, noting the perils in sloppiness of language.
The importance of words in the text is signaled in the title itself, which equates words with money--and the significance of money needs little explication to readers in the United States of the twenty-first century. Words are therefore immediately linked with the primary means of access to material sustenance, foreshadowing their importance in the narrative. And the foreshadowing is borne out by comments made throughout the text, particularly by the pecksies (fairy-like creatures who are bound by the words they utter) and regarding the workings of hedge magic (reliant on symbols--words--for specific effect). Indeed, questions of specific wording serve to drive the plot of the novella. Accordingly, the concern with exact language use is foregrounded throughout the text, thereby drawing significant attention to itself and inviting investigation.
Such investigation is merited for a number of reasons. One is to uncover what the persistence of the device reveals about the writer. For a professional writer to be concerned with specifics of wording and phrasing is expected, and writers are often exhorted to write what they know. Hobb's attention to lexical detail is therefore unsurprising and entirely appropriate. Too, as a writer, Hobb likely receives questions about the process of writing and things that are important in performing the tasks of writing. A comment about factors of importance in writing, couched in a form not unlike a moral fable, permits response to such questions while allowing her to practice her craft yet further. Examining how the response is carried out explicates how stories can be used to transmit information beyond their plots, making narrative more obviously important than is often the case.
Hobb does not write in a vacuum, and so her writing--as the writing of any writer--likely responds to ideas at work in the context in which the writer exists. Investigation of the work may well point to those ideas, allowing for a case study of how social tendencies manifest in individual utterances. Because such an examination potentially reveals aspects of broader social concerns, matters in which Hobb, the people among whom she lives, and perhaps even her readers are enmeshed (and which would themselves need to be explicated to fully undertake such scholarly work), it is of singular importance that the examination be conducted. In serving as a vehicle for revealing more of the human condition to humanity, Hobb's Words like Coins marks itself as particularly deserving of study, and a conference-length paper offers a venue to begin conducting such work.
An increasing amount of scholarly attention is being paid to what is termed "genre fiction," or stories that do not tend towards verisimilitude, but instead adhere to norms that do not correspond with observed reality. Among the genres of such fiction is fantasy literature, whose most notable work is Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and which is abundant on bookstore shelves. Tolkien is far from the only author in the genre, however, and although there are many writers of poor quality who publish fantasy, many others are quite good. One of them is Robin Hobb.
Much of Robin Hobb's fantasy writing depicts the milieu of the Six Duchies, a fictive kingdom very much in the Tolkienan tradition. In addition to the novels of the Farseer and Tawny Man trilogies, she has set several short stories and other works in that fictional nation. One of them, the novella Words like Coins, serves as a commentary on the craft of writing, noting the perils in sloppiness of language.
The importance of words in the text is signaled in the title itself, which equates words with money--and the significance of money needs little explication to readers in the United States of the twenty-first century. Words are therefore immediately linked with the primary means of access to material sustenance, foreshadowing their importance in the narrative. And the foreshadowing is borne out by comments made throughout the text, particularly by the pecksies (fairy-like creatures who are bound by the words they utter) and regarding the workings of hedge magic (reliant on symbols--words--for specific effect). Indeed, questions of specific wording serve to drive the plot of the novella. Accordingly, the concern with exact language use is foregrounded throughout the text, thereby drawing significant attention to itself and inviting investigation.
Such investigation is merited for a number of reasons. One is to uncover what the persistence of the device reveals about the writer. For a professional writer to be concerned with specifics of wording and phrasing is expected, and writers are often exhorted to write what they know. Hobb's attention to lexical detail is therefore unsurprising and entirely appropriate. Too, as a writer, Hobb likely receives questions about the process of writing and things that are important in performing the tasks of writing. A comment about factors of importance in writing, couched in a form not unlike a moral fable, permits response to such questions while allowing her to practice her craft yet further. Examining how the response is carried out explicates how stories can be used to transmit information beyond their plots, making narrative more obviously important than is often the case.
Hobb does not write in a vacuum, and so her writing--as the writing of any writer--likely responds to ideas at work in the context in which the writer exists. Investigation of the work may well point to those ideas, allowing for a case study of how social tendencies manifest in individual utterances. Because such an examination potentially reveals aspects of broader social concerns, matters in which Hobb, the people among whom she lives, and perhaps even her readers are enmeshed (and which would themselves need to be explicated to fully undertake such scholarly work), it is of singular importance that the examination be conducted. In serving as a vehicle for revealing more of the human condition to humanity, Hobb's Words like Coins marks itself as particularly deserving of study, and a conference-length paper offers a venue to begin conducting such work.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Announcement about Office Hours 29 May 2013
Students, as I have been advised I must attend a meeting beginning at 1130a tomorrow, 29 May 2013, I will not be holding regularly scheduled office hours. I do expect to be available for some time after the meeting, however, so if you need to meet with me, email ahead to let me know you are coming. As usual, I can be reached at geoffrey.b.elliott@gmail.com.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Comments on What Might as Well Be a Paper
That a person who holds a doctorate in English does a lot of reading is unsurprising. That said person, living in the twenty-first century in the United States, reads a number of websites is equally unsurprising. Perhaps a bit of a surprise is that one of those websites is Cracked.com. Perhaps more surprising is that an article on it, Gladstone's "4 Reasons Raiders of the Lost Ark Is Secretly about Drugs" suggests itself as an example of essay formulation such as is practiced in composition classes and of the deployment of close reading such as is practiced in literature classes.
Admittedly, there are some limits to the applicability of the piece as a model for classroom writing. One of them derives from the medium of publication. Transmission of text on internet sites intended for the general public (as opposed to specialized professional groups, sites for which are frequently protected by paywalls and which will, as most professional communication does, deploy jargon extensively) requires features of form--typically brevity--that are not entirely appropriate to the detailed investigations required of composition and literature students. Additionally, internet writing typically relies more upon hyperlinks than formal citation,* which is not wrong but is, again, inappropriate for the academic writing to which collegiate coursework is an introduction. Adjusting for medium is fairly easily done, however, so that, despite the limitations of orthographic and paratextual form, Gladstone's essay serves as a useful example for students in collegiate English studies.
In addition, the article is presented as a light piece, not to be regarded as "serious" or authoritative. The host website, Cracked.com, describes itself as "America's Only Humor Site," a description not entirely accurate and one that, in explicitly offering the site as a venue for levity, encourages readers not to take it--or the articles hosted on it--seriously. The first few paragraphs of the article itself actively ridicule the idea of essay writing, both in collegiate composition coursework and for online consumption. The former emerges in the author's comments about his college English program having "placed absolutely no emphasis on researching historical context or referencing previously published literary analysis. You could just read and spin your wheels." The description hardly speaks to academic rigor, but aligns instead with oft-heard comments that courses in the humanities and liberal arts are wastes of student time. It does not mark the author as particularly expert in the study or practice of writing, and so appears to undermine the credibility of the article. So does the description of writing for online audiences the author offers: "If you write an essay for the Internet, however, and you want people to read it, you number your points, keep the conclusion super short, and write an introduction no one reads." The simplification of presentation and the futility of seemingly necessary parts of that presentation are made explicit, openly labeling the article as a base thing of no true importance. The article, then, situates itself in a position of obvious abjection, one in which it ought not to be taken seriously.
The position facilitates the presentation of the article as a work of humor through the deployment of irony, however. The juxtaposition of expectation with its opposite, irony is a frequently used comedic device, and the self-positioning of the article in abjection serves an ironic function, helping to make it funny. It is not entirely expected, after all, that a piece of writing will label itself as unreliable, yet statements of incapacity are frequently deployed by those who seek to assert their own authority; major examples of the behavior appear in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. Gladstone's deployment of self-denigration, then, links his work to major threads in traditionally canonical English literature, ironically and tacitly asserting its authority in the very denial of it and thereby developing comedic effect at the same time. Humor is often used as a means of social critique, permitting discussion of issues in a relatively non-threatening way, so that the position of the article on the site potentially enables it to carry out sustained explication of social phenomena--which is a privileged position. Again, the act of denying authority serves to accentuate the authority of the piece, an ironic function that marks the article as one crafted well and therefore deserving of attention and consideration.
That attention quickly reveals that the article functions as an admirable example of the kind of work students are encouraged to do in composition and literature classes. "4 Reasons Raiders of the Lost Ark Is Secretly about Drugs" exhibits a clear breakdown of introduction and discussion. The introduction serves to provide context for the discussion to follow, laying out the circumstances of composition, the topic to be discussed, and the claim to be supported, much as standard compositional doctrine has long held should be the case. In addition, the introduction engages the Aristotelian rhetorical triangle not only making an appeal to the audience's emotions through the aforementioned humor, but also in establishing the author's credibility. It does so through invocation of the author having studied English at the collegiate level and written a number of essays thereby, as well as referencing his current profession as an essayist by noting his standing employment and reciting the features of form that work has shown him are necessary for his audience. He demonstrates a decided rhetorical awareness in doing so, which further reinforces his credibility and aids his introduction in serving as a model for college writing in composition and literature courses.
The essay's thesis, noted in the introduction, also offers a useful model. Gladstone's piece is relatively short, totaling less than two thousand words. It does not seek to treat the entirety of film, or even the whole of one film franchise. Instead, it focuses on the treatment of a single character in the film, and not even the ostensible protagonist. The thesis is narrowly tailored to the constraints of the medium of publication and the individual project, as those of students are well advised to be.
The discussion also offers an example of work worth emulating. It is conducted point by point in easily understood chronological order, opening with a brief note about action prior to the beginning of the movie and moving through the entire arc of the plot. In addition, it appears to follow a blended rhetorical order, opening with a strong point then moving to a relatively weak point before progressively intensifying the strength of its points to arrive at the strongest available support. The first of Gladstone's four points deploys just over five hundred words of discussion and four photos. The second takes fewer than two hundred seventy-five words and five pictures, while the third deploys approximately three hundred seventy-five words and six photos. Frequently, the more discussion that a given point of support will sustain, the stronger a point it can be taken to be. The pattern of the first three points of discussion form therefore openly corresponds to a standard pattern of argument.
The fourth and final point of discussion may appear to violate the pattern; it offers only some three hundred eighty words and three photos, so that in terms of raw content it appears to be weaker than the initial point of discussion and only marginally stronger in text than the second and third points. And there is an obvious weakness in an admission of the author's; Gladstone notes "no independent research beyond the confines of the source material will be done" in executing the project, introducing a possible error through failure to consider the relevant outside information (although even this offers a valuable lesson to collegiate composition and literature students: do not eschew relevant outside research). But there is a peculiar strength in the final point in the discussion. In the work discussed in the essay, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the existence of the Judeo-Christian Deity is taken as a given, and the artifacts associated therewith are necessarily accorded--and regarded as having--overwhelming power. It is only the fourth point of discussion that treats the Deity and the associated artifact of the titular Ark. It discusses the focal item of the film, an item of rare and extraordinary power, and it does so in a hauntingly penetrating way that lingers in the readerly mind. Despite its relative lack of heft, then, it is a particularly strong point, positioned at the end as is appropriate to the model of composition taught in college writing and reading courses. The essay ends up providing examples of two systematic presentations, helping the audience to follow along in a manner towards which composition students could usefully aspire and modeling the dominant pattern of argumentation that students are often explicitly encouraged to adopt for their own.
Each point of discussion in Gladstone's essay also follows a model advocated for use by students of collegiate composition and literature. After introductory contextualizing materials that serve to move the essay into the new point, each section of discussion articulates a claim in support of the central thesis, then offers evidence to support that claim and explains how the evidence does so. For example, the first point of discussion notes events prior to but referenced in the movie being discussed, offering context and transition. It then makes a claim about the extent to which Marion--the character about whom the thesis is articulated--is chemically dependent: "Marion owns a bar and seems to have a serious drinking problem. She appears to be at the worst level of alcoholism where the addict doesn't even feel the effects of alcohol." Immediately thereafter, it moves into offering and explaining evidence to support the claim: Marion drinks an exceptionally high amount of alcohol to defeat an opponent in a drinking contest, then ejects people from her bar, indicating that she is so accustomed to the influence of the chemical that it exerts little effect on her even in extreme amounts. The other points of discussion function similarly, and in so doing, they model the end-result of the kind of writing that students are often exhorted to do in their college writing and reading classes.
Some features of the essay specifically address concerns of college literature classes. Gladstone notes that his own English program focused away from conducting outside research, and while that can be a weakness (as noted above), it does offer an example of a method of literary analysis called close reading. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory notes that close reading is a method involved in I.A. Richards's practical criticism (142), itself described as "Criticism based on close analysis of a text in isolation" (694). Although it does not stand effectively on its own, as the restriction of text from its contexts imposes artificial limitations upon the text and therefore upon understanding of it, close reading is a necessary component of literary analysis. Gladstone demonstrates carrying out such close reading throughout "4 Reasons Raiders of the Lost Ark Is Secretly about Drugs." For example, his second point of discussion offers the idea that Marion's conduct in Cairo serves to indicate that her association with Indiana Jones imposes upon her a chemical abuse problem from which others unsuccessfully try to free her. He explicates how narrow features of her attire (white clothing), behavior (drinking, an eerily haunted smile and seemingly unfocused eyes, hiding in a basket), and environment (the monkey) serve to indicate the resurgent drug-associated difficulties that surround her involvement with Jones. The explained interaction of evidence from the film, described and displayed in stills from it, and larger symbolic contexts allows the underlying thesis to be borne out, exemplifying close reading. In offering an easily accessible summary definition of the process--"You come up with a thesis. That's a theory. Then you point to specific examples within the context of the examined work to prove your point."--Gladstone introduces a fundamental component of literary analysis. That he then works through a model thereof illustrates the results of the writing process he describes. It is admittedly cursory, failing to note the cycles of prewriting, drafting, and revision that lead to the finished essay, but it is nonetheless useful as an illustrative example of a short critical essay treating a text, broadly defined.
Another feature of the essay particularly helpful for literature classes, and perhaps the most notable, is that it advocates a position divergent from common understanding. Gladstone's thesis is that "Raiders of the Lost Ark is not an action-adventure movie about an archaeologist who plays by his own rules and saves the day. Instead, the film is an exploration of Marion Ravenwood's crippling drug addiction." He argues that the story is not, in fact, about the character after whom the franchise is named, which is an extravagant claim to make; the eponymous character is supposed to be the one the work is about. The author makes the claim unashamedly--the thesis appears in bold type on the website where it is hosted--and he works to support that argument in detail. It is possible that his assertion is incorrect; Gladstone admits of limitations in his own argument, and there are others he does not explicitly address, as noted above. That he makes the attempt to voice and support an opinion, despite going against conventional wisdom, is the important feature; students of literature and of culture more generally will do well to emulate the behavior. This is not to say that the argument should be contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. It is to say instead that the argument should not be avoided because it is contrarian; if there is sufficient evidence to sustain the discussion, then it is a discussion worth having.
Gladstone's essay offers a useful compositional model. It serves as a reminder that good writing appears in many places and many forms. It also demonstrates that the skills developed in college writing and literature classes, far from being isolated from the "real" world, are valuable outside of the classroom as well as within it. Paying greater attention to improving those skills suggests itself therefore as well worth doing.
*Note that this essay, as it appears online, does make use of hyperlinks. It is also a somewhat academic treatment, so it also deploys formal MLA-style citation, both in text and at the end of the text, as is obligatory.
Admittedly, there are some limits to the applicability of the piece as a model for classroom writing. One of them derives from the medium of publication. Transmission of text on internet sites intended for the general public (as opposed to specialized professional groups, sites for which are frequently protected by paywalls and which will, as most professional communication does, deploy jargon extensively) requires features of form--typically brevity--that are not entirely appropriate to the detailed investigations required of composition and literature students. Additionally, internet writing typically relies more upon hyperlinks than formal citation,* which is not wrong but is, again, inappropriate for the academic writing to which collegiate coursework is an introduction. Adjusting for medium is fairly easily done, however, so that, despite the limitations of orthographic and paratextual form, Gladstone's essay serves as a useful example for students in collegiate English studies.
In addition, the article is presented as a light piece, not to be regarded as "serious" or authoritative. The host website, Cracked.com, describes itself as "America's Only Humor Site," a description not entirely accurate and one that, in explicitly offering the site as a venue for levity, encourages readers not to take it--or the articles hosted on it--seriously. The first few paragraphs of the article itself actively ridicule the idea of essay writing, both in collegiate composition coursework and for online consumption. The former emerges in the author's comments about his college English program having "placed absolutely no emphasis on researching historical context or referencing previously published literary analysis. You could just read and spin your wheels." The description hardly speaks to academic rigor, but aligns instead with oft-heard comments that courses in the humanities and liberal arts are wastes of student time. It does not mark the author as particularly expert in the study or practice of writing, and so appears to undermine the credibility of the article. So does the description of writing for online audiences the author offers: "If you write an essay for the Internet, however, and you want people to read it, you number your points, keep the conclusion super short, and write an introduction no one reads." The simplification of presentation and the futility of seemingly necessary parts of that presentation are made explicit, openly labeling the article as a base thing of no true importance. The article, then, situates itself in a position of obvious abjection, one in which it ought not to be taken seriously.
The position facilitates the presentation of the article as a work of humor through the deployment of irony, however. The juxtaposition of expectation with its opposite, irony is a frequently used comedic device, and the self-positioning of the article in abjection serves an ironic function, helping to make it funny. It is not entirely expected, after all, that a piece of writing will label itself as unreliable, yet statements of incapacity are frequently deployed by those who seek to assert their own authority; major examples of the behavior appear in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. Gladstone's deployment of self-denigration, then, links his work to major threads in traditionally canonical English literature, ironically and tacitly asserting its authority in the very denial of it and thereby developing comedic effect at the same time. Humor is often used as a means of social critique, permitting discussion of issues in a relatively non-threatening way, so that the position of the article on the site potentially enables it to carry out sustained explication of social phenomena--which is a privileged position. Again, the act of denying authority serves to accentuate the authority of the piece, an ironic function that marks the article as one crafted well and therefore deserving of attention and consideration.
That attention quickly reveals that the article functions as an admirable example of the kind of work students are encouraged to do in composition and literature classes. "4 Reasons Raiders of the Lost Ark Is Secretly about Drugs" exhibits a clear breakdown of introduction and discussion. The introduction serves to provide context for the discussion to follow, laying out the circumstances of composition, the topic to be discussed, and the claim to be supported, much as standard compositional doctrine has long held should be the case. In addition, the introduction engages the Aristotelian rhetorical triangle not only making an appeal to the audience's emotions through the aforementioned humor, but also in establishing the author's credibility. It does so through invocation of the author having studied English at the collegiate level and written a number of essays thereby, as well as referencing his current profession as an essayist by noting his standing employment and reciting the features of form that work has shown him are necessary for his audience. He demonstrates a decided rhetorical awareness in doing so, which further reinforces his credibility and aids his introduction in serving as a model for college writing in composition and literature courses.
The essay's thesis, noted in the introduction, also offers a useful model. Gladstone's piece is relatively short, totaling less than two thousand words. It does not seek to treat the entirety of film, or even the whole of one film franchise. Instead, it focuses on the treatment of a single character in the film, and not even the ostensible protagonist. The thesis is narrowly tailored to the constraints of the medium of publication and the individual project, as those of students are well advised to be.
The discussion also offers an example of work worth emulating. It is conducted point by point in easily understood chronological order, opening with a brief note about action prior to the beginning of the movie and moving through the entire arc of the plot. In addition, it appears to follow a blended rhetorical order, opening with a strong point then moving to a relatively weak point before progressively intensifying the strength of its points to arrive at the strongest available support. The first of Gladstone's four points deploys just over five hundred words of discussion and four photos. The second takes fewer than two hundred seventy-five words and five pictures, while the third deploys approximately three hundred seventy-five words and six photos. Frequently, the more discussion that a given point of support will sustain, the stronger a point it can be taken to be. The pattern of the first three points of discussion form therefore openly corresponds to a standard pattern of argument.
The fourth and final point of discussion may appear to violate the pattern; it offers only some three hundred eighty words and three photos, so that in terms of raw content it appears to be weaker than the initial point of discussion and only marginally stronger in text than the second and third points. And there is an obvious weakness in an admission of the author's; Gladstone notes "no independent research beyond the confines of the source material will be done" in executing the project, introducing a possible error through failure to consider the relevant outside information (although even this offers a valuable lesson to collegiate composition and literature students: do not eschew relevant outside research). But there is a peculiar strength in the final point in the discussion. In the work discussed in the essay, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the existence of the Judeo-Christian Deity is taken as a given, and the artifacts associated therewith are necessarily accorded--and regarded as having--overwhelming power. It is only the fourth point of discussion that treats the Deity and the associated artifact of the titular Ark. It discusses the focal item of the film, an item of rare and extraordinary power, and it does so in a hauntingly penetrating way that lingers in the readerly mind. Despite its relative lack of heft, then, it is a particularly strong point, positioned at the end as is appropriate to the model of composition taught in college writing and reading courses. The essay ends up providing examples of two systematic presentations, helping the audience to follow along in a manner towards which composition students could usefully aspire and modeling the dominant pattern of argumentation that students are often explicitly encouraged to adopt for their own.
Each point of discussion in Gladstone's essay also follows a model advocated for use by students of collegiate composition and literature. After introductory contextualizing materials that serve to move the essay into the new point, each section of discussion articulates a claim in support of the central thesis, then offers evidence to support that claim and explains how the evidence does so. For example, the first point of discussion notes events prior to but referenced in the movie being discussed, offering context and transition. It then makes a claim about the extent to which Marion--the character about whom the thesis is articulated--is chemically dependent: "Marion owns a bar and seems to have a serious drinking problem. She appears to be at the worst level of alcoholism where the addict doesn't even feel the effects of alcohol." Immediately thereafter, it moves into offering and explaining evidence to support the claim: Marion drinks an exceptionally high amount of alcohol to defeat an opponent in a drinking contest, then ejects people from her bar, indicating that she is so accustomed to the influence of the chemical that it exerts little effect on her even in extreme amounts. The other points of discussion function similarly, and in so doing, they model the end-result of the kind of writing that students are often exhorted to do in their college writing and reading classes.
Some features of the essay specifically address concerns of college literature classes. Gladstone notes that his own English program focused away from conducting outside research, and while that can be a weakness (as noted above), it does offer an example of a method of literary analysis called close reading. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory notes that close reading is a method involved in I.A. Richards's practical criticism (142), itself described as "Criticism based on close analysis of a text in isolation" (694). Although it does not stand effectively on its own, as the restriction of text from its contexts imposes artificial limitations upon the text and therefore upon understanding of it, close reading is a necessary component of literary analysis. Gladstone demonstrates carrying out such close reading throughout "4 Reasons Raiders of the Lost Ark Is Secretly about Drugs." For example, his second point of discussion offers the idea that Marion's conduct in Cairo serves to indicate that her association with Indiana Jones imposes upon her a chemical abuse problem from which others unsuccessfully try to free her. He explicates how narrow features of her attire (white clothing), behavior (drinking, an eerily haunted smile and seemingly unfocused eyes, hiding in a basket), and environment (the monkey) serve to indicate the resurgent drug-associated difficulties that surround her involvement with Jones. The explained interaction of evidence from the film, described and displayed in stills from it, and larger symbolic contexts allows the underlying thesis to be borne out, exemplifying close reading. In offering an easily accessible summary definition of the process--"You come up with a thesis. That's a theory. Then you point to specific examples within the context of the examined work to prove your point."--Gladstone introduces a fundamental component of literary analysis. That he then works through a model thereof illustrates the results of the writing process he describes. It is admittedly cursory, failing to note the cycles of prewriting, drafting, and revision that lead to the finished essay, but it is nonetheless useful as an illustrative example of a short critical essay treating a text, broadly defined.
Another feature of the essay particularly helpful for literature classes, and perhaps the most notable, is that it advocates a position divergent from common understanding. Gladstone's thesis is that "Raiders of the Lost Ark is not an action-adventure movie about an archaeologist who plays by his own rules and saves the day. Instead, the film is an exploration of Marion Ravenwood's crippling drug addiction." He argues that the story is not, in fact, about the character after whom the franchise is named, which is an extravagant claim to make; the eponymous character is supposed to be the one the work is about. The author makes the claim unashamedly--the thesis appears in bold type on the website where it is hosted--and he works to support that argument in detail. It is possible that his assertion is incorrect; Gladstone admits of limitations in his own argument, and there are others he does not explicitly address, as noted above. That he makes the attempt to voice and support an opinion, despite going against conventional wisdom, is the important feature; students of literature and of culture more generally will do well to emulate the behavior. This is not to say that the argument should be contrarian for the sake of being contrarian. It is to say instead that the argument should not be avoided because it is contrarian; if there is sufficient evidence to sustain the discussion, then it is a discussion worth having.
Gladstone's essay offers a useful compositional model. It serves as a reminder that good writing appears in many places and many forms. It also demonstrates that the skills developed in college writing and literature classes, far from being isolated from the "real" world, are valuable outside of the classroom as well as within it. Paying greater attention to improving those skills suggests itself therefore as well worth doing.
*Note that this essay, as it appears online, does make use of hyperlinks. It is also a somewhat academic treatment, so it also deploys formal MLA-style citation, both in text and at the end of the text, as is obligatory.
Works Cited
~Cracked.com. Demand Media, 2013. Web. 24 May 2013.
~Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Rev. C.E. Preston. 4th ed. New York: Penguin, 1999. Print.
~Gladstone. "4 Reasons Raiders of the Lost Ark Is Secretly about Drugs." Cracked.com. Demand Media, 24 May 2013. Web. 24-25 May 2013.
~Raiders of the Lost Ark. Dir. Steven Spielberg. Perf. Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, and Paul Freeman. Paramount, 2008. DVD.
~Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Trans. W.A. Neilson. Cambridge, Ontario, Canada: In Parentheses, 1999. PDF file.
~Swift, Jonathan. A Modest Proposal. Renascence Editions. U of Oregon, 1999. Web. 24 May 2013.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Announcements Regarding Summer 2013 and Fall 2013
Students, it would seem that I have been recalled to teaching at Technical Career Institutes for the Summer 2013 term, something that pleases me greatly. I have been assigned six classes once again, although the distribution is somewhat different than had become normal for me:
ENG 102: Freshman Composition II
ENG 202: Technical Writing and Presentation
HUM 110: Speech
LIT 203: Introduction to American Literature
I am still in the process of compiling materials for the classes new to me; please check back here and on the course webpages for new details.
It would seem also that I have been awarded a sabbatical leave for the fall, so I will remain employed by the school although I will not be teaching. Instead, I will be conducting additional literary research, primarily on the process through which Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur became the canonical text of English-language Arthurian legend, although I may well work on other projects concurrently. The idea is that conducting the research will help me to learn more, thereby allowing me to teach from a deeper and more refined understanding, and so my teaching will be better. Also, I have some hope that the resulting scholarship will attract favorable attention, making it better to have been under my tutelage.
I am grateful to have the opportunities both to return to teaching and to focus on research in the near future.
ENG 102: Freshman Composition II
ENG 202: Technical Writing and Presentation
HUM 110: Speech
LIT 203: Introduction to American Literature
I am still in the process of compiling materials for the classes new to me; please check back here and on the course webpages for new details.
It would seem also that I have been awarded a sabbatical leave for the fall, so I will remain employed by the school although I will not be teaching. Instead, I will be conducting additional literary research, primarily on the process through which Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur became the canonical text of English-language Arthurian legend, although I may well work on other projects concurrently. The idea is that conducting the research will help me to learn more, thereby allowing me to teach from a deeper and more refined understanding, and so my teaching will be better. Also, I have some hope that the resulting scholarship will attract favorable attention, making it better to have been under my tutelage.
I am grateful to have the opportunities both to return to teaching and to focus on research in the near future.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
During Intersession Unemployment
That I have not been offered classes at one institution does not mean that I am giving up on the teaching for which I have trained and which I enjoy doing as much as I do. Currently, I have a number of job applications out, and while some of them are in the private sector, most are for jobs teaching at the college level. I hope to be successful at finding other teaching work, and I look forward to having more students under my tutelage in the months and years to come.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Final Announcement, Spring 2013
Students,
Today looks like it will be my last day at TCI; I have not been offered a teaching schedule for the summer. Some of you will doubtlessly delight in the news; I know that I am not always a student favorite. I also know that some of you will be disappointed by this; several of you expressed to me your desire to take classes with me again in future terms.
It has, for the most part, been good to have you in my classes. I wish you the best of luck in the future.
-Dr. Elliott
Today looks like it will be my last day at TCI; I have not been offered a teaching schedule for the summer. Some of you will doubtlessly delight in the news; I know that I am not always a student favorite. I also know that some of you will be disappointed by this; several of you expressed to me your desire to take classes with me again in future terms.
It has, for the most part, been good to have you in my classes. I wish you the best of luck in the future.
-Dr. Elliott
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Announcement about Office Hours
Once again, a faculty meeting will prevent regular office hours; this week, I am not having them.
Monday, April 15, 2013
About Office Hours, 17 April 2013
Students, be advised that, due to another faculty meeting, I will not be holding office hours this Wednesday, 17 April 2013.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
About Office Hours, 10 April 2013
Students, please be advised that, because of a faculty meeting at the 31st Street building, my office hours on 10 April 2013 will be truncated. Be advised also that the meeting is apt to delay my getting to class afterwards; it is still meeting, but it will start perhaps a bit late. Signs will be posted to that effect.
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