Postmodern Influences on Exposition

A short postmodern discussion I wrote for theory of exposition class. I’m thinking about writing a postmodern essay sometime, but I need to look into postmodernism a bit more.

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Defining postmodernism carries with it many of the same headaches that go with defining exposition. Although there are many similar explanations that follow the same ideas and logic, coming up with a singular, defining explanation is very difficult. Modern thought and traditional values hold less value in postmodernism, and in many ways this postmodern movement is an assault on traditional belief. Once you move away from this viewpoint however, defining postmodernism becomes a hazy subject. These viewpoints stem from differing ideas on where to go from modernism. By defining the situation as multiple theorists coming up with different ways to put the ‘post’ in postmodernism it is easier to examine the big picture of postmodernism and its varied approaches.

The one thing most people can agree upon is that postmodernism is a movement away from modernism. A modernist viewpoint of a family could be seen in a traditional nuclear family, with clearly established gender roles and social hierarchy. A postmodern viewpoint would turn this nuclear family upside down and suggest “Alternative family units, alternatives to middle-class marriage model, multiple identities for couplings and childraising. Polysexuality, exposure of repressed homosexual and homosocial realities in cultures.” (Irvine)

The chart I just quoted from provides one of many examples of postmodern alternatives to modernism. While the postmodern alternatives are very different than modernist beliefs, there is a pattern that arises in this chart. For each modernist view, the postmodern alternative is almost exactly the opposite stance of the modern view. Although in many ways postmodernism seems like a direct attack on modernism, I believe the term ‘rejection’ as it is used in the first two chart examples is more suitable. Postmodernism is an attempt to move as far away as possible from modernism, holding no similarities in the process.

This lack of similarities brings forth a problem when comparing postmodernism to exposition. While exposition has evolved and changed greatly over the years, oftentimes attempting to be different than past incarnations, I would not say that exposition at any point in its evolution has attempted to reject each and every value from a past incarnation. Even the most modern forms of exposition carry traces of elements from the oldest theories of exposition.

One could try to define exposition by tracing its history and changes over time. In order to comprehend the exposition of today, and to better understand how it has evolved, it would necessitate understanding that which came before it. Likewise, to define postmodernism, as I said before, you would need to determine what constitutes modernism. Yet for both exposition and modernism there is no clear distinction of what came before. As the website questions: “Was there ever a pre-postmodern consensus about history, identity, core cultural values?”(Irvine) I don’t think it is safe to believe that postmodernism necessarily clarifies or complicates our understanding of exposition, rather, it simply encourages us to approach the idea of defining exposition from another angle. An “out with the old and in with the new” sort of angle I think, though I would need to study postmodernism a bit more before I can state this with certainty.

The Blood That Bonds – Book Review

Title: The Blood That Bonds

Author: Christopher Buecheler

Scope: Paranormal (vampire) romance/thriller.

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In the midst of Twilight-copiers out there, it is very refreshing to finally read a book that does not turn the vampire genre into an overly dumbed-down romanticized mess. Don’t get me wrong, The Blood That Bonds is very much a romance novel with a good blend of thriller elements. However what you have here is a far more serious, complex story than the silly little Bella/Edward romance that tweens everywhere adore. This is Twilight for adults.

Ironically, at its core, The Blood That Bonds is actually rather similar to Twilight. Theroen (punny name, as you’ll soon see upon reading) vampire living for hundreds of years somehow falls in love with Two, a 19 year old prostitute enslaved by heroin (okay that’s not like Twilight) and complications arise. What makes this better than Twilight is that the author clearly has a much better grasp of how to write a compelling romance novel than Meyer and it shows in the writing. This is particularly true in the characters. In the Twilight series, characters come and go, attached at the hip to the Bella/Edward romance. Most characters only have as much importance as the main romance allows, and are otherwise pretty shallow outside of some backstory that may or may not actually be relevant. In The Blood That Bonds, every character, even the minor ones, evoke very strong emotions. You will love some, despise others, you will hold active interest in everyone’s fate, not just that of Two/Theroen.

Do not worry, there is still plenty enough romance to go around, but there is also more, so much more. It is cruelly realistic (ironic word choice I know) in its romantic storytelling. Although some obvious tropes are employed, the story remain fresh enough to keep you turning the pages until the very end. Buecheler does a great job of creating a deep vampire society with all sorts of varied clans that is only touched upon in this novel. That is part of the beauty of it though, as you can tell throughout the story that Buecheler wrote this book intending it to be the first in a series. He wrote it with clear awareness of what he wants to reveal now and save until later, as opposed to developing it as he continues the series. Although a degree of resolution is reached by the end of the novel, there are plenty enough questions that will leave you eager to continue reading.

Like I said, this novel is Twilight for adults. As such, I cannot easily recommend this one to the tweenage fangirl crowd. Foul-language is abound in this novel, including plenty of uses of the F-word. Prostitution and addictive drug-use serves as a backstory for a few characters, including the main heroine (pun intended) and there are explicit references to all of this happening to a 12-year old girl as well. Suffice to say the beginning of this novel is not a pretty sight to behold in terms of rough times, consider yourself warned. That aside, I highly recommend this novel for young adults and older folk who thought Twilight was pretty good but want something more serious, and likewise for the Twilight-haters that who want to sink their teeth into a good vampire romance.

Childhood Books, Childhood Memories

I’ve decided to try a few new things out. I won’t give out any details…yet, but it will be interesting to see where these things go, if anywhere.

In the meantime I’ve been doing some Spring Cleaning, and in the process came across a bunch of books from my childhood years. I read even more when I was a kid than I do today, so naturally I had a lot of books stored! Applegate, Bruce Coville, lots of good authors gained my interest as a child of the 90′s. Glancing through them all brought back some fond memories, both of the book itself and the times in my life when I read them. Unfortunately they are taking up too much space so I will probably end up donating them to a local book charity in Baltimore. I feel a bit bad about doing so, like I’m giving up part of my childhood with these books, but if kids out there will read them one day and experience the same joy as I did as a kid, it will definitely be worth it.

I’ll be posting another book review this weekend. Roseflower Creek was a dark read, but oh so powerful.

Idiocy is Fun!

The world is full of idiots. This is a point that Lindsey Strokes makes in her excellent book Planet Idiot. It is fantastic read and I highly recommend it, but this is not a book review post so I need to move on now OK 3-2-1 let’s go! Concerning idiocy, everyone has their own point of view on how exactly one should live and embrace life. These points tend to follow a comprehensive yet disorganized moral code that we draw upon whenever we see someone breaking one of our firmly established life rules.

And when that happens, that person is an idiot. Because they are wrong and you are right.

Idiots drive too fast. Idiots drive too slow. Idiots act pretentious. Idiots are humble. Idiots are high-strung. Idiots do not speak up for themselves. I could continue, but I think you get the idea, and if I am to succeed with this blog post then I need to ensure that as few people as possible think I’m an idiot. After careful analysis the best approach would be to continue on now. Though by stating this I’d say 5 (maybe 6 because I added the phrase “I’d say”…bound to set off someone out there in Europe) more people now think I’m an idiot.

However, that’s a risk I am willing to take for the sake of rhetoric. And for all those people who had to look up what exactly I mean by rhetoric, feel free to call me an idiot. If you think I should have said “argumentation” instead because it fits better, I think you are an idiot because you are clearly looking too much into this and are therefore wrong. I like to be preemptive like that because I know I am right.

The point I am trying to make here is that everyone is an idiot. Try as we might as human beings to achieve perfection, the truth is that something you do, regardless of how silly or inconsequential it may seem to you is an heinous act to someone else. This goes double for opinions, or, to once again be preemptive and avoid having more people call me an idiot, fact. Since perfection is therefore impossible to obtain we must settle for the second best result of making as few people as possible think we are an idiot. Failing that, at least ensure that a satisfactory number of people consider us not to be idiots.

Fortunately that last one is easy. All you have to do is avoid a career in politics.

So I say, embrace your idiocy and have fun with it. Sure you may not think that habit of yours is idiotic, but trust me, someone does. Hopefully not your significant other. Try to keep those down to five or less or best results. And by that I mean habits, though I think it applies equally well to significant others. Either way, the more you have, the more complicated your life becomes.

Phenomenal Girl 5: The Elite Hands of Justice – Book Review

Title: Phenomenal Girl 5: The Elite Hands of Justice

Author: A.J. Menden

Scope: Young adult romance – with a dash of superheroes.

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Phenomenal Girl 5, better known as Lainey, is living the superhero cadet dream. She has the traditional superpowers of flight, super strength, and feminine charms to match. On top of that, she just got accepted into the Elite Hands of Justice (EHJ for short – the in-universe equivalent of the Justice League of America) and is ready to join the “real” superheros that stop world-ending apocalypses as opposed to simpleton bank robbers!

…or so she thinks.

Lainey first has to get through an internship of sorts with the Reincarnist, a superhero that as the name implies, constantly dies and revives with various inconveniences like memory loss. Along the way, workplace romance blossoms, Lainey learns what superhero life is really about, and the resulting story becomes something along the lines of Stephanie Meyer watching the first few episodes of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicles and then writing Twilight with superheroes instead of vampires.

Sounding like a crazy romance novel with no clue where it is going, eh? Well such is the main problem with Phenomenal Girl #5. Judging from a lot of average/negative reviews I’ve seen for this novel, readers are coming into the story expecting Phenomenal Girl #5 to be a superhero story with romantic elements. It is not. What we have here is a romance story with superhero elements. While the first quarter of the book promises to be an intriguing superhero story regarding mysterious villains and prophecies, that whole “love at first sight” cliche abruptly takes over with Lainey and the Reincarnist. While the mysterious villain plot slowly but surely gets off the ground resulting in a true super-heroic apocalypse story, superpowered romance fun is always at the forefront, leaving people who wanted to read a superhero story constantly shouting “get back to the action already!”

Rather unfortunate really, as although the main romance plot has some fun moments despite  being somewhat contrived (if you thought the speed and convenience of the Bella/Edward romance in Twilight was silly, this book certainly takes it to the logical extreme) there are some really interesting subplots that are never fully developed. In this world superhero life is all about politics, with flashy displays of heroism and good publicity being more important than…say the actual core values of helping people in trouble.  An ensemble of interesting superheroes are explored consisting of both close friends of Lainey and EHJ member alike, but outside of a few bullet point characteristics that you’d draw up in one fiction workshop sitting you do not learn much about most of them. Though considering this is but the first book in the series, and the sequel hooks the reader is left with, I have the feeling these subplots will find more development in future novels.

On the bright side, the major characters are well thought out and they show rich development as the novel advances along its quick pace. Lainey grows and matures well enough through the chaos and calamity that develops, but I have to give extra praise to The Reincarnist. Without spoiling anything, the things he goes through as the story progresses provides a very tricky writing challenge, and Menden navigates the character with flying colors.

In the end, Phenomenal Girl 5: The Elite Hands of Justice is a fantastic read for those who like a romance novel with a little bit of punch. If you know a Twilight-fan who does not mind a little bit of action and intrigue slightly beyond that of a Saturday morning cartoon mixed in with their romance, I would highly recommend this book. People who want strict superhero fiction and mystery should look elsewhere.

Book Reviews!

Movie reviews were an old staple of my blog, and although I still watch lots of movies, I find myself reading books more. Especially now that I have a Kindle and 10,000 free and equally interesting books to read. I’ll still be putting up movie reviews from time to time, but expect to see book reviews making an appearance as well.

As with movie reviews, I write book reviews with the intended audience in mind. Will romantics like this romance novel? Will young adults appreciate this young adult novel? I try to maintain a specific focus with my reviews because reviewing a book or movie with everyone’s interests in mind is clearly impossible. No single movie or book exists in this universe that virtually everyone likes, after all.

Anyway, I have a lot of books on my “Finished Reading” list to get to, so tomorrow night I’ll start posting reviews for some YA literature I checked out. Why am I reading YA literature you might ask? It’s the librarian in me – I read everything.

Rhetoric and Philosophy

Is rhetoric (and exposition) inherently philosophical in nature?

First off, I definitely think it’s important to consider that rhetoric and exposition provide two different purposes – should everything that applies to rhetoric also apply to exposition? Certainly not, as rhetoric persuades and exposition explains. While I agree that rhetoric forms much basis in philosophy, I believe it is important to consider the political roots of rhetoric as well. Speakers in the Greek forum certainly employed a lot of rhetoric to further their political agendas, which leads me to a question of my own: is there a distinction between using rhetoric to promote the search of enlightenment (a particular philosophy) and using rhetoric to satisfy a personal goal (say a country taking over land)? Throughout history leaders and orators alike have invoked the latter with the former as justification. They seek to satisfy a personal goal because they believe it is the one true course of action. Also, it seems possible that exposition itself can be tweaked to persuade through its exposition rather than simply inform.

Something to think about.

Memories

A random thing I wrote last Summer, possibly modified from something I saw online but I do not remember. I came across this when I was looking at my old writing notepad this morning. I think it sounds a little too off-the-wall, even for me, but I’m putting it up anyway because I like the last two sentences.

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All we experience, all we perceive, do they truly happen, or is it just an illusion? I just remembered doing something, but did I do it just as I remembered it? Memories are the stories of our lives, the recollections of our past as we choose to view them. Whether it happened a decade ago or just a second they are all just memories. The world is just our memories. Don’t Forget.

Pinball!

This is what happens after I work on papers all day and need a break. I suppose I could do something else productive, like say update my blog or actually accumulate a halfway decent score, but oh-look I’m doing that now! (The blog post that is)

I’ve enjoyed playing pinball since I was tall enough to actually stand over the machine and reach the flippers. Something about breaking the high score present on the machine, realizing that this score is impossible to beat without years of training, and then settling to beat my own score has always been a favorite pastime of mine.

That and multiball. Oh yes, MULTIBALL. Because let’s face it, nothing in life is more exciting than hitting the flippers over and over again and watching 3 pinballs zoom around the machine accumulating tons of points while the pinball machine goes crazy. A fascinating display of lights and sounds that only lasts for a few seconds before the balls all fall out of play because you hit the flippers over and over again instead of actually concentrating on hitting them properly.

But I’m not here to discuss pinball strategy. Just to pass along a few fun pinball games for the bored or nostalgic fans out there.

3d Space Cadet Pinball

If you own a windows computer from within the last 15 years or so, then you are familiar with this game. If not, click on your games window and go play it now. It’s waiting for you. Patiently. Space Cadet is a pretty simple pinball game with somewhat erratic physics, but there is no better way to get through a boring class or paper then refueling and accepting target practice training.

Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection

A fun little trip in the wayback machine, the Williams Collection brings back several tables from Williams Electronics during the pinball loving 80′s. That said, these tables contain fairly simple designs without all of that fancy video screen stuff you see in modern day tables. The game does faithfully recreate all of the rather silly sound effects which is nice though. It should be noted that these tables are quite tough (especially the one pictured above, Black Knight) as you have to remember that this was made in a time when pinball machines, like all good arcade devices, existed for the soul purpose of draining every last quarter in your worldly possession.

However, as simple as the machines may appear, most of them have the ability to trigger multiball, so naturally it’s OK in my book. Also if you play the Wii version, you can activate tilt very easily by shaking the wiimote. Now you can actually pretend you are ripping the pinball machine to pieces when the pinball goes straight down between the flippers!

Zen Pinball (PS3)

This is not a philosophical look into skill shots. Rather Zen Pinball is a pretty cheap and fun downloadable title (11$ for 4 tables with additional downloadable tables just a few dollars each) for the PS3 that my parents picked up. I noticed this while I was taking a study break and suddenly 2 hours passed before I realized what happened.

While I generally dismiss downloadable games as cheap thrills, this one I’m willing to mark in the exception category. Each of the initial tables + one that was purchased (Excalibur) are extremely well-designed and contain realistic physics. Unlike Williams these tables are also not out to screw you. Seriously, some of the ball saves (the pity feature that brings your ball back into play one time if you lose it right after deployment) will last upwards of 20 seconds after launching if you’re not playing well. They also contain lots of fun video effects that closely resemble modern day machines. If you want to relive the fun days of modern day pinball I highly recommend picking this one up.

Anyway, writing about pinball time is over. Now it is back to work time. Then multiball time.

Word Choice/Usage/Management?

An interesting discussion on word choice occurred during my editing class last night. Obviously a good writer should be mindful of each and every word that can go into a document. Despite this fact novice writers often misjudge the value of words that hold similar meanings.

Case in point, this was the first sentence that appeared on a draft for an actual guide for novice gardeners we were editing in class:

“There is more than one way to do a garden.”

The sentence as it appears is technically correct. Gardening is certainly not an exact science. Yet the reader might agree that there are better ways to phrase this sentence…specifically that troublesome “do” word. Our class quickly noted some possible replacements like plant or build. Yet despite our best efforts a single, perfect word eluded us.

The obstacle in coming up with the right replacement word revolves around several important factors for this little gardening guide: how formal do you want to be? What is the best way to reach out to the novice gardener?

Many words appear usable synonymously within a sentence. Yet specific word holds a major impact on the message the writer attempts to present. Should I say “build a garden” and treat the process like a construction project? Maybe it would be better to say “plant a garden” and go straight into a garden-based tone? Perhaps I want to appeal to fashionable sorts and say “design a garden” instead.

Considering that this is the introduction to a novice-level guide to gardening, these sorts of word choices are rather important. They set the tone for the rest of your guide. A sloppy writer would introduce gardening like a carefully planned construction project and then maneuver the language to indirectly suggest that appearance is everything.

The important thing to consider is that similar words often have different meanings. Don’t say ‘plethora’ in place of ‘a lot’ for example. While plethora often implies a large number, the point of the word is to express overabundance, or too much.

Just a little something to consider the next time you read a famous work. What logic did the author follow in word choice? Why is it that the Man In Black fled across the desert, and the Gunslinger followed? Why was it the best of times? Why was it the worst of times? Deep stuff, word choice.