Transcript SYMBOLS AND LANGUAGE CHAPTERS 2&5

Chapter 2 Symbols
The pitfalls of drama : Chapter 2, page 17 :“An actor is one who
symbolizes other people, real or imagined. But Larry Hagman, who plays
the wicked, cunning JR Ewing on television’s Dallas, reports that fans
sometimes denounce him for JR’s ruthless behavior.”
This idea is supported by “The Phantom of the Movie Palace”, by Robert
Coover: “Oh my god! Get that axe!...It’s no use! It’s only a rhetorical
figure!...What?! I only came here for the selected shorts!” Later in the
story, we read: “It’s all in your mind…so we’re cutting it off.” “What? I
thought I was it….He leans forward to grip the cold bolted foot of the
guillotine, and as he does so, he notices the gum stuck under it, the
dropped candy wrapper, the aroma of fresh pee in plush upholstery….”
Here we see that everything, the lines of fact and fiction, is a blur. The
words of this story may – or may not be – fiction.
The word is not the thing
“The above examples illustrate some confusion towards words
and what, if anything, they stand for.” This also tends to blur
the line between fiction and reality.
This audio clip will demonstrate:
Chapter 5 - Language
ISSACS
Affective connotations
O’CONNER
Everyday uses of Language
Clichés, anyone?
James Isaacs’ humorous take on clichés makes an
interesting point about how often they are used – and how
they play an integral role in providing us the ability to
describe something to an individual to make our
point…much like hyperbole.
For example, he uses several amusing clichés in
paragraph 10: “To the young women among this year’s
graduates: Going out into the world can be a no-brainer,
no problem, provided, of course, you have all your ducks
in a row and they’re in a full attack mode feeding frenzy,
ready to push the envelope and deliver an awesome slam
dunk that’s in the zone.”
Everyday Uses of Language
“We have to be accurate in choosing words that have the
informative connotations we want; otherwise the reader or
hearer will not know what we are talking about” – Chapter 5
pg.53
O’conner agrees with this idea by opening his text “Saying is
Believing” with: A good writer is one you can read without
breaking a sweat.”
Barthelme, on the other hand, argues this with “Sentence”.
He writes this as one, long, run-on sentence, changing points
of views and thoughts in the process. This can become
troublesome and annoying to the individual trying to make
sense of what he is trying to say.
“To make a long story short”
“When it rains it pours”
“My problems seem to snowball”
Example of cliché used in
campaign speech