The First 70 Trailer

Note: I made a mistake and misread the syllabus: I mistakenly thought that this was due this week instead of next week.  I have already finished it, so I might as well post it.  Good blogging practice!  

I’m a walker.  I spend at least an hour a day (and often more) on my feet, and last year, I tallied over 370 hours of pure walking time. I spent a lot of my walking time in natural environments, especially in Michigan’s parks.  So you can imagine how I felt about learning that at one time, California had plans to close 70 of its parks.  

Groups opposing this plan made the video “The First 70 Trailer” to make their opposition to his plan known.  The video uses several devices to make its point clearly to the public, including natural beauty, sound, and their arguments in a nutshell.  

Natural beauty is an obvious device if you’re talking about natural parks.  You want to remind people of a) what they have, and b) what they stand to lose.  To this end, the video focuses on waterfalls, deer, trees, birds, and other such natural features.  More importantly, rather than focusing on such things in isolation, it also shows people enjoying the natural scenes.  The boy making a high jump into deep water, the RV with bikes on the back, the campfire: all of these things harken back to childhood and our memories of enjoying such things with our parents, or look towards the future, when we would want to enjoy these natural environments with our children.   If, that is the parks are still there to be used. 

Another device used in the video is the sound.  It begins with birdcall and insect-song, but quickly shifts to a soothing yet dramatic new-agey musical score: it is evocative of lightly falling rain, softly-blowing wind, and quietude.  It speeds up towards the end as the video fast-forwards through various scenes, and reminds one subtly of change and drama.   The music enhances the video, making the natural scenes ethereal and ageless

The third device used more cognitive appeal than sheer emotionalism: it is a nutshell of the reasons why closing the parks is a bad idea.  Such reasons include vandalism, illegal dumping, and the impossibility of closing off such a large area to the general public. 

With such devices, the anti-park closing bloc made an eloquent and visual-stunning video that did just what it set out to do: showcase  why closing the parks is a bad idea.     

Authorial Devices in “Is Google Making Us Stupid

In the article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid” (The Atlantic Online, July / August 2008), Nicholas Carr uses (at least) four authorial devices to support his thesis, that what “the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation” (p. 94).   The four devices are: a wrap-around cultural reference, using historical personages to support his thesis, a personal and introspective voice, and a backpedaling of his arguments.    

  

The wraparound cultural reference, which serves the same purpose as the often colorful wrap-around dust jackets of a hardback book, is from 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The HAL computer of 2001 is instantly recognizable to most Americans as symbolizing dangerous technology that is out of control.  Using this well-known cultural reference, Mr. Carr instantly connects with his audience, who want to know more.   Like the often lurid 1950s book jackets, he provides a hook that leads the reader into the introduction and then (hopefully) into the meat of his arguments.  He circles back to the image of the unhappy HAL at the end of the article to make his final closing points.  Using such a device, he provides a pin of sorts to hang the article’s content in one’s mental space.    

There is one important anecdote in the article, which references the famous writer Friedrich Nietzsche, and one extended historical reference regarding the scientist Frederick Tayor.   While interesting, they are more instructive than entertaining.  The anecdote with Mr. Nietzsche refers to how technology changes one mentally:  “Our writing equipment takes part of the forming of our thoughts” (p. 96) says Mr. Nietzsche.  Mr. Taylor was what we might call an efficiency expert today, and his methods are very much the methods that drive modern American businesses today.   Mr. Carr extrapolates those cold business systems into the intricacies of the modern internet: “Taylor’s ethic is beginning to govern the realm of the mind as well” (p. 98), he says.  Using historical figures with easily understandable stories, Mr. Carr adds both historical weight to his article, as well as more pegs to hang his arguments from.     

Mr. Carr’s article is very personal: he has a problem: his mental resources are being sapped, and he is seeking to understand how and why. His use of the first person pronoun, far from distracting the reader, allows her to identity with him.  His tone is very conversational, friendly, and personable: “Maybe I’m just a worrywart” he says on page 99, as if he were talking to the reader as a friend, and sounding all the world like a favorite old uncle wondering if a simple cough is turning into something more dangerous.  This personal tone allows the reader to connect with the author in ways an analytical text would not, to think more deeply about what he is saying, and to wonder if his problem is not her problem as well. 

On page 99, Mr. Carr begins to backpedal, saying on the next page that “you should be skeptical of my skepticism”.  But then he backpedals again, and goes back to his original arguments: “but then again, the net isn’t the alphabet…” (p. 100).   “I could be wrong”, he’s saying in essence, “but I don’t think so”.  This leads into his eloquent ending, in which he returns to HAL.  His reversal, and his rapid reversal of his reversal, gives space for those who think he is incorrect to reconsider their own thinking on the matter.  

Mr. Carr article is a far-reaching and very introspective piece on the possible dangers of the Internet that gives one much pause for thought.  It is somewhat ironic that it was posted where?  On the Atlantic (wait for it…) Online.     

Testing 1,2,3

This is the blog I am using in English 328.